Irish Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick's Day! It's a beautiful spring day here, and this is exactly how I like to celebrate. Some baking, time outside, and enjoying the anticipation of many spring days to come. On my teaching schedule, St. Patrick's Day always falls over my March break. This allows for even more celebrating! Here's a basic, simple Irish Soda bread recipe that I found on The Confused Homemaker. It does not add in raisins as many of the traditional recipes do, so I knew Dave would eat this version.

You will need:
*4 cups all purpose flour
*1 teaspoon salt
*1 teaspoon baking soda
*2 cups buttermilk
*1/2 cup butter
*2 tablespoons sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425.

2. Sift all dry ingredients together. Create a little circle in the center of them and add softened butter & the buttermilk. Mix together quickly (It will look like a biscuit dough) Kneed it for about a minute, not any longer.

3. Shape into a round cake on a floured sheet pan, or shape it into a cake pan. Carve a cross on the top. Bake for 40 minutes. Enjoy!

Buttermilk Bread

I had buttermilk on hand from a previous recipe. Buttermilk is not something I use regularly, and when a recipe calls for it I typically mix some milk and vinegar. I searched recipes to use up my remaining supply of this rare to my fridge product, and I found this on Stephanie Cooks (she found it in Cooking Light). It made a quick and tasty bread loaf. This is the first time I have made any loaf that was not banana bread! This was great with some jam on it for breakfast. Dave and I also enjoyed it plain as an afternoon snack. Then again, I think we could both eat any kid of bread at any time of day, so maybe not everyone enjoys that!

You will need:
*2 cups all purpose flour
*2 tablespoons sugar
*1 teaspoon baking soda
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1.5 cups low-fat buttermilk
*1/4 cup butter, melted
*2 large egg whites
*cooking spray

1) Preheat the oven to 350.
2) Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt; whisk to combine.
3) Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the buttermilk, butter, and egg whites into the well. Whisk to combine just until moist.
4) Pour mixture into a loaf pan that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
5) Bake for 45 minutes.
6) Allow to cool in the pan on top of a cooling rack for 10 minutes.
7) Remove the bread from the pan, allow to thoroughly cool before slicing.

Banana Bread

One of my fondest memories of the holidays is having banana bread for breakfast. My mother made it every Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have tried a variety of recipes, and this is the most recent. It is from the Food Network website. This was tasty with our morning coffee. I am still on the search to find my "favorite" recipe, but I do recommend trying this.

You will need:
* 1 cup granulated sugar
* 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 2 large eggs
* 3 ripe bananas
* 1 tablespoon milk
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

2) Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3) In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4) Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

5) Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.