Irish brown bread

Bob Goldstein

Irish Brown Bread

Print

With ImageWithout Image

Author: Bob Goldstein

Prep time: 30 MinCook time: 40 MinInactive time: 30 MinTotal time: 1 H & 40 M

Given my decidedly non-Irish surname, new friends are often surprised to learn that I have a large Irish family. My mother grew up in rural Ireland, and we spent many summers there when I was a kid. My grandmother made this brown bread several times a week, and she'd give the kids little lumps of the dough to shape and bake alongside her loaf. No written recipe survived her, and when she was alive, she'd share her recipe in units of handfuls and pinches. I've been trying to recreate her bread for years. This recipe is the result. This is a firm brown bread that's best cut into half-inch thick slices, buttered, and served with tea. It's also great with smoked salmon.

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups whole meal flour
• 3/4 cup wheat bran
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Protocol

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Lightly grease a shallow baking pan that can fit a roughly 10x6 inch loaf, about 2 inches tall.
3. Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl (the flour, wheat bran, salt, sugar, baking powder, baking soda).
4. Pour the buttermilk into a bowl and then pour the melted butter in while stirring.
5. Make a hole in the dry ingredients and pour the buttermilk/butter mix in.
6. Stir to form a dough and then work the dough by hand for a couple of minutes on a surface sprinkled with flour.
7. Form the dough into a rectangle about an inch and a half tall.
8. Score the surface with a knife.
9. Bake for 40 minutes, then remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack. Once cooled, we leave the loaf wrapped in a tea towel and eat it over a few days.

Created using The Recipes Generator