Irish Soda Bread

This month, with our Irish heritage, we celebrated quite traditionally with St. Patrick’s Day. This was all due to baking and pastry class actually. The Thursday before St. Patrick’s Day, I went home after making Irish Soda Bread with Rick and Justin. I was so pleased with how they had come out, that I went home and after a little research combined and tweaked a couple online soda bread recipes and ended up with my own. I whipped up a batch that night and after 35 minutes I had a steaming loaf of soda bread before me. It came out, great if not better than the ones we had made in class. I especially like how I put sugar in the raw to make a sweet crust on the outside. That was delicious. The whole family enjoyed them so much that come Saturday I had already made four loaves and it inspired my mom to make corned beef and cabbage. I was quite skeptical about corned beef and cabbage because it sounds not so appetizing, and gave the house a funny smell while it was cooking in a sauce pot. But, when we put it on a bed of dumpling noodles, it tasted amazing. Each flavor blended perfectly and I went back for seconds. But I credit it all to making Irish Soda in class, and sharing it with my family, because had I not, I would never been able to taste and try a new dish I probably never would have considered trying. Back to the soda bread, I did some experimenting with caraway seeds, which I personally like, but my family not so much, I made a loaf of half with caraway seeds, and half without. With the comparison, I must say the caraway half had a heartier, fuller flavor, with earthy taste and aroma, whilst the non-seed half had a cakey and dessert-like flavor and semblance. Either way you choose, you can’t go wrong, so get out there and make some for yourself to enjoy! -BD