Irish-ish

Proud as I am of my South African heritage, a part of me has always secretly longed to be Irish. From the accents to the ability to drink like nobody's business, the Irish do have it all. Sadly, the closest I can ever come to being Irish is having green eyes and family who can't cook. Still, a girl can dream.

In an effort to improve my Irish street cred, while simultaneously satiating my neverending desire to eat bread, I recently made soda bread. I was inspired when Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks posted a recipe for oat soda bread, and decided to go for it (when Heidi bakes, my heart sings). I followed the recipe as closely as humanly possible for me, only eliminating a final buttermilk wash and a topping with mixed seeds (ew).

Despite a slight gumminess (probably could have used another 2 minutes in the oven) and some whinging by Dani (not enough salt?), I found the bread to be very tasty. One thing I might experiment with next time would be the lack of sugar. Last time I made soda bread it was rather sweet. I would not quite go so far again with the sweetening, but a tablespoon or two could add something to the flavor.

Oat Soda Bread

from 101cookbooks.com

* 2 cups oats

* 2 1/4 cup flour

* 1 3/4 tsp baking soda

* 1 1/4 tsp salt (that's a lot, Dani)

* 1 3/4 cups buttermilk (homemade, in this case, with milk and 1 tbsp white vinegar per cup (=put 1 3/4 tbsp white vinegar into a liquid measure and add enough milk to make 1 3/4 cups))

First, make oat flour. As Her Majesty Heidi Swanson notes, it would work just as well to buy oat flour. Making it is so easy, though, you might as well. To do so, place the oats in a food processor (I imagine a blender would do the trick. Compared with my food processor, which turns on and off at will, with or without provocation, a blender may be preferable). Anyway, process/blend the oats until they are well ground and flour-like. I did this for about 45 seconds, which left the flour slightly course.

Preheat oven to 400˚ F. Mix the flours, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Make a well, then add the buttermilk. Let Dani, or an equally obsessive compulsive assistant, gently incorporate the dry ingredients into the buttermilk (after the first ten minutes of extra careful stirring, I grew impatient, seized the spoon and finished the combining with some vigor. Not too much, but enough to get the job finished).

Now, again, my inability to read recipes flared up. I skipped the detail in Heidi Swanson's instructing to knead the dough for about a minute. Instead, I dumped the dough into a buttered loaf pan and flung it into the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes on a middle rack. At this time, move the rack and the bread up to the top of the oven. Bake for another 15-20 minutes until crispy and hollow sounding. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Eat with (real) butter or peanut butter.