Nevermind, the Dark Irish Soda Bread passes muster

I just had another slice, now that it's cool, and it tastes WAY more like soda bread. Before, it really tasted more like rye bread, but cool the sweetness comes out a bit more and it firms up. So, make sure you let your bread cool completely!

Dark Irish Soda Bread (Cuisine: Irish; Course: Bread)

Well, I'm trying the one that Bethie sent first. Lest you think I had a specific reason for doing so, I made the decision based solely on the fact that I had neither candied orange peel nor Irish whiskey (I have Seagram's... is that ok? There's only going to be a little whiskey in there...). Mom just sent me a recipe for candied orange peel, and I found a recipe in my Joy of Cooking. Maybe the next thrown-down can be the candied orange peel throw-down! (although, Mom's has much better directions, so I might just go with that.) Regardless, I am NOT avoiding the currants, aka tiny raisins.

Dark Irish Soda Bread

The Washington Post, March 5, 2008

• Cuisine: Irish
• Course: Bread

Summary:

This soda bread gets its appealing brown color from molasses and whole wheat flour. The flour used here is the traditional whole-wheat flour that is made from red-wheat berries.

It's best eaten on the same day it is made, but it tastes great toasted the next day. The bread can be wrapped well and frozen for up to 1 month. Defrost with the wrapping on so that any condensation will form on the foil and/or plastic, and not on the bread itself.

Makes one 8-inch oval loaf (12 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (plus softened butter for greasing the baking sheet)
• 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, plus more for the baking sheet
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon dark or light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 cup low-fat or regular buttermilk

Directions:

Position a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet with softened butter, then sprinkle lightly with whole-wheat flour; tap to discard any excess flour.

Combine both flours, brown sugar, caraway seeds, baking soda and salt in the large bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer. Mix to combine on low speed; add the melted butter.

Combine the molasses and the buttermilk, then add to the mixer bowl, on low speed; beat for a minute or two, until a soft dough forms. Gather the dough into a ball and roll it around in the palms of your hands to smooth it; the dough will not be perfectly smooth. Form into an 8-inch long oval and place on the prepared baking sheet. Use a smooth-edge knife to cut a slash about 5 inches long and about 1 inch deep along the length of the loaf.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the bread feels firm and crisp and you can see that the bottom has browned when you lift it carefully. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

RESULTS: some of the molasses seeped up from the knife cut and caramelized, which was really good. The next time I make this bread I might try just drizzling a little bit in the cut (although you don't want to put so much that the bread would be soggy or the sugar might burn. It's a fine balance). The texture was light and fluffy, and the whole wheat had a good chewy-ness. I love the caraway seeds and the bread smelled really good as it was cooking.

However, did this meet my Irish soda bread craving? I have to say, not really. It was excellent bread, and especially for being a whole wheat bread, it was really fluffy. But I like my Irish Soda Bread to be a little denser, so you KNOW you're eating bread, like, for hours later when you're still not hungry. It could be that I didn't wait for it to cool all the way before slicing, I really don't know what that does to the final texture. I was hungry! Or, I might have needed to stir it longer to get the dough a little tougher.

Anyway, bottom line, this was a great recipe and hats off to Bethie for finding it, but it didn't quite feed the need. The search continues.

Battle of the Irish Soda Breads

Every year when I was little we would go to the Science Fair at my grade school, which was always in the beginning of March. The science fair was pretty cool, every grade had a theme, up until the 7th & 8th grades where the students did their own individual experiments. A boy in my class, for example, proved definitively that Stain Stick removed stains better than Spray & Wash (although that would be disputed in future Science Fairs). They always had a bake sale, and we would always get some of the Irish Soda Bread this one lady would make every year. So I really start to crave it right around the time that it starts warming up.

For those of you who don't keep track in the comments, my mom sent me her recipe for Irish Soda Bread. Bethie also emailed me one that she found in the Washington Post (my favorite part about this article is that under the name of the dish, "Dark Irish Soda Bread," it listed cuisine, "Irish" and course, "bread." Thank goodness they spelled that out for us). These recipes are very different from each other and from the bread that you can get at the Irish Lion here in town. Beth's is made with whole wheat flour and molasses, and Mom's has all the bells and whistles--the bells being candied orange peels and raisins or currants and the whistle being Irish whiskey.

In the next couple of weeks, I'll make one loaf of each and report back. I'll try to be as faithful to the recipe as I can, despite the sad truth that I can't agree with my mom when she said that she "prefers raisins" (to currants. I don't prefer raisins to anything!). Currants seem to be tiny raisins, which have been put on my list and crossed out, as Red Danaher would say, but I will try them!

Maple Corn Bread

This is from Cooking Light magazine:

A preheated cast-iron skillet is essential to create a crisp crust and moist interior.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 ounces)
• 2/3 cup stone-ground cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Place an 8-inch cast-iron skillet in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

3. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine yogurt, syrup, butter, and eggs, stirring with a whisk. Add yogurt mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist (batter will be thick).

4. Remove pan from oven; coat pan with cooking spray. Spoon batter into preheated pan, smoothing top with a spatula. Bake at 425° for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes.

Results: Well, admittedly, I used regular pancake syrup with this instead of maple syrup because a) people who left a note about this recipe online said they couldn't taste the maple anyway and b) I was out.

Also, I pulled it out of the oven too soon. My oven runs hot, so I check things early. The toothpick came out clean with a minute to go, but the inside was still a tad bit gooey. The parts that were done were still moist, which was good, and it had sort of a nice subtle tangy flavor from the yogurt. But, I have to say, not my favorite corn bread. Brad liked it, but I don't think I'll make it again. On the plus side, the whole house smelled of pancakes.

If you do make it, I didn't think it was all going to fit in my 8-in skillet, but it did, and it didn't puff very much during cooking.

coconut rice

To give myself a small spring break during a very snowy Friday evening, I made coconut rice last night, and I think I may be in trouble. It was really really good.

Combine 3 cups light coconut milk (about 2 cans), 2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice and 2 bay leaves in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Let stand 5 min; discard bay leaves. Fluff with a fork, and stir in .5 teaspoon of salt (kosher if you have it).

I never before understood the fluffy rice thing; I like my rice clumpy and chewy. With this dish, though, I wanted to savor every individual grain it was so good. Let me know if you try it with brown rice!

The recipe had an accompanying dish called spicy tomato sauce. I liked what I made, but I had deviated so far from the recipe that I'm not sure I could really tell you what I did. Basically, you saute shallots (I used onions) and garlic lightly in peanut oil (I used canola), and then mix in Thai chiles (which I obviously skipped), brown sugar, lime juice, lime zest (which I didn't have) and tomatoes, and let that simmer for about 20 minutes. My rice wasn't done after its 20 minutes, so I kept both of them on the heat, but then I forgot about them because I was posting yesterday's posts. By the time I got back there, the rice was perfect and the spicy tomato sauce had reduced so much that it was sweeter than sun-ripened tomatoes. The tomatoes had almost completely disintegrated, the onion had gone way past caramelizing and somehow reverted to a simple sugar state... it was great with the rice, but I think that may have been a happy accident, never to be repeated.

miso dressing part 2

So, I tried the vinegar with the miso dressing (see here and here). I thought I'd replace one teaspoon of the soy sauce with one teaspoon of white vinegar. What I actually did was put in one TABLESPOON each of soy sauce and vinegar. So, I can't taste the vinegar, but it's still salty because I put in, oh, a thousand times too much soy sauce. I believe that my insides are actually pickling. It's not too sweet this time, though, I reduced the sugar by a third. I would say, this is the perfect sweetness.

Snowy day here in Bloomington for the (students') first day of spring break. I have to work next week, but that doesn't stop fellow full time staff from wishing me a happy spring break. It's nice to not have students around.

I'm trying to grow parsley and basil from seeds. We'll see how it goes. Each seed packet was only $1.07, so, what the hey?

lime-glazed cookies

I had a big presentation today for the staff, so I baked cookies. Seems reasonable.

Makes: 32

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons grated lime zest, (2 medium limes)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 5 teaspoons fresh lime juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lime zest
  

1. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars until light, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add lime zest, lime juice, and salt; beat until combined. Add flour; beat until dough is just combined.
2. Place dough on a 16-by-12-inch piece of parchment or wax paper. Using your hands, shape into an 8-inch log; flatten into a rectangle (1 1/2 inches high and 2 1/2 inches wide). Fold paper over log; flatten sides against work surface. Refrigerate dough until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Slice dough crosswise 1/4 inch thick; place on sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are puffed and barely golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool; glaze.
4. To make Lime Glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients until spreadable. Using back of a small spoon, spread about 1/2 teaspoon glaze on each cooled cookie.

RESULTS: A lime explosion in your mouth, very nice for early spring. The cookie is buttery and flaky, and the glaze is sweet and tart... like a sweet tart! I brought them to work and the only constructive criticism I could get out of people is that I didn't make enough.

I had some problems getting the log to square up right because the dough was so soft, so I think it would have been good to chill the dough a little, either in the mixing bowl or in the parchment, before squaring the edges. If the dough gets too soft to slice with your sharpest knife, flip it upside down.

As for baking, I used my great silicon baking mat, which worked perfectly. I would say if you think you've cut them thin, err on the side of golden brown doneness, but be careful because they can turn colors pretty fast. Ideally, they would be thick enough so that just they can hold together just barely brown. Once you put the glaze on, though, you can't taste the difference. Finally, I was worried about the glaze, I didn't think that 5 teaspoons of liquid could really melt all that sugar, but it did!