Saturday, June 25, 2011

Bread, glorious bread!

Soda Bread with Herbs



As a huge fan of Susan at Wild Yeast and a follower of her weekly YeastSpotting feature I decided it was time to step off the sidelines and start baking again.  It has been years since I made my own bread but now I am in a place where I feel like being creative again! 

Soooooo, in a blatant attempt to join the ranks of the Bread Baking Babes I dove in and tried this month's recipe for Soda Bread with Herbs.  It is fantastic though I did play with the recipe slightly.  I used half whole wheat flour and added about 3/4 of a cup of shredded asiago cheese.   I put in about a 3 tablespoons of mixed fresh herbs but not having rosemary I subsituted dill, thyme and oregano.  Those herbs don't have the pungent flavour of rosemary and the herby flavour was too light for me.

Boy, this bread had a lovely dense chewy texture and I am adding this recipe to my collection of "keepers"!  Making yeast bread has always been a meditative act for me, kneading the dough released my tension of the day and slowed my mind down.  This was a different experience, the time from start to finish was under an hour but the aroma of baking bread and sense of accomplishment as I cut that first, steaming slice were the therapy I needed today.  I started and finished a project - something I have not been doing lately.

Thanks Susan for providing the nudge I needed to get back into life with both feet!  :-)

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