Irish Soda Bread

I am going to tell you a secret...

...you know that delicious bread you eat on St. Patricks Day? The one with raisins and currants and orange zest and lots of other yummy goodies? The one you call Irish Soda Bread? The one that your mother, and her mother, and HER mother made...and have now passed the recipe on to you?

Well, I mean absolutely NO OFFENSE... but that IS NOT Irish Soda Bread.

Think about it...Irish Soda Bread having raisins, and currants, and orange zest, and The Holy Mother knows what else? They didn't have that stuff in Ireland!! Most people were poor!! Farmers!! Fruit was a luxury!! Until this last century, an orange was a special treat the RICH KIDS got in their Christmas stocking!! You didn't have that stuff sitting in your larder, ready to whip out to make your daily bread.

Irish Soda Bread is a humble, everyday bread. It requires only 4 very accessible ingredients. It had to be made each and every day...so it had to be fast, hearty, and CHEAP.

True...adding all those goodies makes the bread REALLY good. Almost like a dessert!! And I'm not saying you shouldn't, if that's what you want to do. After all (and I've said it before)...if it's a recipe handed down in your family...doesn't that, in itself, make it traditional? Who cares if it isn't an honest-to-goodness authentic Irish Soda Bread?

But for those of you puritans out there, I am including a REAL Irish Soda Bread recipe.

This is for a WHITE bread...it's even MORE authentic with wheat. But I made white this year...so that's what you get. Maybe next year I'll go hardcore...grind my own wheat and everything ;).

Now THIS is Soda Bread...

White Irish Soda Bread

4 cups (16 oz) of all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
14 oz (roughly) of buttermilk

Okay...before we even begin...these are ROUGH measurements. I make this bread by hand...scooping out flour and measuring by sight. I tried really hard to measure accurately this year...just for you (so don't ever say I didn't never do nothin' for ya'). If you have to add a little more buttermilk to make the dough "sticky"...then do so. If you add too much, toss in a handful of flour to dry it out. In other words...PLAY WITH IT. The more you make this...the easier and better it will get. Don't save it just for St. Patricks Day...you could make this everyday and have fresh bread at dinner each and every night.

1.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a cake pan (or...if you're me and have a great round casserole with a lid...or a Le Creuset round casserole with a lid...they will work as well).

2. In a large bowl, sieve and combine all the dry ingredients.

3. Add buttermilk to form a sticky dough. Place on a floured surface and lightly knead (too much allows all the gas to escape...practice will teach you to know when enough is enough)

4. Shape into a round flat shape in the cake pan and cut a cross in the top of the dough.

5. Cover the pan with another cake pan and bake for 30 minutes (this simulates a bastible pot...or you can just use a covered round casserole). Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

6. The bottom of the bread will have a hollow sound when tapped to show it's done.

7. Cover the bread in a tea towel and lightly sprinkle water on the cloth to keep the bread moist.

Don't expect it to last...

Mushroom Cheese Rolls

Yellow Squash

So, I've made lots of interesting things from my Apron Simple Meals binder from Publix...

There was the Chicken & Pasta Primavera...

Steaming vegetables for Chicken Pasta Primavera

It was yummy and had lots of vegetable goodness...I love trying new recipes for old favorites. Sometimes the person with the recipe may do something slightly different than you normally do that puts a whole new spin on the dish...and makes it amazing.

That wasn't really the case here...but it was REALLY good...

I also tried their Beef Stew with Barley recipe...

A really delicious Beef Stew with Barley

This was EXCELLENT...and I enjoyed adding the barley to my stew, but it wasn't any better than other stew recipes I've tried.

However, the Beef Stew with Barley recipe had a side dish recipe for Mushroom Cheese Rolls. It's a very simple recipe...but it was SOOOO good, taht I HAD to share it. It made a very good, but ordinary, dinner something MORE...

Mushroom Cheese Rolls

Mushroom Cheese Rolls

• 8 Bakery Potato Rolls
• 1 (12x24-inch) sheet aluminum foil
• 2 TBS unsalted butter
• 8 oz. pre-sliced fresh baby portabellas
• 1 tsp browning sauce
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 2 TBS fresh Italian parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup light mayonnaise
• 8 slices provolone cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Split rolls crosswise and arrange bottom halves of rolls in center of foil sheet.

3. Preheat large saute pan on medium high for 2-3 minutes. Place butter in pan, then add mushrooms, browning sauce, salt, pepper; cook and stir 4-5 minutes or until mushrooms are well browned. Chop parsley.

I used some garlic-herb butter...cause I'm crazy like that...

Oh my oh my...

4. Combine parsley and mayonnaise; spread over both halves of rolls. Divide mushrooms evenly over bottom halves of rolls; top with 1 folded cheese slice and top halves of rolls.

Rolls are ready for 'shrooms and cheese!!

5. Make a foil pouch. Bring up foil sides; then double-fold top and ends to seal. Bake 10 minutes to melt cheese. Serve.

courtesy Publix Apron Simple Meals

Ribolitta

I'm still on a soup kick...

I just can't help it!! I LOVE soup, and I want to make it ALL THE TIME!!!

I wanted a delicious vegetable soup to follow up our hearty Chicken Marbella recipe, and found this delightful gem tucked away in a Family Fun magazine, of all places. It is an entirely attainable and fairly authentic recipe for Ribolitta...a Tuscan peasant soup.

Ribolitta literally means to "boil twice" in Italian...and that's exactly what you do. Heavy on the green, this is by no means a flimsy broth with a few veggies floating around. It's an almost eat-with-a-fork vegetable sensation that explodes with flavor and gives new meaning to "eating your greens". You can easily substitute different vegetables in and out if you don't have EXACTLY what the recipe calls for.

It requires a little time to prepare...but is worth the effort. No need to double...this soup makes 10+ cups.

This soup is especially good the day after it's made...so it's lucky that the recipe yields a generous amount...you'll want leftovers.

Hearty Ribolitta

Ribolitta

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 leeks, sliced (white stalks only)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 4 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes (I used the kind with basil and oregano added in)
• 1 (15.5 oz) can cannellini beans, drained
• 1 bunch kale, ribs removed and chopped
• 1 bunch spinach or swiss chard, chopped
• 1/4 head savoy cabbage, chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 zucchini, chopped
• 1 TBS salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakeswater
• 1 loaf stale (day old) French or Italian bread, sliced
• Grated Parmesan

 1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.

Onions, carrots, celery, leeks, and garlic...

Add the onion, leeks, garlic, celery, and carrots; saute until onion is softened, about 5 minutes.

Sauteed veggies with the canned veggies...

 Add the tomatoes with their juice, the beans, and the remaining vegetables...

Kale, spinach, cabbage, zucchini, and potatoes...

...then season with salt, pepper, rosemary, and red pepper flakes. Add enough water to cover the vegetables (about 10-12 cups) and bring soup to a boil. Reduce the heat, then cover and simmer the soup for 1-1/2 to 2 hours.

2. Add the slices of bread (I can hear you now..."You want me to do WHAT to the bread? Isn't it for dunking...or garnish?"...No...it's not. It's part of the soup. Now do as you're told and add it in!!), then raise the heat to medium high and bring the soup to a second boil, stirring occasionally, until the bread has fully broken down, about 10-15 minutes.

Just do it, already...geez...

3. Let soup stand about 10 minutes before serving. Ladle soup into bowls, then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and drizzle with olive oil, if desired (I add the cheese, but not the extra oil...so I guess that makes me decidedly UN-Italian).

Ohhhh...yum, yum, yum...

4. If you just can't help it, serve with freshly sliced Italian or French bread...

courtesy Family Fun magazine

Pumpkin Tea Bread and Apple Cider Punch

Okay, this post has possibly the lamest picture EVER in the history of food blogging.

It's because I am just as busy as a slightly unbalanced bumble bee. See...on Tuesday, I had a Girl Scout Halloween Party at my house, and I spent all day cleaning and running errands. And then at the party...we made caramel apples, and there was caramel EVERYWHERE!! Then we played games like the one where you eat the donut off the string without your hands. And all those crumbs, combined with more crumbs and sugar from various other cupcakes, cookies, and candies all stuck to the caramel...and...well, you get the picture. Walking across my floor was like crossing a sticky mine field.

So I had to get up super early to clean AGAIN, and then bake because I had a recipe group to attend. The theme was "Autumn", and I wanted to make my Pumpkin Tea Bread and Apple Cider Punch, since I'm not using either recipe for November's Iron Chef competition.

Anyway - of COURSE I ran out of time, and had to be all crazy...and that is why, my friends, I know hold the title for taking the crappiest food blogging photo ever...which is really saying something if you look through this blog and see how crappy most of my other pictures are...

You need to forgive the yellow tint to most of the photos...it was around 5:30am, and the fluorescent lights in my kitchen are not attractive lighting.


Pumpkin Tea Bread

this is a recipe from the Fraley Family archives

2/3 cup shortening
2-2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 pound can pumpkin
2/3 cup water
3-1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour bundt pan.

2. Mix shortening and sugar until fluffy.

3. Add all liquid ingredients - mix until blended. Sift dry ingredients together and add to pumpkin mixture. Mix well.


4. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

5. Remove from oven. Let cool, then flip onto serving platter. Drizzle with powdered sugar icing.

and now I humbly present the WORST food picture EVER...taken as I'm about to drive away and remember that I never took a picture of the finished bread...(drum roll, please...)

recipe courtesy Fraley Family Archives

Apple Cider Punch

6 cups apple cider

2 cups cranberry-raspberry juice OR orange juice

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 bottle sparkling white grape juice

1. Combine all juices EXCEPT sparkling white grape juice.

2. SLOWLY add sparkling white grape juice.

3. Serve immediately.

courtesy Fraley Family Archives

Amish Friendship Bread

or, The Saga of The Never-Ending Amish Friendship Bread

Amish Friendship Bread.

We love it. It makes great yummy bread. It gives us an excuse to talk to people and share our wisdom. It's kinda fun to mush the bag.

We also hate it. After a while, people see you coming with a big Ziploc baggie and they turn away and run in the other direction...fearful to be given yet another starter. Then we feel guilty about throwing it away. So we keep making more.

And therein lies my dilemma.

I've had Amish Friendship Bread hundreds of times. I know the blessings...and the dangers. But still, even after ALL my Amish Friendship Bread experience...I got caught in a doozie of an Amish Friendship Bread predicament.

I received a starter from a friend. I happily nurtured it for 10 days and shared it with others, baking a batch and keeping a bit of starter for myself. When the time came to split the starter again, I did...but I put off passing it around to friends. I put it off so long that it was time to split it again. So - that's what I did...I split it again...and promptly forgot to share it again.

Now I have 10 bags of Amish Friendship Bread starter on my counter...all ready to be split again. And truthfully - I don't have that many friends (maybe I should get off the computer and get out more?). So, I resolutely decided to bake ALL THE AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD...and freeze it.

Just for reference...each bag makes 4 batches. Each batch makes 2 loaves. Two loaves x Four batches = Eight loaves per bag. Eight loaves x Ten bags = 80 loaves of bread.

Yikes.

So, in honor of my massive 4 day baking extravaganza, I am posting the recipes for Amish Friendship Bread Starter and Amish Friendship Bread, along with all it's variations.

Just beware...Amish Bread is for SHARING (hence the "friendship" in it's name). So you better pass it along. Or have a really big freezer.

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

1 package active dry yeast

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup milk

Combine yeast and water in a ceramic or glass bowl (no metal), or in a gallon-size Ziploc baggie (my fave). Dissolve yeast by letting stand 10 minutes. Add milk, sugar, and flour to mix and stir with a wooden spoon (no metal), or in the case of a baggie, mush well. THIS IS DAY ONE.

Amish Friendship Bread

Day One - The day you receive the bowl/bag or make the starter. DO NOTHING.

Day Two - Mush the bag or stir with a WOODEN spoon

Day Three - Mush the bag or stir with a WOODEN spoon

Day Four - Mush the bag or stir with a WOODEN spoon

Day Five - Mush the bag or stir with a WOODEN spoon

Day Six - Add 1 cup each - sugar, milk, flour

Day Seven - Mush the bag or stir with a WOODEN spoon

Day Eight - Mush the bag or stir with a WOODEN spoon

Day Nine - Mush the bag or stir with a WOODEN spoon

Day Ten - Combine in a large bowl:

The batter

1 cup flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup milk

1. Mix with a WOODEN spoon. Pour four scant 1 cup starters into Ziploc baggies. Label and date the bags. Keep one for yourself. Give the other three away with a copy of these instructions to your friends and relatives.

2. To the small amount of remaining batter in the bowl, add:

1 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

3 large eggs

1/2 cup of milk

Stir thoroughly. When well-mixed, add:

1 cup granulated sugar

3. In another bowl, mix:

2 cups flour

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 large box vanilla pudding or 2 small boxes

2 tsp cinnamon

4. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients a little at a time, mixing well after each addition, until all ingredients are combined. Grease two large loaf pans, and coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture instead of flour. Pour in batter evenly. Sprinkle tops with additional cinnamon-sugar. Bake at 325 for 1 hour.

Variations

To make Chocolate Amish Friendship Bread:

Omit cinnamon and cinnamon-sugar dusting from recipe. Substitute chocolate pudding for vanilla pudding. Add a small bag of chocolate chips after batter is all blended.

To make Butterscotch Amish Friendship Bread:

Omit cinnamon and cinnamon-sugar dusting from recipe. Substitute butterscotch pudding for vanilla pudding. Add 1-1/4 cups butterscotch chips after batter is all blended.

To make Vanilla-Caramel Amish Friendship Bread:

Omit cinnamon and cinnamon-sugar dusting from recipe. Add 1-1/4 cups butterscotch chips after batter is all blended.

To make Banana Amish Friendship Bread:

Omit cinnamon and cinnamon-sugar dusting from recipe. Substitute Banana Creme pudding for vanilla pudding. Mush two small or (1 large) VERY ripe bananas and add after batter is all blended.

To make Lemon Amish Friendship Bread:

Omit cinnamon and cinnamon-sugar dusting from recipe. Substitute lemon pudding for vanilla pudding. Sprinkle tops with white granulated sugar OR, after removed from oven, while still warm, poke all over with holes and pour a mixture of 1/3 cup lemon juice and 2 cups powdered sugar over the top to create icing.

To make Coconut Amish Friendship Bread:

Omit cinnamon and cinnamon-sugar dusting from recipe. Substitute 1/2 coconut milk for regular milk. Add 1 cup finely shredded coconut to batter after it is all blended.

To make Cinnamon-Raisin Amish Friendship Bread:

Add 1 cup raisins to batter. To create a cinnamon-raisin ribbon, pour 1/4 of the batter in EACH loaf pan. Sprinkle heavily with cinnamon-sugar mixture and raisins. Add the remaining batter evenly on top of the cinnamon-raisin layer.

PS - I don't do nuts in my baked goods - but you can use them in any of these variations. Macadamia nuts would go well with the coconut, poppy seeds would mix well with the lemon, and walnuts and pecans will go in just about any of the variations, or the original.

PPS - After 4 days, I ended up with 40 loaves of bread. I had accidentally killed another batch because I was chatting on the phone and missed some key ingredients. After that, my starter died, and I had to throw the rest away.

And I wasn't sad.

Not one bit.