Recipe - Orange County Irish Soda Bread

4 cup Unbleached allpurpose
flour; plus additional
flour for sprinkling onto
dough
One half cup Toasted wheat germ
2 teaspoon Baking soda
1 One half teaspoon Salt
One half cup (1 stick) cold; unsalted
butter, cut into small
pieces
1 tablespoon Caraway seeds
Optional: Three fourths cup currants
1 Three fourths cup Lowfat cultured buttermilk;
(up to 2)

Notes: From Orange County Register

Preliminaries: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle a baking sheet or
jellyroll pan lightly with flour.

1. In a large bowl, stir flour, wheat germ, baking soda and salt.

2. Add butter and toss to coat with flour. With fingertips, blend butter
into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add caraway seeds (and
currants, if using); stir to combine.

3. Stir in 1 Three fourths cups buttermilk, adding more if necessary to moisten dough
evenly (do not overwork dough).

4. On a floured surface, knead dough with floured hands 12 minutes,
sprinkling with some additional flour to prevent sticking. Divide dough in
half and on baking sheet pat dough out into two 5inch rounds. Sprinkle
rounds lightly with flour and spread out dough with fingers. With a sharp
knife, cut a shadow X on top of each round.

5. Bake bread in middle of oven for 35 minutes or until golden brown. To
test for doneness, tap on bottom of loaf; it should sound hollow. Cool on
rack.

Yield: 2 loaves (about 2428 slices)

Nutritional information (per slice): 117 calories, 4.2 grams fat, 2.4 grams
saturated fat, 10 milligrams cholesterol, 205 milligrams sodium, 32 percent
calories from fat Source: adapted from "The Best of Gourmet, Featuring the
Flavors of England, Ireland and Scotland" (Random House, $28) Although the
package suggests that you can cook corned beef in the microwave or bake it
in the oven, I prefer the stovetop simmering method; the meat is moist and
tender every time.

Posted to recipeludigest by ncanty@juno.com (Nadia I Canty) on Mar 29,
1998