Irish Soda bread

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I decided to go Irish today and make some Irish soda bread. It looks great, but I didn't like how it tasted. Brandon said he'd eat a little more of it, just because it is something different, but it just wasn't good. On the bright side, it was the easiest loaf of bread I've ever made without my bread machine!

Ingredients

2 1/4 c. whole wheat flour

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 1/2 c. rolled oats

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 T. sugar

2 1/2 c. buttermilk

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 400°.
2. Combine everything but the buttermilk in a large bowl and stir the ingredients with your hands.
3. Make a well in the mixture and pour in 1 1/2 cups of the buttermilk.
4. Continue mixing with your hands, adding the remaining cup of buttermilk as you combine the ingredients. The resulting dough will be wet and very sticky.
5. Dust your hands with flour, shape the dough into a ball, and place it on a floured cookie sheet (we used a nonstick baking mat). With a knife, score a deep X in the top of the ball, widening it with the sides of the blade as you cut.
6. Bake the bread until it's golden brown, about 50 minutes.
7. Transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Blueberry Bread

This week has been crazy, so I thought I'd try a quick bread. I always have frozen blueberries in the freezer, so I went looking for a recipe. Here's what I found.

All in all, it's okay. It does seem a little dry, but when I cut into the center, it wasn't fully cook, so I can only imagine what it would have turned out like had I baked it longer.  I'll be looking for another recipe later this year.

Ingredients 

2 eggs

1 c. sugar

1 c. milk

1 t. vanilla

3 Tbs canola oil

3 c. flour

1 t, salt

4 t. baking powder

1 t. cinnamon

1 c. frozen blueberries

Directions

1. Mix together eggs and sugar.  Add milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla.
2. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients, mixing as little as possible.  Fold in blueberries when mixtures is close to being combined.
4. Pour into greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.