Oat Soda Bread with Herbed Ricotta and Scrambled Eggs

We might be moving to the country. It’s not for sure yet, but there is a real chance we might pick ourselves out of the most expensive city to live in in North America and curl up on Vancouver Island. This appeals of me on many levels, mostly because when I think of living in the country and I don’t think of isolation or hard winters. Instead I day dream about long summer days in the garden. I fantasize about growing my own veggies and taking long walks in the fields at sunset. I get a glazed over look when I think about hanging my sheets out to dry or having a fire place or having enough room to build the bed I’ve always wanted to make. And when the logical man I would be moving with tells me I’m absolutely ridiculous and there are other things to consider when making a move like this I simply make this wonderful rustic bread, and strain some ricotta cheese and imagine that my eggs came from my yard, and I slip back into my imaginary world. Because fresh eggs and oat stuffed soda bread arecompletely at home there.

Oat Soda Bread with Herbed Ricotta and Soft Scrambled Eggs

(The bread recipe is adapted from 101cookbooks)

For the Bread

2 1/4 cups AP Flour

2 cups Rolled Oats

1 3/4 tsp Baking Soda

1 1/4 tsp Salt

1 3/4 cup Butter milk, more if needed

Herbed Ricotta

2/3 cup Ricotta cheese

1/4 cup chopped herbs, I used parsley, thyme, and rosemary, although tarragon or mint would be right at home there too)

Zest of 1 lemon

Salt and Pepper

1 tbsp Olive Oil

Soft Scrambled Eggs

4 Good Quality free range eggs, splurge and get the good ones if you can. It really does make a difference.

1 tbsp Butter

1 tbsp Heavy cream (Optional)

To start preheat the oven to 425F

In a food processor blitz 1 cup of the oats to a fine powder. If you don’t have a food processor don’t worry. Your bread will be delicious anyways, I promise.

Mix it in a bowl with everything else except 2 tbsp of the whole oats. Mix it all together until just combined.

Gently knead it a few times and then form it into a ball.

Put it on a baking tray lined with parchment and sprinkle the remaining oats on top. ( I ran out of oats so I missed this step!)

Cut a deep X on the top with a sharp knife and put it in the oven! Bake until it is cooked all the way through, about 45 minutes. It will have a thick crust and sound hollow when you knock on it.

Meanwhile mix together your herbed ricotta. Just mix it all up in a bowl and check the seasoning.

When the bread is out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes. Slice it up and slather it with the ricotta.

Now, seconds before your ready to eat your ready to cook your eggs. Here is how I cook mine, and how I like my eggs best.

Crack your eggs into a bowl and whisk them very well. How fluffy they are is a direct correlation to much you beat them. Whisk in the cream if using.

Get a small frying pan hot.

Add in the butter and swirl it around for a second then, before it has fully melted add in the eggs. Now stir them slowly. I like my eggs with big pieces of scramble, and to do that you need to work the eggs slowly but throughally. When they are still a little shiny take them off the heat give them one last stir and quickly scrape them onto the ricotta slathered slices of bread.

And then eat it quickly and happily, and imagine your sitting on a farm in the country!

Bread and Butter

Sometimes all you need is this life is some fresh bread. Good homemade hot out of the oven fresh bread. You need your house to smell like browning flour and you need to watch it grow in the oven into something magical. You need to slather it with butter and jam and you need to not feel guilty about that because you made the bread and your eating the fruits of your labor. You need homemade bread.

But sometimes you don’t have 2 days to make good bread, or 2 weeks to make sourdough. Sometimes you need instant gratification. Or at least, 2 hour gratification. Sometimes you need Irish Soda Bread.

Irish soda bread is the denser, more rustic but very charming cousin to French or Italian bread, and maybe a sibling to cornbread.It is usually made with brown flour, although I did some research and found that white bread would be special occasion bread. It’s leavened with baking soda (hence the name) and it’s delicious. Seriously delicious. It’s also seriously easy to make. You simply mix the wet, mix the dry and mix it together. Like making cornbread. But this is a recipe where the whole is greater then the sum of it’s parts because out of this simple mix comes nuttier, moist, completely wonderful brown bread that begs for butter.

I think this is the sort of bread not to over complicate. There’s a great article in Epicurious about the origins of soda bread and it says that there should only be buttermilk, soda, flour and salt in it, but this recipe has some brown sugar and some oats as well, mostly because I like oats and brown sugar. So there.

@font-face { font-family: “ＭＳ 明朝”; }@font-face { font-family: “ＭＳ 明朝”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; }div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; }1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats plus more for coating

2 tablespoons (packed) dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups (about) buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425F

Combine the dry ingredients

Combine the wet ingredients

Mix together until just combined

Roll into a ball and place on a parchment lined baking tray

Wet your hands with water and pat the dough gently then sprinkle oats ontop

Bake for about 40 minutes or until it’s nicely browned and an inserted skewer comes out with only a couple moist crumbs.

Let it cool off the pans for about 10 minutes before slicing and eating!