Humpastry Day - Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread

In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, I thought I'd try out some Irish Soda Bread.  I have to admit that I have never had Irish Soda Bread, so I'm not sure if this is truly Soda bread, but I will say that it is really yummy! It's not too sweet, is moist on the inside, and has the perfect crunchy shell on the outside.  I found several recipes on allrecipes.com (love that site!) and tweaked them to make the bread a little healthier.  I hope you like it!

Ingredients:
Makes 1 loaf in a 9" pan

 *  3C whole wheat pastry flour
*  1Tbl. baking powder
*  1/3C raw sugar
*  1tsp. salt
*  1tsp. baking soda
*  1C raisins
*  1 flax egg (1Tbl. flax w/ 3Tbl. water)
*  2C buttermilk (Note:  If you do not have buttermilk, all you have to do is add 1tsp. apple cider vinegar per cup of milk.  So, I mixed together 2C soymilk w/ 2tsp. vinegar and let it sit for a couple of minutes.  Viola..you have buttermilk!)
*  1/4C coconut oil (or butter if you prefer)

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9" loaf pan.
2.  Mix dry ingredients together from flour to raisins.
3.  Blend the flax egg and the buttermilk together, then add to the dry ingredients.
4.  Stir in the coconut oil until just combined.
5.  Pour batter into the loaf pan and bake it in the oven for ~60min.  Note: make sure you check the bread before the time runs out.  I took mine out after 60min, and probably could have taken it out sooner.
6.  Put it on a cooling rack to cool.  Once cool, serve, and enjoy with butter or your favorite topping!

Don't you love the green plate?  I thought it was a nice touch.  Ha ha! :)

Have a great day!