Hooray for Spring and hooray for Soda Bread

The trees may be bare and the grass not yet green, but spring is definitely approaching! It's nearing is proclaimed by the first snowdrops and daffodil shoots, the birdsong which is noticed more than at any other time of the year and my personal spring fever which lead to purchase and potting of these beauties:


And not to be forgotten: The fact, that I am blogging from our veranda enjoying the sights of all of the above. Yes, I might still be in a light fleece while doing so. But I no longer need to don mittens, a scarf and a hat in the attempt. :-)

Today is St. Patrick's Day. This is not of any consequence in Switzerland. You can go everywhere without being confronted with the color green. We go from Carnival decorations strait to the Easter stuff.

Through reading blogs I adore from all over the world I am aware that this day has a lot of food connotations in other countries. And since I didn't want to dive in with corned beef or green beer, I thought I would try my hand at making a Soda Bread


The recipe can be found at smitten kitchen: http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/03/irish-soda-bread-scones/

I made some slight changes:
Since I had some cranberries in the pantry I added a mixture of currants and those. I like the tartness they added.
With no baking soda or cream of tartar (don't think you can even get that here) in the house, both were substituted with baking powder.

I love the result, especially with lots of cold butter. I am not sure however, if I might not have kneaded the dough enough....
I will definitely make this again but will probably try out a savoury version next.
Any suggestions?