The Best of Ireland!

Our favorite Irish food?…why it’s  their delicious butter of course!Kerrygold butter is absolutely divine.  It is made from grass fed cows.  That beautiful bright yellow color is what results of that, and not some coloring additive.  The side of the package reads:  “In Ireland, cows graze on the green pastures of small family farms.  This milk is churned to make Kerrygold butter.”
 This butter is sweet and creamy and rich and looks the way butter should look.  And the taste?  It is PERFECT 🙂

It is especially perfect on another famously delicious Irish food…Soda Bread.  The Irish are very serious about their soda bread.  It seems every family has a recipe.  Some sweet, some not, but all heavenly when spread with this golden butter.

A couple of years ago we gave you one of our favorite soda bread recipes along with some other St. Patrick’s Day favorites.  It is slightly sweet and made with currants.  But there is another soda bread that is not sweetened and when spread with butter and maybe some jam or marmalade, it makes for a truly delicious breakfast or tea time treat.

Or you can use it to make small sandwiches.  It is really good with a bit of turkey or ham, or some egg salad, or children love it with peanut butter.

The recipe is simple:
3 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Approximately 1 3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon melted butter

Stir the flour, baking soda, and salt together.  Make a well in the center and pour in buttermilk and stir to combine.  Add a little more buttermilk if needed to make a dough that holds together but not that is so wet it is sticky.  Turn dough out onto a floured surface.  Shape it into a round shape and cut an  “X” in the top for a traditional loaf, being careful to handle the dough as little as possible.   (Too much handling of the dough will produce a tough bread. ) Brush with melted butter.

To make a loaf to use for sandwiches, form a loaf shape with your hands again being sure to handle the dough as little as possible. Place dough in a well buttered loaf pan lined with parchment paper.  Using a sharp knife, cut a slit down the center of the dough or make a cross in the top of the loaf.  This helps it to bake more evenly.  Brush with melted butter. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 40-45  minutes.  Cool completely before slicing as the bread continues to cook even after it is removed from the oven.

To make a Gluten Free Bread, you can easily replace the all purpose wheat flour with a gluten free baking mix from King Arthur.  This baking mix is available at most larger markets or can be ordered on line.  It is a mixture of rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch.

The gluten free soda bread is very similar to the regular one.  The texture is slightly different, but if you are trying to eliminate gluten from your diet this a a VERY GOOD alternative.  Try it…we think you will be pleased.

Good food eaten with good friends and family is always a celebration that can only lead to more love, more joy, and lots of abundant and “lucky” living 🙂