Last night at work, my co-worker casually mentioned that she wasn’t sure if she had ever had Irish Soda Bread.
“What? How? Really?” I asked.
“Jennie, make some tonight and bring it in tomorrow,” Liz declared.
And that is exactly what I did. First, though, I had to call my house.
“Hello? Dad? Dad. Where are you? I need you to go to the kitchen. I need you to find mom’s soda bread recipe. It’s probably in the binder, on the counter with the cookbooks.”
About fifteen minutes later, with details yesterday and a, “You’re lucky that I watched mom make this yesterday,” and a “It says raisins or currants, but use currants,” and a “Crisco? This calls for Crisco. She used butter, use butter,” I was on my way.
I realized something. Here in California, I can get chiles, and dried Mexican spices, and there is a Latino aisle, but with that comes a lack of basics I’d find on the East coast, or even the Midwest. Which means no currants.
So, for one of the first times I replied to the question, “Did you find everything you need?” with, “No, actually. Currants? Do you not carry them?” The patient woman explained to me, “Well if we did have them, they’d be with the…”
“Raisins.” I stated. “I know. OK. Thanks.”
Besides the lack of currants, the night turned out swimmingly. Well that, and the fact that somehow I am out of sugar. How can that be true? I have super-fine sugar from when we made creme brulee, but no regular sugar. Super-fine is what I used, and I’ll have to restock my kitchen before Corelyn knows about this travesty.
I arrived home, cooked dinner, and started in on the soda bread. Which goes so fast when you have a Kitchenaid, I must say. Last night I also discovered the first recipe that I couldn’t find in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook: Soda bread.
I just needed to know how long to bake my bread for. Turns out, this wasn’t written on my mom’s recipe, and my dad laughed when I asked today and said, “Mom’s answer was when I smell it, it’s done.” Which might be true, but I needed a number. Luckily, The Barefoot Contessa has me covered. She suggested 30-45 minutes, and mine ended up taking about 30 minutes.
I brought half the soda bread to work today, along with a half-stick of butter for smearing. Two or three pieces later, it was a good St. Patrick’s Day.
Mom’s recipe:
3 cups all-purpose flour (she says to sift. Palluzzis never sift.)
2/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cup currants/raisins (use currants if you can find ’em. Makes it that much better.)
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups buttermilk
2 tbsp melted butter
1. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. Add raisins.
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, add melted butter and buttermilk, stir.
4. Slowly add to flour mixture. Stir until combined, but don’t over beat.
5. Put in greased loaf pans.
6. Bake at 30-45 minutes at 375.
Devour with butter, or clotted cream. Delicious.
