Heinen's Irish Soda Bread

I've had flour, yeast and a mixing bowl sitting out on my counter for 2 weeks. Mind you, I'm a neatnik. I don't just leave things out. But I've been trying to remind myself that I need to bake bread. NEED to. Not want to. There is not a carb in the house. But I've had a truly challenging couple of weeks and though baking bread is not hard to do, I just haven't been able to get to it.

So, when I ran into Heinen's yesterday to pick up a few things and saw a table of Irish Soda Bread on display for St. Paddy's Day, I scooped up a loaf.

Yes, there's some Irish heritage in my background, but no one ever rallied around the Irish-ness enough for me to be intimately familiar with all the cultures and traditions of that warm and gregarious people. I did spend 3 days in Dublin once and learned, in 3 days, that Ireland is pretty darn awesome and I could easily get used to it.

While I was there, they fed me a most welcome cup of decent black coffee (welcome because I was previously in England where I couldn't get a potable cup of coffee to save my life) and a piece of dense brown bread at breakfast. I assumed the brown bread was this "soda bread" the Irish are famous for. Anyway, it was a most likable breakfast.

The soda bread I got at Heinen's and the soda bread I see pictures of on the internet are nothing like the heavy brown bread I had for my Dublin breakfasts, but whatever recipe the Heinen's bakery is working from needs to be gilded and saved for posterity.

Wow, is it good.

It is light in color, has the satisfying tang of buttermilk, feels as rich as a pastry, and is speckled with a constellation of plump little raisins. Again, I've heard raisins aren't purely traditional, but I don't know what the absolute pure version of soda bread should look like.

All I know is ALL bread should taste like this. Every bit as satisfying as my brown bread in Dublin and a whole heap tastier. If you live in Cleveland, you'd do yourself a favor to run out and buy a loaf before they put away all the St. Patrick's Day merchandise.

I'm feeling a wee bit luckier, even, and I'm off to face the day, happy and well-breakfasted.