Brown Butter Irish Soda Bread {with Rosemary & Cracked Black Pepper}

As St. Patrick’s Day entered the radar of food bloggers and the like, the recipe sharing became fast and furious.  I couldn’t have imagined Guinness could find it’s way into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert….but alas it’s been done.  Wonderful dishes rich in flavor yet not overdone.  I suspect that holds true for Ireland herself.  I never question the authenticity of a dish, purely because I love to experiment with recipes and expect others do as well.  Let that be the lead in to this not so traditional Brown Butter Irish Soda Bread with Rosemary & Cracked Black Pepper.

The beautiful thing about this, and other ‘quick’ breads, is there is minimal work involved.  No proofing, rising, doubling in size.  Just a bit of kneading, a dusting of flour, ‘x’ marks the spot, and straight into the oven it goes.

A basic Irish Soda Bread recipe has just a few simple ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk.  Which was completely the route I planned to go for my first attempt. Until I spotted a couple of recipes from Epicurious, that added browned butter, rosemary & cracked black pepper, caused a change of direction.

There’s a recipe note I must share.  As I was lining up the ingredients for a picture I noticed that the bag of flour I had pulled from the pantry was Self-rising Flour vs. All-purpose as the recipe called for.  Hmmm, seems my All-purpose flour canister was empty.  Experiment with recipes remember :)  For tips on flour substitutions and exchanges check out this article.

Second recipe note: every variation I read said not to over knead the dough.  Just enough turns until the dough comes together, six to eight times max.  Well…in an effort to not over work the dough the end result is a bread that looks more like a four leaf clover.  Quite fitting for today, don’t you think.

And a bread that tastes simply divine.  This is one of those breads that you’ll stand over breathing in it’s goodness.  My favorite way to describe this is when aroma becomes flavor you know something amazing is happening.  The aromatic fresh rosemary combined with nutty brown butter was fabulous.  And if anything, the Self-rising flour may have delivered a lighter slightly less dense Irish Soda Bread, which was quite fine with us.  Brown Butter Irish Soda Bread with Rosemary & Cracked Black Pepper we will certainly not wait until next St. Patrick’s Day to enjoy your company again.

Brown Butter Irish Soda Bread {with Rosemary & Cracked Black Pepper}

lightly adapted from Epicurious

The aromatic fresh rosemary combined with nutty brown butter in this bread was fabulous.

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Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 35 mins

Total Time 40 mins

Course Bread

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups Self-rising or All-purpose flour plus additional for kneading and dusting
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
• 1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 2 Tbl. butter
• 1 tsp. fresh rosemary minced

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and pepper.
• In a small sauce pan over low heat, melt butter, add in minced rosemary and slowly cook until butter turns golden brown.
• Add browned butter and buttermilk into flour mixture. Use a rubber spatula to mix ingredients, scrapping down sides of bowl until just combined.
• Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Knead dough, turning about 6-8 times just until it comes together. Form into a 6-inch round and place on ungreased baking sheet. Use a sharp knife and cut a 1/2″ deep ‘x’ in the top of dough. Use a fine mesh sifter and dust top of bread with flour.
• Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

Notes

The bread pictured was made using Self-rising flour with the baking soda and salt. It can also be made using All-purpose flour with the baking soda and salt.