Saturday, March 18, 2006

Irish Soda Bread

Every year we enjoy celebrating St. Patrick's Day as a celebration not only of missionary who loved God, but also as a celebration of the Irish people. That celebration includes learning about Ireland, listening to Irish music and eating Irish food. This includes Irish Soda Bread every year. This year I tried a new recipe and my husband cast the deciding vote that this was the best ever! I got the recipe at allrecipes.com and the recipe I used was here. It's very different than any I have used before with the addition of eggs and sour cream, but I found two like it and both had been passed on from Irish women. I did follow the suggestions in the comments and only used 2 cups of raisins instead of 3. The texture is quite beautiful and the taste is exquisite.

I also used some tips that I found at one of my favorite sites Cooks Illustrated. This is a really nice tutorial with pictures. I did not use their recipe, but I did make sure not to mix the batter too much and I baked it in a cast iron skillet. I have enjoyed several pieces toasted today with butter and honey. Perfect with tea!