For our second Friday Parfait! Day – I’m going all the way back to earlier this month (!) and Aunt Beezy’s most excellent soda bread.
I mentioned in the earlier post how Bob (Aunt Beezy’s daughter-in-law’s sister’s gentleman friend) had talked about adding blueberries – well, Bob talked about dried 
blueberries – but I had scored this deal on HUGE, sweet, fresh berries, and was armed with a concept for wrangling them I saw on Food Network. Admittedly, it was a method for mixing peas into stuff without crushing the suckers; but peas ARE, when you think of it, quite a bit like blueberries; they’re both round and easily squished. And ermmm, that would be about it for similarities…
The secret to not mulching blueberries (or, indeed peas)? FREEZE ‘EM! How cool is that for ease of handling? No muss, no fuss, and minimal berry guts oozing all through the batter while folding it all together and tossing it into the bread pan. Of course, the berries WILL burst a bit in the baking, but that’s just berries doing what berries will – you’ve done your part to minimize it.
INGREDIENTS
•3 cups flour
•2/3 cup sugar
•1 tsp baking powder
•1 tsp baking soda
•1 tsp salt
•1 lemon, zested
•1-1/2 cup (or so) fresh blueberries – frozen
•1 tbsp poppy seeds
•2 tsp butter, melted
•2 eggs, beaten
•1-3/4 cup buttermilk + 2 tbsp
Preheat oven to 350º.
Sift together the dry ingredients and the lemon zest into a large bowl. Stir in the frozen berries and poppy seeds. The blueberry scone recipe I made recommended coating the berries with an 
additional bit of flour to keep them from sinking through the batter. Didn’t do much, if you ask me, but feel free to try it yourself.
Combine liquids, add to bowl and stir until just mixed.
Pour the batter into a well greased 5 x 9 loaf pan and bake for approximately one hour until lightly browned and toothpick comes out clean.
Tip out of the loaf pan after it’s completely cooled, then slice and enjoy with a bit of butter (good),or some whipped chive cream cheese (better).
Thanks again, Aunt Beezy!