Irish Brown Soda Bread (Cook's Illustrated) by Barbara

We were wowed by this recipe.  It was well worth the effort to find the wheat bran and wheat germ for the recipe.

This is the only recipe that I have found that comes close to the bread we had when traveling in Ireland.

---Barbara

Irish Brown Soda Bread
(Cook's Illustrated March-April 2018)

Makes one 8 inch loaf

2 cups (11 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 t. sugar
1.5 t. baking powder
1.5 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Lightly grease an 8 inch round (I used a square) cake pan.

Whisk together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, wheat bran, wheat germ, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

Add buttermilk, and stir with a rubber spatula until all flour is moistened and dough forms soft, ragged mass.

(You can skip this step)

Transfer the dough to counter and gently shape into a 6 inch round (surface will be craggy.  Tom said mine looked like a mountain range.)

Transfer to prepared pan. Using serrated knife, cut 1/2 inch deep cross about 5 inches long on top of loaf.

Bake until loaf is lightly browned and center registers 185 degrees, 40 to 45 minutes, preferably rotating the pan halfway through.

Invert loaf onto wire rack.  Reinvert loaf and let cool for at least 1 hour.  Slice and serve.

Our bread lasted for several days, in a plastic bag, although it was the best on the first day.  On the last day, it was delicious toasted for breakfast.

B