twd: irish soda bread

every march, i make at least one batch of irish soda bread with my aunt's recipe; it is a bittersweet ritual that usually causes me to tear up at least once.  i have blogged about it before, and if you follow that link, you will see why it can bring me to tears.  baking irish soda bread is a tradition that has been part of my life-my aunt made it every year and so did an elderly neighbor.  one thing about coming from the new york city area-there are lots of irish neighborhoods and lots of irish families and plenty of soda bread to go around.  my mother (who is irish) also has a thing for soda bread and although she does not bake it, she will send me recipes for the true bread-without the raisins and caraway, because that is how they make it in ireland.  the addition of currants and caraway is an american tradition.

for this weeks challenge, we turn to hosts cathy of my culinary mission and carla of chocolate moosey and they have posted the recipe on their blogs if you would like to try baking a loaf.  better yet, buy a copy of the book or borrow it from the library and try baking along with us some time.

 this simple bread consists of 4 ingredients; flour, buttermilk, salt and baking soda.  it mixes up easily and quickly.

 a minute of kneading will give the bread just enough structure to retain its shape and rise a little.

 a simple x on top is all that it needed

 fresh from the oven-it smells heavenly and rather like a biscuit and it tasted like a buttermilk biscuit to me

 the crumb is on the small side with a few holes so that it mimics a loaf of yeasted bread

along side a loaf of american soda bread using my aunt's recipe-twice the joy!  thanks to our hosts cathy and carla for a lovely start to my week!  to see what everyone came up with, check the leave your link page on the tuesdays with dorie blogpage