Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Over the weekend my friends and I decided to celebrate St. Patrick’s day by making a “traditional” Irish dinner. My friends Daniel and Katie made the bulk of the meal including corned beef and cabbage. Pete brought the all important Guinness and for my contribution I tried my hand at making Irish Soda bread for the first time.
I found the recipe in my favorite Martha Stewart ‘s Baking Handbook. Making Irish soda bread is a lot like making scones, only wetter and a lot bigger. You start off by whisking dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and then add very cold butter and incorporate with a pastry blender, stir in raisins, and then finish off by adding in wet ingredients. It’s very easy and doesn’t even involve an electric mixer. The only part that I considered a little difficult was transferring the dough from the bowl to a parchment lined sheet tray. Since the dough was so wet, I found it easiest to make the transfer by holding the bowl above the pan and sliding it out with a spatula. Once the dough was on the pan I brushed it with an egg wash, sliced the shape of an “X” and baked it for about an hour.
I’ve always wanted to be 100% Irish (I’m only 1/4) and to celebrate and be proud of my heritage, but hey I am what I am and I can still celebrate! Dinner was a success and the soda bread was good with the dinner and then toasted with butter for the following breakfasts.
Irish Soda Bread
(Martha Stewart)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons caraway seeds (I didn’t have these so I omitted them)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
2 cups golden or dark raisins
1 1/2 scant cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and caraway seeds until well combined.
Using a pastry cutter or two knives in scissor fashion, cut in butter until the mixture feels like coarse meal. Stir in raisins until evenly distributed.
In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, and baking soda until well combined. Pour buttermilk mixture into the flour-and-butter mixture all at once, and stir with a fork until all the liquid is absorbed and the mixture begins to hold together. It should resemble a rough biscuit dough. Using your hands, press the dough into a round, dome-shaped loaf about 8 inches in diameter. Lift the loaf from the bowl, and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.
In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk and cream together. With a pastry brush, brush the egg wash over the loaf. With a sharp knife or razor, incise a cross, about 1/2 inch deep, into the top of the loaf. Transfer to the oven. Bake, rotating halfway through, until it is deep golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center, about 70 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer bread from the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool.
Tags: holidays, Irish Soda Bread, raisins, St. Patrick's Day
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on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 8:55 am and is filed under Life, holidays.
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yum – i love soda bread… as well as an excuse to eat corned beef without feeling (too) gluttonous. hooray for delicious, salted meat!
my granny informed me on the phone that my granddaddy’s mom’s mom was irish, which pretty much still leaves me at 0.