Irish Soda Rolls for St. Patrick's Day
Hello and Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!
Breakfast was a real treat today...what a pleasure to discover Irish Soda Bread :^)
I found a recipe for Royal Irish Soda Bread in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s book The Bread Bible, and made rolls as Rose suggested.
The recipe called for whiskey-soaked currants, and provided a second use for the whiskey after it had done its job for the currants: flavoring for whiskey butter, to spread on the rolls (sounded pretty decadent, and oh-so-good to me!).
...enjoying a warm one, with whiskey butter :^)
Reading about soda breads in Elizabeth David’s book, English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Ms. David recommended covering the bread with an inverted tin, to aid the rise a bit, and to help prevent the crust from getting too hard or dry, so I tried doing this for this bake:
After 15 minutes at 375F:
(was hoping for a bit more 'rise')
I wanted to thank Sylvia for writing about her beautiful Irish Soda Bread [1] also; I’ll try using brand-new baking soda and adding cream of tartar like she does and see what effect this has on the rise.
The currants were soaked overnight in whiskey (Canadian whiskey was all I had!),
but made the rolls and the accompanying spread with good, Irish butter...
To make the whiskey butter spread, 118 grams of butter were creamed in the mixer until softened, then 1 Tablespoon sugar and the reserved whiskey (about 3 Tablespoons) from soaking the currants were added and blended in. Not all of the whiskey wanted to blend in with the butter, so with a spatula I pressed the butter against the side of the mixing bowl – this helped to drain the excess liquid – before putting the butter in a serving dish:
The flours I used 1/3 locally grown, organic soft white spring whole wheat and 2/3 organic all-purpose flour;
the rolls were nice and tender, and had a nice sweetness with the addition of the currants (approx. 50% of the flour weight).
Still warm, and spread with the whiskey butter, these Irish Soda Rolls made for a wonderful breakfast and start to
St. Patrick’s Day :^)
Happy baking everyone!
:^) breadsong