Irish Soda Bread

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and our morning begins with the traditional Irish soda bread and strong Irish tea. We save the leftover bread for an Irish tea in the afternoon. This whets our appetite for dinner which I will blog about in the next post.

This recipe is from A World of Good Eating by Heloise Frost that once belonged to my Mom, and was the one she made every year for St. Patrick's Day. On its fifth printing in 1951, this little book always delighted me as a child. It wasn't the recipes, however, that held me in rapt attention. Rather it was the delightful illustrations that caught my eye. Plump, rosy-cheeked children and adults dressed in traditional garb jumped off the pages that divided the recipes by geography and culture. Fires burned brightly in hearths, grapes hung tantalizingly, and platters of food steamed. In every countenance was joy and contentment.

As a child I completely missed the connection between food and joy. Then again, perhaps I did not. Perhaps this realization had taken root deep inside my soul, to resurrect later in life as I began to cook for my own family. As I look through the recipes once again of this little culinary treasure, I am taken back in time to the kitchen and dining room in the big white house on Caughdenoy Rd. where most of our family activities took place.

The pages of this book, now yellowed and brittle with age still make me smile. Old recipes beckon like friends and new ones cry out to be tried. But what makes this book so dear, are the notes written in my mother's beautiful handwriting -"too sticky" on the doughnuts, or "double recipe + add 1/4 tsp. nutmeg" on the Swedish meatballs. She, too, had made the connection.

What follows is the recipe for Irish soda bread that I had copied from this cookbook when I ventured out on my own. Upon comparing the two recipes on the card and in the cookbook, I am at a loss for the changes I had made. Perhaps in a moment of dietary conscience, I felt I was making a healthier alternative by reducing the amounts of butter and salt. Whatever the reason, the recipe given below is the one that has become traditional in our home. Craisins replace the traditional fruit, since my children have an aversion to raisins in baked goods.

Irish Soda Bread

4 c. flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. butter
1 c. craisins
1 c. milk
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together. Cut in butter. Mix eggs and milk. Make a well in the flour mixture; add milk mixture. Lightly mix together with a fork until most of the flour and milk is together.

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead dough into a ball. Don't handle the dough too much.

Form into a ball and place in buttered pie plate. Gently flatten dough.

With a sharp knife, cut a deep cross into the top of the dough.

Bake for 50-60 min. or until toothpicks comes out clean. Cool on a rack. Serve plain, or with butter and jam, and lots of good, strong, hot tea.