The Second Annual Baking of the Irish Soda Bread.

I realized after making Irish Soda Bread for the first time last year for St. Patrick’s Day, that I was going to have to make a tradition out of it. So, last week, I dug right in and attempted to recreate the very same bread I made this time a year ago, using the same recipe as a basic guide. The only difference this year was that I had a sweet new wooden spoon that my mom gave me for Christmas that I hadn’t even used yet, and a shiny new gigantic mixing bowl that I had picked up specifically for mixing doughs.

cool new tools.

I don’t know if they made the bread any better than last year’s – I really can’t recall how last year’s tasted compared to this years! All I can say is that I do remember last year’s turning out pretty good, and this year’s was actually kinda great. So maybe it really is all in the equipment…

One thing I did remember was that I baked last year’s in a cake pan – so I did that same thing again. It keeps it from getting flat.

cake pans are not just for cake anymore.

It definitely did NOT get too flat – it rose quite nicely and retained its round-ish shape, like a good dough should when it’s baked into bread.

.

shapely bread.

I will say this – I think I let it bake just a few minutes too long. It didn’t burn, but if i were to do it again, I’d have taken it out of the oven 5 minutes earlier. It was still really tasty, and looked kinda awesome, close up.

It’s all gone now, so it must have been pretty good.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Until next year….

 

The Luck of the Irish Soda Bread.

Last night, I tried my hand at Irish Soda Bread for the very first time. I used this recipe, from Simply Recipes, with only a couple minor tweaks – I used fat free milk + vinegar instead of buttermilk, and I baked it in a 10″ cake pan.

bread cake?

Anyway, I was nervous, as I know quite a few Irish folk who really look forward to this particular bread, and I didn’t want to let them down. I didn’t.

kiss me, i'm irish!

The only small detail I felt could be improved upon was the crispness of the bottom – it was a tad too dark. I let it cook longer than I would have liked, to ensure it cooked all the way through. But it didn’t take away from the overall quality of the bread. “This is a winner!” one bread-eating fan exclaimed. Another would have said the same, except for the fact that he ate about 6 pieces and couldn’t say anything with his mouth full. Compliments aside, I would still like to do a bit of tweaking to really make this bread shine, like the top of the Chrysler building.  As they say, things can only get better!