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Tavern Bread
Tavern Bread
by Valire’brand of Spiral Ash


If you're looking for something a bit more substantial than simple
cakes for your Esbats (and who doesn't now and then?); I have just
the thing. It's called Tavern Bread. The basic bread recipe is
adapted from From Celtic Hearths by Deborah Krasner. It is called
Irish Wheatmeal Soda Bread. Now, the bread is quite tasty by itself, BUT with a couple minor additions it becomes a meal in itself!
Here's the recipe:
2 cup unbleached flour
1 cups whole wheat flour (or 1 cups unbleached and 2 whole)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups buttermilk(8 TBSP powdered buttermilk + 2 cups Water)
1 TBSP honey or sugar
1 lb. cubed sharp cheddar
or
1/2 cup cubed cheddar(sharp, by preference)
1/2 cup cubed summer sausage(or other hard sausage)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Sift (or just mix well) all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
Add cheese and sausage at this point. Stir to coat. (so they don't stick together!) Gradually add the buttermilk, stirring to mix well. Dough must be moist, I usually need almost all 2 cups of buttermilk. Pour into a well greased cast-iron skillet and pat into a loaf shape. Cut a cross(solar) about an inch deep in the loaf. This allows it to bake properly. Stick in the oven for 10 minutes at 450 then turn down to 375 for 25-35 minutes or until done. Or you can make a tavern bread
bar by adding more liquid til the dough is mucky. No loaf, but it will
fill the skillet like a cake. Baking is the same.

Remove bread from the skillet. Now comes the hard part, waiting for
it to cool! You'd never think this is healthy food. Well, aside from the sausage. Anyway, no butter needed for this bread! A drop of wine and, voila, a feast! Just the ticket for a coven of Cancers. For you vegetarians, you can just use a pound of cheese. Good Feasting!