I’ve heard folks say that everybody’s Irish on March 17th, or, St. Patrick’s Day, and I think I do believe it. Eating this great round loaf may not guarantee you’ll become Irish, but it’ll help get you there. This is a simple, purist’s loaf - the way I like it. No fanfare, just good eating!

4 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 Tbsp. butter (do not use margarine)
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Sift the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda together in a large bowl.

Using the tips of your fingers or pastry cutter or two knives, work the butter into the mixture until it looks like coarse meal.

Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and buttermilk into this well; mix it in with a wooden spoon until the dough is too stiff to stir anymore. Dust your hands with a bit of flour then gently knead the dough right in th bowl just long enough for it to form a rough ball. Transfer it to a surface that you’ve lightly floured and shape it into a round loaf.

Transfer loaf to a large lightly greased baking sheet or even a cast iron skillet is good - grease that too. Make an X shape about 1/2″ deep with a serrated knife on top of the dough. Place into the oven and bake until it’s golden brown - about 45 minutes. Let it cool briefly and serve warm or room temp. This recipe makes fantastic leftovers!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Breads - Quick. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.