Irish Soda Bread

I was a little intimated about making this bread even though it was the easiest recipe. The book said it had to be eaten right away or it would turn to stone!?!? I was concerned about how fast was fast, as there was no way we could eat a loaf of bread in one sitting... or could we?

My plan was to make a breakfast treat for my co-workers on St. Patrick's day. So I got up at 5am and started baking.

Unfortunately I had forgotten to buy buttermilk and the yogurt in the fridge was vanilla so I made my first big substitution - I had really been

 trying to avoid my bad habits. I know that when a recipe calls for a tablespoon of buttermilk I have successfully used milk with lemon. I was nervous to try it with such a large quantity. The only real problem that occurred was the dough was too wet (so no x on the top). The dough was a crazy sticky mess and really hard to clean off the counter after. But other than that, the results were terrific. 

We had fresh out of the oven pieces for breakfast, and I was able to get the bread to work still warm. 

Elaine had just been to Ireland and I was excited to hear her review. She said the colour wasn't as white as her recipe, but the taste was as good as she ate there. Yeah!  Thumbs up all around.