Gypsy Soda Bread

Wanting to ensure we would have breakfast to look forward to on Monday and for a last chance using up some sour-home-made-yogurt-that-was-kind-of-like-buttermilk I hit my Kindle collection of cookbooks and searched for 'buttermilk'.  Many things turned up, but the one that sounded quickest and easiest was a Soda Bread from a cookbook about Gypsy Cuisine (although, if you read the Amazon reviews some folks don't agree about the authenticity of the recipes - I know nothing about traditional or non-traditional Gypsy Cuisine...but am still calling this Gypsy Soda Bread, sorry if you find such offensive)

Ingredients/Directions:
From Gypsy Feast: Recipes and Culinary Traditions of the Romany People by Carol Wilson

Preheat oven to 400*F (204*C). In a large bowl mix 2 cups Flour, 1 tsp. Baking Soda, 1 tsp. Salt and 1/2 tsp. Cream of Tartar. Rub or cut in 2 Tbsp. Butter until well dispersed. Make a well in the center and pour in 1/2 cup Buttermilk, mix quickly until a dough is formed. Knead lightly on a floured surface and roll into a round about 1 1/2 inches thick. Mark the top with four cuts. Bake on a lightly greased baking sheet for 20 minutes, until golden and sounding hollow when tapped.

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Do you appreciate alliteration?
I do.
Buttermilk. Blueberry. Breakfast.
I should call it Bread, rather than cake.

Did I tell you I had some mishaps with my second-batch of yogurt? Nothing too dramatic, but a lot of seperation of curds from whey and sour tasting, runny yogurt-milk, rather than beautiful creamy yogurt.

However, thanks to our dumpster diving days and a ton of Extended Shelf Life recipes and an understanding that food is usable a lot longer than we normally give it credit for, even if smells a little funky or isn't perfect, convinced me that nothing needed to be tossed.

Whey could easily be fed to the dog or used in bread items (which it was later in the week), curds could be drained and used as a soft cheese (which it was later in the week) and runny-yogurty-milk that tastes a little sour could be used as buttermilk...which it was, for this Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake Bread

Ingredients/Directions:

Recipe barely adapted from Alexandra Cooks

Preheat oven to 350*F (177*C) and prepare a single round pan or square pan with oil or butter, set aside. Cream together 1/2 cup softened Butter with 2 tsp. Orange Zest and 7/8 cups Sugar (that's the same as 3/4 cups minus 2 Tbsp.) Add to this creamed mixture 1 room temperature egg and 1 tsp. Vanilla, beat until well combined. Toss 2 cups of fresh or forzen blueberries with 1/4 cup Flour. Next, mix together 1 3/4 cups Flour, 2 tsp. Baking Power and 1 tsp. Salt. Add flour mixture to the creamy butter mixture alternating with 1/2 cup buttermilk. Fold in blueberries. Sprinkle batter with 1 Tbsp. Sugar before baking 35-45 minutes. Cool 15 minutes before enjoying or save for breakfast the following morning.