St. Paddy's Irish Soda Bread

Yield:  one 9X5 loaf

   (adapted from Allrecipes)

Wow was this ever yummy!  I couldn't believe that I made bread that tasted this good and was this easy!  Try it!  If you like raisins, you could also add a handful to the batter, stirring in before baking.

Ingredients

·        3 cups all-purpose flour

·        1 tablespoon baking powder

·        1/3 cup white sugar

·        1 teaspoon salt

·        1 teaspoon baking soda

·        1 egg, lightly beaten

·        2 cups buttermilk*

·        1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

2.    Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. Blend egg and buttermilk together, and add all at once to the flour mixture. Mix just until moistened. Stir in butter. Pour into prepared pan.

3.    Bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Wrap in foil for several hours, or overnight, for best flavor.

*Note – I didn’t have buttermilk so made substitution:  to 1 cup milk, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice; so I used 2 cups milk and stirred in 2 tablespoons lemon juice.  Stir together and let stand about 5 minutes until slightly thickened.  It worked like a charm!