Irish Soda Bread - two ways

One of the things I love most about our New Hampshire life is our CSA, which is actually in Vermont, but close enough that it is feasible for me to go pick up our weekly shipment of goods.  They do a locavore option, which provides local grains, breads, eggs, cream, butter, fruit, whatever is in season and available in addition to the veggies   I love that it is year round even though we live in a four season climate.  They also include produce from this past summer that they picked, washed and vacuum sealed and kept in their freezer.  We are eating well.

Our first week included:  frozen sweet corn, frozen chard, fresh spinach and radish and sunflower seed sprout mixture, potatoes, yellow onions, beets, carrots, napa cabbage, maple oat bread, steel cut oats, and local cheese.  The second week included:  frozen yellow beans, frozen red peppers, cipollini onions, potatoes, turnips, carrots, savoy cabbage, local all purpose flour, eggs, cream and Vermont apples.

 

I recently realized that my efforts to eat seasonally were way off mark when it came to dairy and eggs, and haven't purchased either in about two months, so being given both fresh cream and fresh eggs in our CSA felt like being given gold, and it took me a few days to decide how I wanted to use them.  I used half of the pint of cream and whipped it for desserts this past week - including a New Hampshire style bananas foster and apple crisp (with the apples that came in our CSA).  I decided that my favorite way to eat eggs is sunny side up in a bit of butter with buttered toast. 

I made butter from the remaining cream (amazing) and went to cook the eggs when I realized we were out of bread.  I made this bread in no time at all and it was delicious with the fresh butter and fried eggs.

Irish Soda Bread

makes 1 large loaf or 2 small loaves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

2 c all purpose flour 

2 c oat flour (I just put oats in my blender and grind it up until it is a flour)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 T sugar

2 c oat milk (or rice, almond, dairy, etc.)

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

optional:  1 small apple diced with 1 tsp cinnamon and an additional tablespoon of sugar

Mix vinegar with oat milk and set aside.  Mix dry ingredients. *At this point I divide my dry ingredients into two bowls to make one plain and one apple cinnamon round of bread.  Slowly add half of the milk (if making two rounds), stirring until moistened and then kneading gently into a ball of dough.  For the apple cinnamon round - stir in the cinnamon,t hen toss apples with flour mixture and add the liquid, stir and knead knead slightly and shape into a round.  Place the rounds on a baking stone or cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes for two loaves or up to 40 minutes for one loaf.  Eat immediately.