Yesterday, I had no idea what I would eat but I knew one thing for sure: I wanted to make a loaf of bread. I couldn’t afford to spend hours kneading and waiting for the dough to rise and I wanted something different from the loaves we make almost every week in our little bread machine. That’s when I remembered the very simple, yet, delicious Irish soda bread from Julia Child.
A while ago, I found myself watching Julia Child’s old television show on PBS and she showed how to make Irish soda bread. The recipe looked ridiculously easy and only 4 ingredients were needed! She didn’t give detailed instructions and quantities on the show (or maybe I just didn’t pay enough attention) so I dug around on the web and finally found it on this website. I made the exact recipe twice and wasn’t disappointed. After realizing that it was probably impossible to fail with this ultra simple recipe, I decided to add a few ingredients.
Julia Child’s Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients:
– 4 cups of flour
– 1.5 teaspoon of salt
– 1 teaspoon of baking soda
– 3 tablespoons of flax seed sprinkles*
– 2 tablespoons of chia seeds*
– 2 tablespoons of herbes de Provence*
*My additions to the original recipe
What’s next?
1. Mix together all the dry ingredients.
2. Mix in the buttermilk with a wooden spoon (or with hands)
3. Knead until it stays together.
4. Put on a greased pan or pie plate and cut a cross on the top.
5. Bake at 350F for 50 to 60 minutes.
I don’t know how much health benefits I really get from the quantities of flax seeds and chia seeds I added but I figured I had nothing to loose if I added it. Also, the herbes de Provence were perfect. Don’t be shy, I don’t think you could ever put too much of it. It tastes, smells and looks great!
To accompany my bread, at lunchtime, I whipped up an omelet with tomatoes, spring onions and parsley. I also had a side of sliced mushrooms (just because I wanted mushroom, it didn’t really fit the meal itself) that I quickly cooked in the pan after making the omelet. Unfortunately, there are no photos of the complete meal as I learned a good lesson while preparing my meal. If you leave your egg mixture on medium-high temperature and leave it unattended to go clean and cut the mushrooms you’ve been dreaming about for days, your omelet will burn. (duh!) So I did eat my burnt-bottom omelet (just because I was too lazy to make another one) but I was not willing to photograph it. So now you all know! 😉
The Hungry Quebbie 