Irish Brown Bread

How we make it.

*makes one loaf*

1 cup rolled oats
2 cups whole wheat flour
¼ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 - 11 ounce bottle Guinness extra stout beer, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
5 tablespoons Kerrygold butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the beer, buttermilk, melted butter and syrup. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. With your fingers, stir the batter from the middle of the bowl to the outside, until it’s well mixed.

Butter a loaf pan and pour the batter in. Sprinkle the top with oats. the pan and sprinkle the top with oats and put in the oven for 45 minutes. Allow to cool and serve with more Kerrygold butter and more syrup.

Why we make it.

Once upon a time Ina Garten went to Ireland and we all got a recipe for Irish Brown Bread out of it. As with our banana bread, I couldn't tell you exactly when my kids and I started making Ina's brown bread, but when we see jonquils on the hillsides, we buy Guinness and buttermilk. I've changed her original version a little. Simplified a few steps, added some syrup and subtracted some vanilla, but it's still pretty much hers. Where we live early spring has a frustrating magic. One day you're still Patagonia clad, pale and freezing. The next you're out walking in a light sweater smelling the dirt. Something about this hearty loaf smeared with grassy butter suits that mood. And how else are you going to celebrate St. Patrick's Day anyway? Dying your beer green? Irish Brown Bread helps us bring in the lucky bud of early spring after a long, boring winter. It makes a great breakfast and an even better after school snack before going outside to play, because we finally can. And that's why we make it.