St. Patrick's Day for the Baker in a Rush: Soda Bread Two Ways

Since Tom and I were headed out of town last Thursday, I was a bit pressed for time trying to come up with a baking idea for St. Patrick's Day.  While normally I would probably go the green cupcake or cookie route, I instead took the path of least resistance -- Irish soda bread.  I don't know why I've never made soda bread before, because it's so quick and easy.  In fact, even though I was busy packing for our trip, I had time to make a couple of different varieties -- a savory version with rosemary and black pepper, and a sweet version with raisins. 

The savory recipe for brown butter soda bread includes browned butter, flour, oats, sugar, fresh rosemary, baking powder, baking soda, salt, black pepper, and buttermilk.  Basically, all you have to do is brown the butter, and then mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones.  You form the dough into two free-form rounds, brush them with egg white and sprinkle them with more black pepper, and then bake until golden. 

I absolutely loved the brown butter soda bread.  The rosemary and black pepper were intensely flavorful without being overpowering.  The rosemary in particular gave the bread a wonderful fresh herbaceous quality.  Tom said that the bread made him crave gravy.  We ate the bread the morning after I baked it, but I can only imagine how delectable it would have been served warm with butter.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to make it for our next dinner party.

To make the sweet soda bread with raisins, you cut cold butter into a mixture of flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda, and then incorporate buttermilk and raisins.  You are supposed to put the dough into a greased 8-inch round cake pan and sprinkle it with granulated sugar before baking; I used a 9-inch pan and coarse sugar.  The bread expanded during baking to reach the sides of the pan and from the outside, it looked like a single giant scone.

The inside has a flavor similar to a sweet (but not overly sweet) scone, although it lacked the the tender crumbly texture typical of a good scone.  However, it was tasty, and I thought the coarse sugar on top was a very nice touch.  Again, I served this the day after baking, and I'm sure it would have been much better served warm. 

I would happily make either of these again, especially because they are so simple to make.  There's definitely no reason to limit these just to St. Patrick's Day!

Recipes: "Brown Butter Soda Bread" and "Irish Soda Bread with Raisins," from epicurious.com.