Irish Soda Bread with milk kefir

Yesterday was St. Patricks Day and when the kids were young, I used to be fun and do themed foods for the day to make everything special. The kids are so much older now and don’t seem to get the same thrill, but we were on a severe weather watch and I was anxious… I was also anxious about my first ever zoom call as part of the Homestead Open House, so I thought, I’m gonna take my mind off things and be fun mom again for the day.

I began by making them some green pancakes and bacon that morning! They were really good! I need to share that recipe for pancakes as well (with milk kefir). I’ll do that soon.

Anyhow, so last night I made shepherds pie and Irish soda bread.

The shepherds pie is so forgiving and so good and honestly, I kinda used it like I do my fridge dump stir fry and whatever we have is what goes in! 

I used up some radishes, red bell pepper, carrots, mushrooms, onions, and peas. It turned out great!

For the bread, here’s the recipe!

Irish Soda Bread with Milk Kefir

Preheat oven to 400*

Dry:

4 1/4 cups flour (you can use a half and half mixture here of freshly ground wheat and white)

(or you can use a more white than wheat, but don’t go more wheat than white)

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Wet:

1 3/4 cup milk kefir or buttermilk

1 large egg

5 Tbsp COLD butter cut into chunks

Mix your dry ingredients together

Mix your wet ingredients together 

Take your hands or a pastry cutter and mix the COLD butter into the dry ingredients. You just want to get the butter incorporated into the flour mixture. Similar to when you are making biscuits. 

Now mix your wet into your butter/flour mixture and mix til JUST combined. This dough is not supposed to be smooth and supple like a bread dough, it looks kinda shaggy when pulled together. Once you get it combined, I greased my cast iron skillet and then put the dough on the skilled and slashed a fairly deep X on top. 

Bake for approximately 45-55 min depending on your oven. 

Remove when nicely browned, risen, and opened on top like a flower. 

The family really enjoyed this bread last night.

And you can make variations to it if you like!

Add some fruit and make it a little sweet. Add some herbs and make it a bit more savory! 

Play around with it! I’ve done both, and it works well! It’s quick and easy to pull together and is great alongside a stew or shepherds pie like we had last night!