☘️ Irish Soda Bread for Saint Patrick's Day!

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☘️ Happy YASSSletter Thursday Gingis!

Zikki and I are back in New York City! We have jumped right back into the craziness here in the big apple and are happy to be home & settled with our girls. I cannot tell you all how excited I am for all the big things coming this year. We are officially writing our cookbook (secret topic to be released soon), planning our first big gastro party in the city, and just getting ready for the gorgeous abundance that comes with the spring time. I'm probably a little too excited for the Farmer's Market.

BUT, today is all about Saint Patrick's Day! Did you know the Irish have been celebrating Saint Patty's for the last 1000 years? WILD. Who is celebrating this year? In addition to your already established yearly Saint Patty's traditions, make sure to try out one of our soda bread recipes. This bread is quick, easy, and a delightful nod to the Irish culture! So without further ado:

1. 📜History + Origin: Saint Patrick's Day

2. 🇮🇪 Classic Irish Soda Bread Recipe

3. 🍺 Guinness & Fig Soda Bread Recipe

4. ☕ Espresso - Chocolate Soda Bread Buns Recipe

5. 🫶 POLL: Ben & Zikki Spring Gastro Party!

📜History + Origin: Saint Patrick's Day & Soda Bread

It is funny, when we think of Saint Patrick’s Day … things come to mind: Leprechauns, the color GREEN, and an insane about of alcohol consumption. Right? But St. Patrick’s Day is actually a Catholic national holiday that has been celebrated in Ireland for almost a thousand years. March 17, Saint Patrick’s Day, is the anniversary of Saint Patrick’s death in the fifth century. But who is Saint Patrick? He is the patron saint of Ireland, born in Roman Britain, and then kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave at 16. He late escaped, but returned to Ireland and was credited with bringing Christianity to its people.

5 Fun Facts about ☘️ Saint Patrick’s Day:

1. Saint Patricks color was blue. Green came into fame for several reason. In the 1640s, the use of the green harp flag by the Irish Catholic Confederation is what made green the color associated with Ireland. The present national flag of Ireland contains the color green, along with white and orange. AND it is know that wearing the color green wards off trickster leprechauns.

2. More than 100 St. Patrick's Day parades are held across the United States; New York City and Boston are home to the largest celebrations.

3. According to Irish legend, Saint Patrick used the shamrock as a metaphor for the Holy Trinity when he was first introducing Christianity to Ireland.

4. Leprechauns actually have their own special day dedicated to them on March 13th, celebrating their dwarf koy selves.

5. Alcohol was "really not much not part" of St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Ireland until recently. It was kind of a family day that you’d celebrate, but no alcohol was available. … Because it was a holiday in Lent, you could not buy alcohol on that day.

Soda Bread

Despite its hefty presence during Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations, soda bread is not as old as Saint Patty himself. Actually, Irish Soda Bread was first created in the last 1930s, when baking soda came to the UK. Due to Ireland’s financial strife and lack of access to ingredients, the inspiration for Irish Soda Bread was one of necessity, in order to make the most of the basic and inexpensive ingredients available: “soft” wheat flour, baking soda, salt, and soured milk.

Ireland’s unique climate is perfectly suitable to growing wheat of the soft variety so naturally soda bread became a perfect match for the country’s home cooks. Soda bread was also an ideal Irish recipe as even families who lived in the most isolated of areas with little access to cooking equipment were able to create this simple and filling dish. Since many of the lower-class and farmhouse kitchens had no oven access at the time, the bread was cooked in iron pots or on griddles over open hearths.

This unique cooking method resulted in the signature dense texture, hard crust, and slight sourness that soda bread is known for.

🇮🇪 Classic Irish Soda Bread

The absolute best treat for Saint Patrick's Day - Classic Irish Soda Bread, a dough leavened by baking soda rather than yeast - wild! This recipe only takes an hour from start loaf. It's quite nuts, no?! Most important note on this recipe. It's important to use buttermilk as your liquid for that dough and the reason is that buttermilk reacts with the baking soda to give a maximum result! So I wouldn't recommend using any substitute.

Traditionally marked with a cross on the top, soda bread loaves got their signature appearance for superstitious reasons. Families believed if they cut a cross on the top of the bread that it would ward off evil and protect the household. However, the typical shape of the loaves varies by region. While the Southern Irish regions bake their loaves in the traditional fashion—round with a crossed top—Northern regions divide their dough into four pieces and cook triangle-shaped flat breads (also known as Farl) on a griddle.

🍺 Guiness & Fig Soda Bread

This soda bread is particularly special. There is something about this combination of flavors that simply makes every bite wonderful and exciting. Between the toasty and velvety Guinness beer, the sour and tangy buttermilk, the oats and figs - there is a lot of fun at hand! So what happens when you put these sexy ingredients together? A semi sweet, semi savory bread that goes exceptionally well with butter or as a sandwich.

☕ Espresso-Chocolate Soda Bread Buns

These little espresso-chocolate soda bread buns are a new addiction for me. They are so easy and quick to make and super balanced. The nutty roasted flavors from the espresso work so well with the chocolate chips, creating such a complex flavor for your morning snack or for a late night munchies. This recipe is based on my classic soda bread recipe, I just converted part of the flour mix with fresh ground espresso and chocolate chips instead of the dried fruits. You can decide making it as a whole loaf like the classic soda bread or little buns like I did here. Either way- you have to try them out. Takes less than an hour from start to finish.

Hope you have a weekend full of YASSS! Until next Thursday Gingis.

Love, Ben xx

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#WeAreAllBREAD