IRISH SODA BREAD

I was planning on making Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick's Day, but ran out of time. So I whipped up a loaf later when things slowed down a bit. I used a super simple, no-fail recipe that I had written in my recipe book at least five years ago.

Irish Soda Bread

3 cups of all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 Tablespoons butter

1 cup buttermilk (or substitute 1 cup milk + 1 Tablespoon lemon juice mixed)

1 handful of trail mix, for those who also love nutty breads

1. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda.
2. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles course meal.
3. Add buttermilk and stir until moistened.
4. Turn out the ball of dough and knead for 1 minute. Pat into a round, approximately 9 inches. Transfer to a buttered baking sheet and cut a large cross on top.
5. Bake at 425 F for 40 minutes. The loaf will sound hollow when done.

There's something so satisfying about pulling a lovely loaf of bread out of the oven. It smelled so good baking and bread seems so daunting that the fact that it came out recognizable as a loaf of bread was delightful. You should have seen me knocking on the loaf with my ear to the crust, looking as if I expected someone to knock back and call out - come in to my loaf! because I'm sure I looked silly.

After the glee that I had produced bread wore off, I decided that Irish Soda Bread is good, but is better with butter...and even better with something fruity...something like...apple butter. So I used the Granny Smiths I had to make an apple butter that was delicious. I wasn't sure how it would turn out using Granny Smith apples, which aren't typically used for apple butter, but I have to say I was more than pleasantly surprised. Some apple butters tend to be very sweet and very clove-heavy. The tartness of the apples enhanced the sweet and the clove tastes.

I have to admit that I didn't measure anything for the apple butter. I just threw in the ingredients and surveyed by sight.

Apple Butter (Roughly)

3 apples

1/2 cup of sugar

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

pinch of salt

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and add water just to cover the bottom.
2. Bring to a boil and cook on medium heat.
3. Stir and mash the apples and continue to cook.
4. Cook. Cook. And cook some more. Until a dark brown color and thick enought to spread.

TwD: COCONUT BUTTER THINS

Up until the age of about 20 or so, asked my favorite food, and I would respond: coconut. Beyond this one word, I could never decide how I liked it best, whether sweetened and shredded or nibbled fresh from the hull. So I've been looking forward to Jayne's pick this week even though shortbread is not my favorite.

I ran into a few bumps. Believe it or not, the grocery store had zero macadamia nuts. I had no coriander, and only unsweetened coconut in the house (and again, none at the store. I guess this is what I get for trying to shop for baking goodies at a health food store.) So I decided to use slivered almonds, unsweetened coconut, and lots of lime zest.

The cookies were very crumbly, both before and after baking. I wasn't able to prick them with a fork before baking. Any and all attempts to softly press down resulted in a huge crevice and many unsightly cracks and crumbs. I was even caught "cleaning" up these crumbs as I chatted on the phone with a "What are you eating?" Oopsy. My cookies didn't turn out to be that attractive, but they did taste good. I think my mom, who loves shortbread, would be able to appreciate them much more than I can, even with the coconut.

These little squares disappeared way too quickly. I nibbled away all night thinking of lime in da coconut pie. And the boy who isn't here, but at his home many 100s of miles away. So the cookies, and all the crumbs, were put to very good use.

TwD: BLACKBERRY CRUMB CAKE

This pick from Sihan of Befuddlement couldn't have come at a better time. I have two wonderful house guests coming on Tuesday for Miami's Winter Music Festival. Yes, lots of dancing and good times to come in the next week. And we will need a little sugar and lots of caffeine to keep it all going.

The original recipe calls for blueberries although Dorie says you can use any berry except strawberries, which are too watery. I chose blackberries because I love them and love the tart and sweet combination of blackberry cobblers. This was equally a great combo. The recipe also calls for orange or lemon rind rubbed into sugar. I used orange, and it turned the sugar a most glorious saffron yellow! It also added a nice, subtle orange flavor to the cake. I was actually surprised that I could distinctly taste it after baking. Instead of using all walnuts for the topping, I used walnuts, cashews, and almonds; mainly because I had them on-hand. I decided to make muffins and filled 12 muffin tins almost to the top. There was still batter left over so I filled two ramekins. I really should have left more room for the muffins. They poofed and went flat on top instead of doming like regular muffins. The crumble didn't want to stay on very well and looks spotty. It seemed to be trying to escape the muffins. Both problems would have been solved if they had room to rise just to the top of the tin. Despite looking like a bunch of mutts, they taste delicious. The ramekins fared much better looks-wise and taste pretty much the same - yum!

I will definitely be making this again, and would love to try it with mixed berries.

Discoveries:

• Crumble will be crumble, and fall from even baked muffins. Containment.
• Move over cranberry, orange has a new friend.
• I don't know how to spell ramekin...ramikin...ramiken...ramakin...ramaken...very confusing word. Glad I only have to bake with it.

TwD: NAPOLEON'S CAKE

When Napoleon was in excile on the island of St. Helena, I'm sure he made this cake. It's a traditional French yogurt cake island-style - baked with banana mango yogurt, ground mixed nuts, fresh mango and strawberries, and topped with a sweet layer of caramel coconut.

I've been wanting to make a French yogurt cake for the better part of a year after seeing some of Clotilde's on Chocolate and Zucchini. So I was excited when Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction chose this week's recipe. It was easy to make, fail-proof as Dorie said in the recipe. It's like a pound cake, which surprised me because it's reportedly a favorite birthday cake for little Frenchies. You mean kids the world over don't go for the sugar + lard iced sheet cake with potato chips and coke?! Wait until they find out what they're missing. Napoleon incarnate just might rise up; an eight-year old would be about the right size.

Instead of butter, this cake has oil. Combined with the ground nuts (walnuts, almonds, pistachios, and cashews) and yogurt, this cake turned out incredibly moist, which translates to magically disappearing in my kitchen. After putting about a fourth of the batter in the pan, I layered fresh strawberry and mango slices, and then covered with the remaining batter. The coconut topping was inspired by one my Granny sometimes adds to banana bread.

COCONUT TOPPING

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

• Mix over medium heat until melted.
• Let simmer 2-5 minutes until the coconut takes on a caramel color.
• Spread over cooled cake.
  

Three discoveries from this week:

1. Lemon zest rubbed into sugar produces a most enticing aroma! Why has no candle company fancied this one yet? There is every other imaginable scent, from obscure to downright choking-hand-me-the-coffee-beans-NOW gross.
2. A new fave yogurt!
3. There could be worse things than being in exile on an island.

Happy St. Patty's Day EASY PEASY PASTA

Happy St. Patty's Day!
This past weekend I happened upon "pasta with personality." ??? A marketing line by the pasta company that was totally un-needed. I was already suckered in by the tiny shamrock shapes of the green and white pasta by the time my mind registered any words. As someone who doesn't eat meat (except seafood), I typically don't like my food to register any personality at all.
To add to the festivities of the day, I wanted to make a pasta salad that has crept into my mom's cooking reportoire as a simple, fast, satisfying dish.

EASY PEASY PASTA

1 package mini penne pasta, or other of similar size and texture

1 package frozen green peas

mayonaise or soynaise

spices: salt, black pepper, cayenne

1. Boil salted water. Add pasta and cook until al dente, adding the peas about three mintues before its done.
2. Drain the pasta and let cool about ten minutes.
3. Add mayonaise/soynaise. The amount largely depends on taste. I usually put in about half a cup.
4. Add spices and stir. Can be served immediately, but best if served cold.

This can easily be dressed up. I like to throw in a can of tuna. I also added two tablespoons of Green Goddess salad dressing, which was great. This is the type of thing that I can eat on all night and never get tired of.

Discoveries:

• Sometimes I do like my food to have personality.
• Simple is a great way to celebrate.

HONEYSUCKLE TEA

I brought back bag of Honeysuckle tea from China. I was enticed by memories of sucking on honeysuckle blossom stems as a child. Biting off the green end and hollowing out the buds of baby blossoms and tasting the sweet nectar that rivaled the smell of the adult blooms. The tea itself looks pretty neat, with little heads that waft on the steaming water. But the tea taste is actually not sweet at all; very earthy. I've taken multiple sips thinking...now what is that taste... Obviously it's honeysuckle, but it's a throaty taste, located somewhere on the back of my tongue. I like it a lot, and it was a nice surprise once my tongue was reconciled to the fact that it's not sweet and isn't going to be sweet, regardless of whether the sip is small or large, piping hot or room temp.

Tuesdays with Dorie: LEMON CUSTARD CUPS

I doused my custard cups with cinnamon to make them more photogenic - the jiggly egg texture was definitely coming through. The first takes looked like something might emerge from the depths of the bowl at any moment! The cinnamon turned out to be a nice addition, especially since the lemon was very soft and the eggs quite pronounced. I always find the idea of custard more appealing than the actual dessert. It seems so devilishly yummy, holding out somewhere between a pudding and a moist cake. When I eat it, I find mouth trying to figure out what to do with it, and missing out on most of the taste.

I made half a batch, enough for three custard cups. I had to bake it for 90 minutes instead of the recommended 40 - and I still had slippery jiggle in the middle! I would jump to the conclusion that my oven is broken, but it was producing large amounts of heat, even as I stuck my head in the door peering down at my sad custard cups. As B. delicately put it, "Did you leave out any ingredients? Something you needed..." There are four ingredients! Surely as a somewhat competent kitchen clutterer, I could do justice by four little ingredients. (But I did double check the recipe just to make sure and kindly thank him for his suggestion.)

After being chilled, the little cups perked up a bit and were tasty. It was a nice little treat after work today, and a nice change to all the recent chocolate consumption. Thanks to Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles for picking this one out.