I have a sweet tooth. I am one of those guys who almost never has just one cookie…unless it’s a black and white from the local diner which, let’s face it, is really a small cake.
(Our friend, Barbara, recently got me interested in black and white cookies. According to her, some are chalky and horrible while others are melt-in-your mouth yummy. But that’s a story for another post.)
Yesterday, Beth and I baked our first loaf of Irish Soda Bread. I decided to try this because I have enjoyed soda bread from our local ShopRite for years. The stuff from that grocery store is like a cross between a good loaf of bread and a cookie. It’s deliciously sweet, so it rarely lasts more than 3 hours in our house.
Looking online for an Irish Soda Bread recipe, I found one with great reviews. To my surprise, it only called for one tablespoon of sugar.
“That’s not going to taste like the ones at the store,” warned Beth. (She’s our in-house baking consultant.)
I proceeded anyway. Our only substitution to the recipe was to use ghee instead of butter. That’s okay. We both like the flavor and texture of ghee and it’s one of the ways I make a great baked chicken.
45 minutes later we had our own crusty loaf of bread. Sitting in our Dutch oven, it looked and smelled fantastic and was twice the size of the ShopRite kind. Wow!
So, how did it taste? Beth was right. It was decidedly less sweet, but our conclusion was that it was, therefore, much less addictive. I’m not sure what we spent on the ingredients (buttermilk ain’t cheap) but it was very satisfying to work together and create something new.
“How Sweet it Is” in addition to being a great song is also our unofficial tune. We have a sign in our RV that says the same. Today, I saw that what’s sweetest of all isn’t a store-bought treat, but creating something by hand…together.