Wheat Irish Soda Bread

This was my first time ever baking homemade irish soda bread. The results were simply amazing. We had my parents over for dinner and served it to them. Everyone agreed that it was very tasty and that it looked like it came from a bakery. This bread recipe was really simple to put together and the results were so worth the work.  We will definitely be making more of this in the coming weeks.

When you research irish soda bread recipes, you will see a lot of variations. Some of the recipes call for adding raisins to the batter. I chose to omit that this time because we were serving the bread with bbq and I didn't want the bread to be too sweet.

I served this bread with butter and pumpkin butter on the side to spread on the slices. We thought both tasted very good on the bread. I especially loved the pumpkin butter on it.

Wheat Irish Soda Bread
Serves: 8
Adapted by: http://www.aminglingoftastes.com/2006/08/whole-wheat-irish-soda-bread.html

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat flour
1/2 cup bread flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon lite salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
2-3 tablespoons local honey (I used about 3 tablespoons)

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place baking stone in the oven to preheat.
-In a medium mixing bowl combine the flours, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
-In a small mixing bowl combine the egg, buttermilk and honey. Stir together. Slowly add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture. It stirs best with a wooden spoon. Do not over stir the dough. You just want the dry and wet ingredients to combine.
-Once the oven is preheated, remove the baking stone and place on the top of the stove. Sprinkle flour on the surface of the baking stone to prevent the bread from sticking.
-Shape dough into a circle shape, making sure to have it be about 8 to 9 inches in diameter and about 1 1/2'' high. I used a knife and cut a big x in the dough to make it fancier looking.
-Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. My oven took about 23 minutes to bake this loaf of bread.
-Remove from the oven and place loaf of bread on a cooling rack for 2 hours.
-Slice and serve

Enjoy! :)