I’ve been gathering the ingredients for a couple of weeks – a trip to Whole Foods for organic buttermilk, and several kinds of organic butter, including Kerrygold from Ireland. Ordering the real black currants from Currant-C, one of the few places in the country where they are grown.
Picking out 2 kinds of organic flour: whole wheat and unbleached white. Plus baking soda and baking powder, and 2 kinds of organic raw sugar – turbinado and cane.
Irish soda bread is an easy bread to make. Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir them all together. Then cut in very cold butter, pour in the currants, then the buttermilk, stir it all for a minute or two – then dig in with your hands until it’s more of less together. Finally, dump it onto a floured board, a few more squeezes, split it in two and pat it into two buttered pie pans. Then you use a sharp knife to cut an X about half way through and half way side to side. And 35 minutes later, in a 375 degree over, you have two beautiful loaves of simple and healing and nourishing bread, waiting for you to enjoy!