Sitelifestylewitherin.com Title

I come from a big Irish family, five boys and three girls, I’m the youngest of the girls.

If anyone else is from an Irish family you’ll probably recognize these traits.

1.) My mother not only lit candles in church for the family, she most likely lit them for the entire neighborhood, city and country.

2.) We heard the name St. Anthony several times a day.

3.) Anytime my mum wanted my attention, she called me every name in the family, even the dog’s name, until she finally got my name correct.

4.) Anytime my family got together for a birthday, holiday, whatever, it was always extremely loud, crowded and lasted all day long and into the night.

5.)The minute anyone would visit, they were fed immediately whether they were hungry or not and that was followed by many pots of tea.

It was a wonderful way to grow up, all of the weddings, parties, funerals all revolved around food. Our Irish kitchen was certainly the heart of the home.

My Irish culture is in my blood , I named my dog, Clover, I love my green rolling hills and most of all my passion for cooking, baking and all things blarney.

Let me share my recipe for Irish soda bread. It doesn’t have to be St. Patrick’s day to bake this. It’s great in Autumn with some homemade jam.

Irish Soda Bread

What you need:

Flour

Baking soda

Salt

Buttermilk

A bit of sugar if you prefer a sweeter taste.

4 cups of flour

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

1 3/4 cups buttermilk

A few teaspoons of sugar, optional

Preheat oven to 425 degrees – Grease and flour a 9” round cake pan

In a big bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt ( and sugar if using) Gradually add the buttermilk and mix until it becomes a big sticky ball.

Turn out dough on to a floured board, knead a few times and form a ball

Put dough into the cake pan and Pat it into a disk shape.

Cut an X into the top of dough with scissors or a knife.

Cover the pan with another round pan turned upside down, and bake for 25 -30 minutes, then uncover, brush with some melted butter & a bit of milk mixed together and bake 10 more minutes.

When the bread is done it should be a deep golden brown and sound hollow when you tap it.

I have made this just on a greased sheet pan and it still came out delicious. I would brush it with butter/ milk combination more frequently if using this method.

This bread really needs to be buttered with Kerry Gold Butter. It’s delicious with jam or even with a dinner of Guinness beef and gravy.

Hope you try it !

Xoxo, Erin ☘️