Bread at 9000 ft

L and I are back in NM. He's taking part in an observing run and I'm trying (and failing) to work on my diss. Oh, I'm making progress in that I think I've finally, after how many months and 33 single spaced pages, figured out the basic structure for all of the garbage I've been writing... Let's not talk more about it, let' talk about something inherently less stressful:

Baking at High Altitudes!!

The Sunspot community is having an Irish Potluck this evening and I decided to bake my not-so-Irish soda bread as a contribution. Most soda breads ahve caraway and raisins, making them sweet and almost scone like. Well, traditional soda breads were pretty much just buttermilk, flour, oats, salt, and baking soda. No raisins or caraway for the dirt poor Irish! But that's also sort of bland. A few years ago I stumbled upon this recipe in Bon Appetit for Browned Butter Irish Soda Bread. Browned butter? Check! Rosemary? Check! Black Pepper for a savory spicy flavor? Check! Irish? Uh... New World Irish maybe? But tastier as all get out and EASY? Check!  In fact, if you've never baked bread b/c you were too scared you'd screw it up I highly recommend starting with this recipe (just melt the butter if browning it seems like too much). Seriously, it's as easy as cake out of a box. The taste is between Soda Bread and a biscuit (southern style, not English cookies), and so good you may just have to eat the whole loaf. It's to die for with Kerrygold butter or any sharp English or Irish cheese.

To deal with the high altitude I decreased the sugar by 1 tsp/loaf, increased the buttermilk by 1T per loaf, and reduced the baking powder by 1/4 tsp. Surprisingly, everything turned out fine and I'm not trying not to eat them all.

This is taken off of the balcony off the apt we stay in when we come up here. In the distance you can see White Sands (the whitish blobs on the left in the background). Needless to say, the views up here are spectacular.