St. Patrick's Day.... Continued!

I'm a big fan of finding good recipes and making them your own- add ingredients, take away ingredients, throw it in the crockpot, just do something a little different. I found a great recipe online for Irish soda bread. And by great, I mean it looked super easy, didn't require yeast, and only baked for 35 minutes. My kind of bread! I actually think this would make a really good every day bread without the caraway seeds. I'm not a huge lover of them, but apparently they're Irish. In any case, if anyone ever asks you to make a loaf of bread, you'll have this little recipe in your back pocket to impress your friends. 

The hubs loves bruschetta, so I thought, why not make an Irish version as an appetizer. So here's how I did it:

For the soda bread:
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading and dusting
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon caraway seeds
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For Assembling the Bruschetta:
Olive Oil
Store bought pesto (I used the Giada de Laurentis brand from Target)
Dubliner Aged Irish Cheese
Balsamic Vinegar
Parsley, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and caraway seeds. Stir in the buttermilk and melted butter with a rubber spatula, scraping down the sides until the ingredients are just combined.
Transfer the dough to a well-floured surface and knead it 6 times, just until it comes together into a 6-inch round. The dough will still be sticky.
Cut a large X in the top of the round and place the loaf of a baking sheet. Dust it with 1 teaspoon of flour and bake it for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

When ready to assemble the bruschetta, cut the bread into thin slices. (I ended up cutting the slices in half that were larger.) Place the bread slices on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Toast the bread under the broiler for 2-3 minutes. Flip the bread slices over and spread each slice with pesto and top with a slice of cheese. Put the bruschetta back under the broiler until the cheese is melted. Then top with a drizzle of balsamic and sprinkle with parsley.

This was a total hit at our little get together and was gone in a matter of minutes. The leprechauns were hungry! I hope you had a good St. Patrick's Day, I sure know I did- that Bailey's was my best friend. I also had to share my favorite part of St. Patrick's Day, my little Irishman. Enjoy!