Irish Soda Bread

Even though we'll be out of town for St. Patrick's Day (Chicago!), I couldn't let this holiday pass without our traditional Irish meal: Irish Soda Bread and Irish Stew (recipe tomorrow).  Especially since I was gipped out of the authentic meal last year....  You know, my parents were only going through a complete kitchen remodel and had no working stove, oven, sink, anything.... Couldn't find where they had stashed dishes let alone the bread maker and crock pot...

And I absolutely did not have a Stage 4 meltdown when I realized our St. Patrick's Day feast was going to consist of frozen stew.  From a bag.

I am, and always have been, way too mature to act out when I don't get my way. 

Yep.  That's how I remember it.

But back to this year:  I am so excited to be celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Chicago with my family, but I've also been looking forward to one of my favorite meals of the year for months.... So in the Cusmano household we are eating Irish Stew and Irish Soda Bread all.week.long.

It's that good.  Plus it makes kind of a lot when you are cooking for only two people.

My mom has made this Irish Soda Bread in her bread maker for as long as she can remember but after scouring both of my bread machine cookbooks, I had nothing.  Nada.

Mom e-mailed me her recipe, and then we went through and discussed changes to adjust for the different settings and functions on my machine.  Her machine only makes one size loaf, mine can make 1, 1.5, and 2 pound loaves.  We didn't know what size the recipe was for, so I guessed 2 pounds based on the amount of flour and yeast compared to the recipes in my book.  My mom's machine has a separate compartment for the yeast so that it can be released at the right time.  My machine just has you dump the yeast in with everything else.  My machine has a beep that alerts you to the proper time to add mix-ins like the raisins in this recipe.  Mom's does not.  We decided to put the raisins in with all the other ingredients because it seemed that would be the only way to get the crusty brown loaf I know and love.   (Seriously, Mom's bread is dark brown.  All these years I thought she was using wheat flour to get that color.  Turns out it was white flour all along.  Weird.)

Will my adaptation live up to Mom's bread?  Let's find out!

Recipe:
3 3/8 cup flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup raisins
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or use powdered buttermilk = 6 tablespoons powder + 1 1/2 cups water)
2 teaspoons yeast (just about 1 envelope)

I dumped all the dry ingredients into the bread machine then the water then the yeast.  This is the order that my machine uses for similar sounding types of bread.

But I discovered another conundrum: how to measure 3/8 of a cup flour when I don't have a 1/8 measuring cup?  Thanks to this handy little magnet from Amy:

I was able to convert that last little 1/8 of a cup to tablespoons!

I decided to go with making a 2 pound loaf.  In all honesty, the cook time difference between 1.5 pounds and 2 pounds was about 6 minutes, so I don't know how much it mattered....  I cooked it on the White Bread with Light Crust cycle.  This is 3:03 hours of kneading, rising, cooking time.

Verdict:
I am pleased to say that this bread lived up to my very high expectations!  It didn't seem quite as dark as I remembered, but the taste was spot on.  Just a little sweet.  Nice and sturdy.  Soft on the inside.  Crisp but not burnt crust on the outside.

I may have to give Mom's bread the edge simply because it means someone else made it.... And I'd likely be enjoying it in MI rather than OH.  Nevertheless, I was pleased at being able to replicate this family tradition and be able to carry it on with my own family for years to come.