I’ve been on a mission since my trip to Ireland last summer to recreate the brown bread that is provided in nearly every single pub there. It was just so moist and delicious, perfect for going along with soup or by itself. I had made Irish soda bread before, but this brown bread is a completely different animal. I tried several recipes, tweaked them, combined them, and finally figured out that the ingredients in the US are very different than those available in Ireland. Specifically, you need a coarse wholemeal flour. It’s very important. Using the standard finely milled flour widely available here will still taste good, but it’s not the same. I could not find it anywhere here, and didn’t fancy spending $12 on shipping to order it online, but I was able to bring some home from a recent trip to the UK. With a final recipe tweaking… success!
Irish Brown Bread
– 2 cups wholemeal flour (or whole wheat flour if wholemeal unavailable)
– 1 cup all purpose flour
– 1/2 cup wheat bran
– 1/2 cup wheat germ
– 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
– 1/4 tsp salt
– 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
– 3 tbsp honey
Mix all dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and stir. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 400F for 45-50 minutes.
2 Comments
I wonder if the flour can be found at more hippie-ish food co-ops? Bob’s Red Mill has so many kinds of flour, I’m quite surprised they don’t have wholemeal. Fancy stuff :)
‘Hope your UK trip was fun.
I looked at a few groceries for the flour and I had my brother look at Reading Terminal Market, although I’m not sure how much he looked.
I was in London for work but I did stay a few extra days to sightsee and couchsurf. I had a great time!