9 ounces white flour plus a little extra for dusting
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
~16 ounces or 2 cups buttermilk (I like to use the left over buttermilk from when I make fresh butter)
Tools
Parchment paper
Bowl
Wire rack or towel
Baking sheet
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Combine first four ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
Add the buttermilk a little at a time until you get a dough that sticks slightly to your fingers. You may or may not use all of your buttermilk!
Dust a portion of your countertop and dump the dough out on top.
Work the dough very lightly until it is mixed together. Don’t spend much time doing this or it won’t rise properly.
Form the dough into a ball and flatten the top slightly.
Cut the dough into four quarters(like pie shapes)
Dust the dough with a little more flour.
Take the four quarters and place them back together on a parchment lined baking sheet. They should be just barely touching.
Bake for about thirty minutes. You can check the bake by thumping on the bread and listening for a slightly hollow sound.
Cool on a wire rack. A towel works ok too if you don’t have cooling racks.
I am a big fan of Paul Hollywood and this is by far my favorite soda bread recipe. Of course I like to put my own twist to it by using buttermilk from my home made butter. It’s also another fun one to do with the kids!
You can find his original recipe by clicking here!
Smoker (If you do not own a smoker you can make this recipe in an oven or crockpot)
Instructions:
Cook sausage according to instructions on the taco seasoning packet.
Combine American melting cheese, cooked sausage, cream cheese, soup, jalapeños, onion, chili tomatoes, and minced garlic into the recyclable aluminum pan if you are using a smoker or an oven. If you are using a crockpot, put the ingredients directly into the pot.
If you are using a smoker, smoke pan of ingredients at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. Stir ingredients together and let smoke for another 30 minutes and serve.
If you are using an oven, preheat to 225-250 degrees. Wait until ingredients are melted in order to stir together and serve.
If you are using a crockpot, set on high until ingredients are melted. Stir ingredients together and place crockpot setting on low to keep dip warm and serve.
Home made sausage gravy will be slightly darker than gravy made with bacon grease.
Ingredients:
1lb Breakfast Sausage
~1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
~4 cups 2% or Whole Milk
Salt and Pepper for taste
My Preferred Tools
Cast Iron Skillet
Granny Fork
Instructions
Patty out breakfast sausage into to about 7 or 8 small patties. Place patties into skillet and cook at medium high heat until seared on both sides and cooked thoroughly in the center.
Remove patties from skillet.
You should be left with 4 or so tablespoons of grease in the bottom of your skillet. If you feel there is not enough grease, you can substitute with a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil or butter in order to make your roux.
Add flour to your skillet until all visible grease is soaked up. If you want to make a slightly bigger batch or you want thicker gravy, you may add flour until the mixture begins to form little balls in the bottom of your skillet.
Cook roux mixture for about three minutes while constantly stirring. I use a three tonged granny fork to mix my gravy. You can also use a regular fork or whisk.
Add 2-3 cups of your milk and stir on medium to medium-low heat.
Once mixture starts to thicken turn off heat and continue stirring until your desired thickness. Salt and pepper to taste.
If your gravy turns out thinner than you want simply turn the heat back on and continue stirring. If you really have trouble you can stir in a couple of teaspoons of 50/50 cornstarch/water mixture to your gravy.
If it turns out thicker than you want, stir more milk into your gravy.
At the very end I crumble the cooked sausage back to my gravy for extra flavor and texture, but this is completely up to you.
The Ag Wife 