Bread Bomb

   In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I chose a recipe from an Irish pub cook book for Irish soda bread. It seemed simple enough - flour, salt, baking soda and buttermilk. No yeast though, so this is my first experiment with "leven bread". It doesn't really rise and you should not incorporate a lot of air into the dough during the kneading process. I mixed the ingredients together last night and let the dough sleep in the fridge. This morning I took it out and placed it on my pastry mat to knead it ever so slightly, as the recipe called for. It was kind of dry at first and very lumpy, but then the situation turned sticky. With doughy fingers I fumbled through the pantry for some flour to dust the mat.  The dough remained super sticky though. I formed two small loaves (I had made a double recipe of dough to ensure everyone at work had an opportunity to taste it) and placed them on a greased cookie sheet. I baked as directed for 25 minutes. To check if they were done, the book noted to "Knock on the loaf(ves). If they make a hallow sound, they are done." They did infact sound hollow so I moved them to a wire rack to cool and then to my baked goods container to tote them off to work.
   I sent out the routine e-mail letting the office folks know there was bread available. Note: I had not yet cut the first slice. Three girls from the DNA lab came down with paper leprechaun masks - very cute and festive - to endulge in the holiday bread. About 3 slices into it, we discovered it wasn't fully cooked. Actually it was really mushy in the middle. I took the loaves down to the break room, where there is an oven, and baked them an additional 20 minutes. I cut into a loaf again and it was still gooey. I baked them ANOTHER 20 minutes. At that point the crust was hard as a rock - too hard to cut - and the inside tasted like playdough. Ugh! I'm so bummed. For the first time, I am throwing my bread in the trash. ::sad face:: The only thing it would be good for at this point is digging out the center and making figurines, as children do with their food.