Irish Brown Soda Bread

While many Americans have heard of Irish Brown Soda Bread, Ireland's traditional loaf, few have tasted the real deal. It's not like any of the breads coming out of Zingerman's Bakehouse. It's radically different and worth experiencing. Now's your chance.

Once a year in the week or so leading up to St. Patrick's Day, we bake a batch of Brown Soda Bread with freshly milled soft white wheat and hard red spring wheat flour, whole-grain steel-cut oats, local buttermilk from Guernsey Dairy in Northville, MI, baking soda, and some sea salt.

Unlike other breads that you can slice and toast or use for sandwiches, Brown Soda Bread is very crumbly and can break off into pieces like granola. That's why it's outstanding spread with a lot of butter (a nearly eighth inch slather would be considered normal in Ireland). The butter acts like a delicious morter, holding the crumb together as best it can. It's also superb with smoked salmon over a layer of Zingerman’s cream cheese.

This handmade bread's ingredients are buttermilk, organic whole soft white wheat flour, organic whole hard red spring wheat flour, whole grain oats, sea salt, and baking soda.

Eater's note: Brown Soda Bread is denser and crustier than our other breads and crumbles a bit when sliced. Use to sop up saucy dishes or soups, but not for a reuben.