Irish Soda Bread Take 2

Having already made Irish Soda Bread (and having loved it the last time), I thought I'd try a different recipe to revive the ol' classic. I made the soda bread to go a long with a stew that my dad had prepared for me and brought over to my place... I don't know what could have given him the impression that I don't do home cooking when living on my own (doesn't he read my blog?? or is that too "new agey" for his generation?) but the stew was a welcomed surprise.

Anywho, on with the bread! I love Irish Soda Bread because it's delicious, easy, only uses a few ingredients and you can not screw it up. So, here's the recipe...

Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 5 tbsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp butter, cold and cubed
- 1 cup buttermilk (or 2% + 1 1/2 tbsp vinegar, left to sit for ~10mins)
- 2 tbsp mixed grains (optional)

Method:
1. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl.
2. Using a pastry cutter, or your fingers, work the butter into the flour mixture. Continue breaking up the butter until you get pea-sized chunks.
3. Working with the dough as little as possible, add the buttermilk into the dry ingredients.
4. Shape the dough into a rough ball and place on a greased baking tray. Flatten the dough slightly, dust the top with the mixed grains and score the top of the dough with a knife.
5. Bake at 350degrees for 35-40minutes, or until golden brown.

This was such an amazing bread. Really quick, and really simple to conjure up. I think that from start to finish, the entire bread only took about 45minutes to create (including baking time!). I almost didn't even need to eat the bread with the stew, but the smell of my dad's stew was just too alluring to pass up. So, with an amazing comfort-food meal of soda bread and stew... my evening was complete.

Irish Soda Bread

Well, St. Patrick's day is approaching and my dad decided that for dinner last night he'd whip up an amazingly delicious beef and vegetable stew. However, I was kind of tired of eating rice and stew so I searched the internet looking for a tasty alternative to the boring, white flecks of grain :P In my search I stumbled across Irish Soda Bread... and it peaked my interest, as I love baking and have always loved simple recipes that don't call for a lot of ingredients or a lot of prep time. I found a couple recipes out there, some that used eggs and some that used raisins and currants. I didn't want to stick raisins in the bread as I felt that it wouldn't accompany the stew very nicely, and I didn't want to use eggs because... I only had a couple left (and I kind of like my scrambled egg breakfasts... selfish me o_O). So, I modified and mashed together a couple recipes and ended up with this delightful raisin-less, egg-less version.

Irish Soda Bread
Yields 1 small loaf, 6 small scone-sized servings

Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 3/8 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1.5 tbsp butter, cold and cubed
- 1/2 cup buttermilk

Method
1. Mix together the first 5 ingredients.
2. Crumble in the butter, as if making short-crust pastry or biscuits
3. Slowly add in the buttermilk, stirring with a spoon (to prevent your body heat from softening the butter), until the dough comes together.
4. Shape dough into a round and flatten slightly.
5. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 350degrees for 15minutes. Open oven and use a spray bottle to spray 4-5 squirts of water around the oven (you can spray the bread too, this creates steam and gives the bread a crusty exterior).
6. Close the oven door, increase to 375degrees and bake for another 15-20minutes, or until the inside is cooked and the outside is nice and crusty-golden.
7. Remove from baking sheet and slice into 6 wedges. Serve warm

This was a tasty accompaniment to the hearty stew, and the bread had a slightly sweet and salty flavor to it. The bread was pretty tasty on its own, and I actually ended up eating the majority of the bread on its own, only using it to swipe the last bits of stew out of my bowl. The good thing about this recipe is that it can really be varied to become a savory or a sweet biscuit. Maybe I'll use those raisins next time, or maybe I'll throw in some sharp cheddar cheese and herbs? Who knows?? Whatever I do, I'm sure it will be delicious.

Blueberry Crumble Cake

Well, I guess it's not really blueberry season... or is it? I'm not quite sure. Let me look it up...

yup, I'm right! The blueberry is in season during the late summer; and sadly, right now in Canada it's far from the late summer. It was actually pretty nippy out today, maybe that's what prompted me to bake a comfy-cozy crumble...

Blueberry Crumble Cake

Streusel Topping:
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Cake Batter:
- 2 1/8 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

- 1/4 cup apple sauce, unsweetened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup milk

- 1/3 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt
- 2 cups fresh blueberries

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 9x5 inch loaf pan (line it with parchement paper, optional)
2. Streusel topping: In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Cut in butter with a fork until it resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
3. Cake Batter: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, cream the butter with the apple sauce, gradually adding the sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add in egg and vanilla, beating well.
5. Combine milk and yogurt.
6. Add flour mixture, alternately with milk mixture, and beat just until combined.
7. Add in 1 cup of blueberries, saving the other 1 cup for the streusel. Spread batter in prepared pan, smoothing the top.
8. Evenly arrange remaining blueberries on top of the batter and sprinkle with streusel topping.
9. Bake for 45 - 50 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
10. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The vanilla yogurt adds even more delicious richness and flavor, and the blueberries sure made my day. My younger sister really loves blueberries; she'll eat them with anything. By themselves, in a puree, stuffed in a sandwich ... any way, shape or form (she's the one I gave the blueberry gouash to for Christmas). Having it as a cozy snack with our afternoon tea was just the thing to get us up and ready to enjoy the rest of the sunny (yet still nippy) day.

Marbled Chocolate-Banana Bread Take 2

My past attempt at Marbled Banana Bread didn't turn out so marbled (as you can see in my previous post about the banana-y goodness). But this time when I made the bread, I was determined to get all the banana and chocolate mixed together to make a pretty looking breakfast treat. I was pleased with the way both my Banana Bread attempts turned out... I think that it's the addition of yogurt to the recipe that makes it taste soooo good. I just love yogurt in any recipe... be it scones, cakes, muffins, breads etc. Well, just wanted to show you guys that I've used up 4 more baby bananas and am still trying my darnedest to finish off the remaining 6... what should I make with them? You'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

I'm pretty impressed with my marbleing ability! It has been much improved since my last attempt :)

As you can see, when something goes right I like to show off :P Bad I know, but hey... arent' the slices pretty?

Marbeled Chocolate Banana Bread

Wow it's been a while... seems like that's how I'm going to start all of my blog entries from now on. *sigh*
What have I been up to? Glad you asked. So far it's been mostly university stuff: writing papers, preparing for midterms, reading up on labs and so on.

Marbeled Chocolate Banana Bread... delicious :P
I made this a while back and just haven't gotten around to posting it. I know, I know I'm an aweful person. Anyways, the recipe I used was from http://www.aspoonfulofsugar.net/ and it's really simple. I just love the marbeling effect that was created in this recipe. I could have marbeled mine a bit more, but it still looks pretty good eh? Looks like the marbeling would take a long time, but really it's one of the simplest techniques and gives off an elegant look. Try it, and impress someone!

Dinner #3

Making my family dinners is becoming much of a tradition for me. The other day, my mother asked me what I was planning to make for my next big meal... I thought to myself, "What! You actually want me to cook for the family again!" I'm glad that she likes my dinners (even though they are all mostly the same style... old fashioned, southern foods.)

This time she wanted me to make the pumpkin soup that I had prepared once before. I was glad that she made a request; at least I now had a dish to base the rest of my meal around. This pumpkin soup recipe can be found at hungry-girl.com and it really is simple, healthy and delicious. This soup turns out to be more like a chili and with the cumin and salsa added it has a really great kick.

I then decided on a quick and easy chicken recipe from kraftcanada.com (pictured above) and a recipe for twice-baked potatoes from kraftfoods.com another one of my favorite recipe websites. I got one of my sisters to give me a hand with this big meal. She enjoyed mashing the potatoes and spooning the filling back into the potato skin shells. With the topping of melted cheese, the potatoes turned out nicely... in fact both dishes turned out really well and my family was all asking for seconds.

I also chose to accompany the meal with a wonderful cornbread recipe that I spotted while on my routine search for interesting recipes from allrecipes.com Although the cornbread was good, I still preferred the carrot and herb (cornmeal) biscuits that I had made in my previously prepared dinner.