An Almost, Kind of, Honorary-Irish Soda Bread

I saw a recipe for whole wheat Irish soda bread in this month's (or was it last?) issue of the Tufts Health & Nutrition Newsletter. Deciding it looked easy enough, I dug right in. Until I realized I didn't have caraway seeds, which I (and not being a true Irish woman, I should not assume...) assumed was the key ingredient to that signature taste.

Luckily there was a variation in which I did have all of the ingredients, but the taste result is not authentic at all. But it does look like an Irish soda bread, and it smells like an Irish soda bread, so who could doubt this little loafish imposter?

(I checked; "loafish" is not a word, but it's the closest I could come to describing this wannabe bread.)

I even used locally-grown wheat flour bought through my online food co-op, Mass Local Food. You should consider joining!

Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread

(adapted from Tufts Health & Nutrition Newsletter)

(Note: Original recipe calls it "whole wheat" but recipe includes regular white flour, indicating to me that they shouldn't have used the words "whole wheat" to describe the bread. I beefed up the fiber content by using strictly whole wheat flour and rolled oats.)

1 cup raisins

1 cup boiling water

1 1/2 tsp orange zest

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup buttermilk (made with low-fat milk + 1 tsp vinegar)

4 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Plump raisins by pouring boiling water into a bowl with raisins for ten minutes. Drain. In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt together. In yet another bowl, mix buttermilk, sugar, oil, and orange zest. Slowly add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture, stirring to make a sticky dough. Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead several times. Form into two equally-sized dough balls. Flatten slightly to a height of about 2 inches. With a serrated knife, make a criss-cross slash 1/2 inch deep on top of the loaf. Bake until golden, about 30 minutes. Let cool before slicing.

In other blog news:

• I continue to wax on about Steve Sando and his Rancho Gordo beans. As if you don't get enough of that on this blog, now I have to write about beans on someone else's blog. Read my guest post on Robyn Webb's Fabulous Food Finds blog here. Thanks, Robyn, for the opportunity to guest post and share my love of beans.
• Also, head over to WBUR's Public Radio Kitchen blog to see a recap of my ginger-limeade recipe. Public Radio Kitchen certainly has their finger on the foodie pulse of Boston. I was honored to be featured in a post! And especially one that is written about ginger! One of my faves, and they have a fabulous blogroll.

Question of the Day: Are you Irish on St. Patrick's Day? Will you be wearing green, or found drinking green beer at an Irish pub? Or is it just another ol' Evacuation Day?