My wife has been working for years to perfect her Irish soda bread recipe. And every year we make more of it for more friends and family. This is what happens when you do 13 loaves of bread in 2 hours with not enough counter space.
So why do we do the mixing on the stove? Because this is all the counter space we’ve got.
What’s that? We should clean as we go? Yeah, check out the sink.
See how the spoon is half-buried in flour? That’s all the flour that’s not on the stove.
Oh, good news. As I’m writing this at 11:35 p.m. I’m finding out that we need to make more tomorrow because people ate it all before St. Paddy’s Day. Awesome.
That’s fine, as long as we keep one loaf to make French toast with. I’ll show that in a couple of days. Until then, go check out the recipe and make yourself a couple of loaves. Have one with your corned beef dinner, and keep one to make French toast the next day.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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17 Comments
WHOA!
13 loaves in 2 hours? How do you fit them all in the oven together?? I made two loaves today, myself. They go fast!
That’s a LOT of bread Drew!
Anon, two loaves on a baking sheet on one rack, three more in pie and cake tins on the other rack. And it was probably more like 2-1/2 hours.
Amanda, it seems that way when they’re all cooling on the dining room table at once, but they sure don’t last long.
Oh. My. Goodness! And yet you cook all the time… that is a TRUE love of cooking… I’d be depressed, I’m afraid…
Looks like my kitchen, except that we use the table for food prep instead of the stove. And all that clean-while-you-go stuff? Yeah, we don’t really do that…
Got you beat – we’re messier!
Barb, lack of counter space doesn’t depress me. Not seeing the sun for six months, that depresses me. (Have I mentioned lately I live in Cleveland? The weather sucks. Except when it blows.)
Stephanie, if you want to call that “winning” … hey, whatever you have to tell yourself to get through the day.
Jenni, it works fine right up to the time I take something off a burner and need to assemble it somewhere, and now my “counter” is hot.
I’ve been there, Drew! Right now, literally my only work space is my flat-topped stove. Next to my kitchen, Mark Bittman’s looks huge:) At least you guys can console yourselves with tasty fresh soda bread!
I am so glad to see that other creative kitchen people are dealing with lack of counter and cupboards. Isn’t that why we bought flat surface stoves?
I have different recipe, without raisins or the sugar on top. It’s more like a gigantic biscuit. Still good though. I’m throwing the beef in the crockpot in a few moments and will be picking the buttermilk up as I drop my husband at work. Cabbage too.
I’m going to try this soda bread to go with the corned beef, cabbage, and garlic mashed potatoes.
My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Dinner was great, was looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow…and my dog, for the first time in her life, got up on the table and ATE THE OTHER HALF OF MY BRISKET. In 5 minutes she managed to do this, while we walked our guest out to their car.
I came back in, went to put the leftovers away, and there was an empty plate on the table where the brisket had been.
Needless to say, I am NOT happy with her.
Lanny, that’s actually not why I bought it. (I’d prefer gas, but the kitchen doesn’t have a gas line.) But it is a huge bonus.
Stephanie, except for the bread I’m way behind on posting the “traditional” St. Paddy’s meal. But I hope to make up for that with some interesting ideas the rest of this week.
Wench, doesn’t the garlic in the potatoes fight with the spices in the corned beef?
Oooooohhhhhhhh … you came back while I was writing my last one. That is so not cool. Have you explained to your dog how profoundly bogus that was?
No, I think the garlic mashed potatoes went great with it (but then again, I am a garlic lover). I usually throw some cheese in the potatoes, too, but this time I just did the garlic.
As for the dog, she got some explaining, but I don’t think it mattered to her. She’s never done that before, but I’m afraid she’ll do it again, now, since the act itself rewarded her with a nice, tasty half of brisket.
No more leaving her alone for a few minutes with dinner still on the table.
It looks like to same amount of space we had in the kitchen I grew up with. In fact the sink is the same.
I thought you'd like to know that my mom would fill up both sinks with hot water to the point it would go over the middle divider, then she'd pour a cup or more of bleach in both sides and let it sit for a couple of hours, then drain. Cleanest sink in town.
Socaltransplant, with two young kids, I'd be afraid to leave the sink that full for that long. Something would get thrown/dropped into it.