UPDATE Emer's Irish Brown Bread

Good Morning Folks...
It's 23 degrees, quite chilly here in Boston...no worries though my oven is pre-heating for more bread baking. Nothing like a fresh piece of homemade bread and a hot cup of strong black tea!

Yesterday I made EMER'S BROWN BREAD.

Final product ~tada ~ exactly what I was looking for! Getting there though was another story entirely. I ended up tripling the time required, by halving the recipe and adjusting amounts once ingredients were partially mixed. Not to worrt though, I've made the mistake & fixed it, so this won't happen to you.

What happened you may be wondering? I began following the recipe I had been given (I will be amending the previous post). There was nothing that a little patience & tweaking wouldn't fix, though it is definitely too large of a recipe for my stand mixer (Viking 5.5qt). When Emer gave the recipe to me she reduced the size because she makes it commercially, so to speak. It was also in kg/g/liters, etc. When I made it a few years back I used whole wheat flour and did it all by hand so there was no issue.

Yesterday I used KAF (King Arthur's Flour) WHOLE MEAL FLOUR, it turns out whole meal is much puffier, light like a feather, and easily airborne compared to whole wheat!

However, once all was said and done yesterday, I couldn't pinpoint a difference in taste or crumb (interior texture) between the two. Though price is comparable, so I'll probably continue with whole meal (drawback, it's not in my supermarkets). I ordered from http://www.kingarthurflour.com/ in VT.

Since it's the flour I used most recently for this bread, and my senses were immediately carried back to the Oh-So-Cozy Inn in Killarney... I knew this was the recipe I was looking for.

So PLEASE check below for changed recipe. I will post it later today, I need to check conversions to make it accurate.

You must remember this is not gourmet dining! It is an authentic (hardy) daily meal in Ireland.

The two ways I have seen this served and they both work for me...

1. With a cup of tea, smothered in Irish butter (I use kerrygold) and topped with strawberry preserves. Also try orange preserves. This makes a great afternoon snack. Or a satisfying evening snack if you are trying to avoid junk food, just go lightly on butter.

2. As lunch, or to begin dinner, served with a cup/bowl of Irish Vegetable Soup (recipe posted below). Dunking the dry bread slice is heavenly.

I have 3 loaves in my oven now, the house smells wonderful. Will post photos later.