Christmas-y Irish Soda Bread @LucyBurdette

 

LUCY BURDETTE:  I had planned to design a fancy post today with several recipes and all my favorite home videos, but I ran out of steam! Instead, I'm sharing this Irish soda bread recipe that I plan to tweak with cranberries and grated orange peel for Christmas.

For some reason I had decided I was not a fan of Irish soda bread. Maybe I had a bad loaf somewhere, sort of like a bad clam? I can't exactly remember. However, a few months ago I went into my favorite Connecticut bakery’s pop-up event and noticed that their soda bread looked delicious. I bought a loaf and we gobbled the whole thing. This is my attempt to recreate it, using the website Sally's Baking Addiction as a starting point.  

Ingredients

1 and 3/4 cups buttermilk or milk with added 1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 large egg 

4 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for your hands and the counter

3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

5 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter

1 cup raisins

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

I've gotten in the habit of not buying buttermilk, because I usually end up throwing half of it out. And it is higher in sodium than regular milk. If you want to use buttermilk, have at it. If you would like a substitute, squeeze half a lemon into a two-cup measuring cup and fill to the one and 3/4 cup mark with whole milk. Set that aside to come to room temperature. Whisk it together along with one egg.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a big bowl, the flour, the sugar, the baking soda, the salt, and the caraway seeds. Stir in the raisins.

Cut 5 tablespoons of very cold butter into the dry ingredients. The colder the butter, the lighter the batter. 

When the butter is pea sized, carefully fold in the egg and milk mixture. 

Move the batter to a floured surface (I used parchment paper with a little flour sprinkled on it.) Flour your hands and knead the dough briefly into a round. Again, shorter is better, even 30 seconds. 

Move the batter to a prepared greased pan. (This can be a pie plate, a cake pan, or cast iron skillet.) Those round pans help the bread keep its shape. Once in the pan, make a cross in the batter with a sharp knife.

Bake in a 400-degree oven for about 25 minutes. You can check the bread halfway through to see if the top is getting too brown. If so, cover with foil for the second half of the baking.

Let the loaf cool for ten minutes or more before you slice it. Serve warm with more butter and possibly raspberry jam, or for breakfast, maybe with peanut butter?

I am certain that the Scone Sisters will be making this in A DISH TO DIE FOR! What baking plans do you have for this week?

And by the way, I did take my new OXO cookie press out for a test drive. Here's what the almond cookies look like:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Jenn McKinlay: Being Irish, there is so much that I love about St. Patrick's Day. The parades, wearing green (it's a favorite color), corned beef and boiled potatoes, the parties, and even the green beer. Seriously, how can you be glum when you're chugging green beer? It's GREEN!

While I do love my corned beef, boiled potatoes, and green beer, my favorite thing to cook on St. Paddy's Day is Irish soda bread. It has a fascinating history. Introduced in the 1800's, it was meant for people who didn't have ovens (not many did back in the day). Can you imagine? The bread with a baking soda base was cooked in a cast iron pot with a lid by putting it right on top of the hot coals. Because it was made with baking soda it was not as perishable as regular bread. A friend gave me this recipe about eight years ago, and I have made it every St. Patrick's Day since, because...Yum!

Irish Soda Bread

 5 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 stick unsalted butter, cubed and softened

2 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk

1 large egg

2 cups raisins

2 tablespoons caraway seeds

2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a large baking sheet,

knocking off excess flour. Whisk together first five ingredients.

Mix buttermilk and egg in separate bowl then add to flour mixture

until dough is evenly moistened but still lumpy. Add the raisins and

caraway seeds, do not over mix. Divide the dough in two and 

transfer half of the dough to a well-floured surface and gently

knead with floured hands about 8 times to form a soft but slightly
less sticky dough. Pat into a domed 6-inch round on baking sheet.
Repeat the process with the second loaf. Place on baking sheet with 
the first loaf and shape into another domed 6-inch round. Cut a 1/2
inch-deep X on top of each loaf with a sharp knife, then brush 
loaves with melted butter. Bake in middle of oven until golden 
brown about 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer loaves to racks to cool
completely.

And now for my favorite Irish Blessing:

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light,
My good luck pursue you each morning and night.


What about you, Reds and Readers, what do you love about St. Patrick's Day?