Since it's the month of Saint Patrick's Day. I'm sharing my recipe for Elegant Soda Bread again. The added sugar and coriander make it a little different than the usual fare, and you can serve it pretty much at any meal. I like it best as an accompaniment to fish.
When I was in my first year of priestly studies at St. Meinrad School of Theology, I used to visit Louisville, KY, about 70 miles away. In my first trip there with my friend John, we found a guide of the top 60 restaurants in the city. We decided that we would attempt to eat our way through the guide over the next four years, (leaving out anyplace that required dressing up too much!) Of course, we never got past the first 20, because we found a few we really liked and stuck with them. One of these favorites was a classy but unpretentious place called Jack Fry’s on Bardstown Road. They served a coriander soda bread with every entrée, and I used to eat baskets of it. The addition of coriander gives the bread an undercurrent of citrus that is subtle and exquisite.
When I was in my first year of priestly studies at St. Meinrad School of Theology, I used to visit Louisville, KY, about 70 miles away. In my first trip there with my friend John, we found a guide of the top 60 restaurants in the city. We decided that we would attempt to eat our way through the guide over the next four years, (leaving out anyplace that required dressing up too much!) Of course, we never got past the first 20, because we found a few we really liked and stuck with them. One of these favorites was a classy but unpretentious place called Jack Fry’s on Bardstown Road. They served a coriander soda bread with every entrée, and I used to eat baskets of it. The addition of coriander gives the bread an undercurrent of citrus that is subtle and exquisite.
Elegant Soda Bread
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
¼ cup sugar
1½ tsp. ground coriander
2 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sift dry ingredients into a medium size bowl. Gradually add buttermilk, stirring until smooth. The dough will be quite soft---do not over mix. Divide dough in half, and using floured hands, form each half into a round, slightly flattened shape. Place in greased pie plates, and cut a cross in the top to keep it from splitting during baking. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes, or until bread sounds hollow when tapped both top and bottom. Remove from pans to cool on wire racks. While loaves are still hot, you may brush the tops with butter.
If you omit the coriander, reduce the sugar to 2 tsp., and add a 15 oz. package of raisins, you’d have my mother’s favorite Irish soda bread recipe. She got it from Mrs. Jones, the mother of a priest who taught my mom in high school in Denver. Mom used to make this for the bake sale at St. Francis Hospital, which was always held the week before St. Patrick’s Day. She’d tie a green ribbon through the cross, to make it more attractive for the sale table. But she needn’t have bothered---the people working behind the counter often bought it right out of her hand!
RSS Feed