These days . . .

Have you noticed the fewer hours of daylight?  While I don't particularly enjoy that, I do look forward to the cooler temperatures and letting loose of the foul-weather baker in me.  Some recent fall-like temperatures has kick started that process - along with some recipes from Saveur I found intriguing.


Last night I decided, hell or high water, I was making Irish Coffee Soda Bread.  Of course, deciding this on the fly, I didn't have all of the ingredients listed.  If you know me at all, you know that wasn't a deterrent.  I didn't have dark brown sugar, buttermilk, Irish whiskey, or instant espresso powder.  I did have light brown sugar, molasses, 1% milk, lemon juice, Guinness Extra Stout, and instant coffee granules (the latter for baking purposes ONLY!). 

Although I did have whole wheat flour on hand, I thought this a good opportunity to use the Irish-Style Flour from KAF.  Personally, the only difference I could ascertain was price.  But given that I ended up with batter instead of dough, I could be wrong.  It's hard to tell with so many of my substitutions.  While I (mostly) followed the directions listed, my ingredients were as follows:

2 cups AP flour
2 cups Irish-Style flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbs chilled butter
1-1/4 cups 1% milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup Guinness Extra Stout
2 tsp molasses
3 tbs instant coffee
1 large egg

I didn't follow the directions about kneading the dough because, as I mentioned, I didn't have dough.  Instead of kneading the dough and making a round, I lined a loaf pan with parchment and scraped in my batter.  I did forget to make a cut down the center so I had a blow out on the side but, of course, that only affects appearance not taste.  And I'm not mad at the taste at all.  In fact, I may make it again, exactly the same way.

Yes, I was drinking that Guinness.