We had an amazing time in London and Dublin. To be honest, writing about it all in one post is overwhelming because we did so much. Every day, we covered a lot of territory, walking 4.5-6.7 miles exploring the cities. So, instead of one post, I’ll do a few.
Guinness Brewery Tour
One of the very touristy things we did in Dublin was go to the Guinness building for their tour. Jeff’s favorite beer is Guinness, and he thinks the Irish Guinness is tastier than the U.S. variety.
The tour was terrific. It was at your own pace, so you could watch all the videos and read all of the information on the history of Guinness and the manufacturing process on your own. We definitely spent several hours there.
At the end of the tour, we went up to the observation room at the top of the building for a 360 degree view of Dublin…
and, of course, our free pint of Guinness. Jeff got the original stout, and I tried the lighter lager, Hop House 13. Although I couldn’t finish mine, I was happy to try it.
We had a very interesting and informative tour at Guinness. To be honest, I preferred this tour to the tour we had the following day at Jameson, the Irish whiskey brand that Jeff also loves. Jameson was a much quicker tour with a guide, and there was less to see. Guinness was more like a museum with lots of artifacts to see including advertising and promotional items, sculptures, posters, videos etc.
Do you remember the saying that I associate with Gloria Steinem many years ago, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”? Here’s a version from the Guinness museum and its explanation:
I was happily surprised to learn that the ad was made by Ogilvy & Mather (in the UK) several years after I worked at O&M NY.
Guinness Brown Bread Recipe
We had so many terrific meals at restaurants both in Dublin and in London, that it’s hard to keep them straight! But thinking back carefully, we were served Guinness brown bread at a gastropub in the Temple Bar area where we were staying. I ordered salmon, and I was surprised but also thrilled when the server brought out a plate with a very big piece of smoked Irish salmon, a green salad, and Guinness brown bread. So delicious! I gave some to Jeff to try, and not surprisingly, he loved it too.
To keep the vacation vibe going, I decided to make some Guinness brown bread myself. It’s a much easier and quicker bread to make than the yeast challah that I make every Friday!
Here’s the recipe I used from Kaity on the website, Fare Isle or fareisle.com:
Ingredients
- 400 g stoneground whole wheat flour ≈2-2/3 cups, or coarse wholemeal flour
- 100 g rolled oats ≈3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons, plus extra for the top of the bread
- 9 g kosher salt 2-1/4 teaspoons
- 10 g baking soda 2 teaspoons
- 330 g Guinness stout, one 330 ml bottle
- 165 g buttermilk ≈2/3 cup, or 160g milk or non-dairy milk mixed with 2 teaspoons of vinegar
- 30 g olive oil ≈2 tablespoons, or melted butter
- 40 g molasses ≈2 tablespoons, or treacle
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F/180˚C. Grease and line a pullman loaf pan or a standard 1 pound loaf pan with parchment paper cut to fit the pan.
- In a mixing bowl whisk together the whole wheat flour, oats, salt and baking soda. Sift in the baking soda to remove and lumps.
- Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the stout, buttermilk, oil and molasses. Then stir until just combined. Don’t overmix and work quickly to preserve the leavening properties of the baking soda.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle rolled oats over the top of the batter.
- Bake the bread for 45 minutes or until it is slightly domed with some cracks on top, dark brown and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let the bread cool for a few minutes in the pan then lift it out of the pan using the parchment paper as an aid. Let the bread cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing it.
The bread came out beautifully, and it was a cinch to make. I don’t keep buttermilk around because I don’t use it often enough. So I made my own buttermilk with whole milk with 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar.
If you give it a try, let me know what you think! Also, if you’ve been on the Guinness tour, let me know about that too!
What an interesting post. My favorite part is that wonderful picture of the two of you. You look so happy and beautiful. You are such a tiny woman, I envy your petite body.
Thank you, Marcia xoxo Unfortunately, I am only 5 feet tall! I need some extra inches!!
I love a good Guinness! What a nice loaf of bread!
Thank you, Michelle! And me, too!