Royal Irish Soda Bread from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum
Oven temperature- 375°
1 scant cup raisins or currants
½ cup Irish whiskey or hot water
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ liquid cup plus 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon caraway seeds (this is my own addition)
1. Soak the raisins/currants in whiskey or water for half an hour or until softened. Drain and reserve remaining whiskey for Irish whiskey butter (next recipe).
2. Preheat the oven to 375° for twenty minutes before baking.
3. Mix and knead the dough. Cut butter into 8 pieces so it will soften and be easier to blend into the flour.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, caraway seeds, and salt. Using your fingertips or a pastry blade, blend in the butter until the mixture resembles soft crumbs. Stir in the raisins/currants. Add the buttermilk and stir until moistened and the dough comes together.
Empty the dough onto a flat surface and knead 8 times. Scrape dough if it sticks to surface- don’t add more flour if possible.
4. Shape the dough. Roll dough into a six inch round. Place on a prepared baking sheet (book suggests parchment paper, but I used PAM. It worked well.).
5. Bake the bread for 30 minutes until it is golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean. Cool the bread on a rack.
Irish Whiskey Butter
3 tablespoons Irish whiskey
1 tablespoon sugar
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
In a small microwavable bowl, stir together whiskey and sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for about 20 seconds or until hot. Stir to dissolve sugar, cover and allow to cool completely.
With a whisk or spoon, gradually stir whiskey mixture into the butter until incorporated. It will be a caramel brown color. Serve with Irish soda bread. Can be stored in the refrigerator for two weeks.
This is just about the best recipe for Irish soda bread I've found. The only changes I made were to add the caraway seeds and to use currants instead of raisins.
This is a great baking book...I also love Beranbaum's Cake Bible.
From today's Easter dinner...
Spanokapita
This recipe was adapted from a cookbook compiled as a library fund raiser almost a decade ago. My mother and I tweaked the recipe, adding seasoning and pine nuts, as well as deciding to make individual pies instead of one big pie, as the original recipe called for. I've made it for every family Easter dinner for the last ten years, and it is always a hit.
1 package filo dough
1 stick butter
8 ounces ricotta cheese
4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
2 small packages feta cheese
2 eggs
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 (10 ounce) packages frozen spinach, boiled, drained, with excess water squeezed out
3 tablespoons pine nuts, slightly toasted
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
Preheat oven to 350°.
Mix together the cheeses, spinach, garlic, eggs, pine nuts, seasoning, and onion. Let the mixture chill for at least an hour.
Melt the butter. Set aside. Place filo dough on wax paper, cover with damp towel to keep dough from drying out.
Working quickly, take one sheet of filo and brush with butter. Fold the sheet in half lengthwise. Take one tablespoon of spinach mixture and add it to one end of the dough. Fold the dough into triangles as if folding a flag, using more butter to stick the sheets together. Repeat with new sheet of filo. Brush the top of each pie with more butter, and bake until browned, at least 25 minutes.
This recipe should make about 36 pies.
My usual Easter menu includes these pies, ham, lamb, asparagus, scalloped potatoes, and pineapple au gratin (that recipe was posted here several months ago). The pies are usually the most quickly devoured...
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