rosemary brown butter soda bread

easy soda bread

So when I saw this recipe for a soda bread with black pepper, oats, brown butter, buttermilk and rosemary, I instantly wanted to make it. At the time I had some buttermilk in the fridge leftover from my traditional Irish soda bread, and some rosemary from this amazing Roman pork chop recipe that Nathan needs to blog for y'all. Of course, by the time I got around to making it, I no longer trusted the buttermilk (how do you even tell when that stuff goes bad?), but I just stirred in a tablespoon of white vinegar to some whole milk from the food co-op, and I was good to go. I also used some half white half whole wheat flour from the food co-op, so I wound up with a brown loaf. It was pretty cool.


half white flour from my CSA

This recipe is definitely a keeper. Easy, tasty, and a little bit rustic and different-- what's not to like? It was a bit crumbly, but if you're interested in making bread but don't want to mess around with yeast, a soda bread is a great option. No kneading needed. This one only has a few more ingredients than the traditional Irish one I posted for St. Patrick's day, and is a great every day loaf. The browned butter, the freshly ground pepper, the rosemary, and then oats... And all you have to do is mix the dry ingredients and then add the wet ones! Good stuff. I did worry that my loaf was too wet and sticky, but I added a smidge more flour and it baked up just fine. I initially forgot to brush the tops with egg white, which was definitely unnecessary and kind of became a mess, so I wouldn't fret over that step either.

Mostly I've just been eating it on its own, but tonight we ate some sliced, toasted, and slathered with butter. We also made tortellini with a rosemary tomato sauce with jarred tomatoes from the food co-op, garlic, fresh parsley and a little red pepper for a kick. I was worried it might be too spicy, but Nathan has a deft hand with the spices, and the sauce was great. I also bought some mesclun and made up a salad with scallions and my previously blogged new favorite dressing. It was a good dinner.


soda bread with dinner