Irish Soda Bread

Where have you been all of my life? I suppose I'm a day late and a dollar short on sharing this bread, but who needs St. Patrick's Day to make it? Just go ahead and make it, now! I've never had Irish Soda bread, so when St. Patrick's Day came I decided to make it to go with our Corned Beef and Cabbage meal. It turned out perfectly!

You'll never believe how easy it is to make this bread. It was shockingly easy because there's no rising of dough or yeast involved. Your baking soda is where you get your bubbles to make the dough rise when baking. Still, why has no one told me how awesome this bread is? I know have a ton of friends that love bread just as much as I do.

All I did was mix all the ingredients together and knead it into a loaf. I don't think anyone can mess that up, right? With a hint of orange beside the dried cherries I used, because I couldn't find any currants, your family will be asking you to make this bread again. I think this will be perfect for my older girls to make since they're really enjoying baking and cooking at the moment.

The recipe is from The Food Network. Who doesn't love Ina? You probably even have most of the ingredients in your home already, so what's keeping you from trying this out?  

Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for currants

4 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice

1 3/4 cups cold buttermilk, shaken

1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1 cup dried currants

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is mixed into the flour.

With a fork, lightly beat the buttermilk, egg, and orange zest together in a measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Combine the currants with 1 tablespoon of flour and mix into the dough. It will be very wet.

Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and knead it a few times into a round loaf. Place the loaf on the prepared sheet pan and lightly cut an X into the top of the bread with a serrated knife. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. When you tap the loaf, it will have a hollow sound.

 

Cool on a baking rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Homemade Pizza Trumps Pizza Hut in Our Home!

My oldest came up with a brilliant plan to have a weekly pizza and movie night, along with homemade ice cream for dessert. She makes ice cream all week long, so we have enough by Friday. My Lutheran Stud and I have decided that our children need to watch some of the movies that we grew up with, so it's been a fun experience. What are some of your favorite childhood movies? We'd love to hear any suggestions that you might have.

Pizza night has become a weekly event with the children all pitching in to make their favorite pizzas. I prepare the dough and they make the pizzas. That way no one can complain about not liking it because THEY made it. I posted this photo on Facebook and began getting emails and comments for the recipe, so I suppose it's time to share, huh? We've been making pizza around here forever, trying recipes here and there, but I think I have finally come up with a recipe that everyone likes and works well for our family. During the summer we've been known to grill our pizza. I haven't tried this recipe on the grill, but I know it'll happen soon. A BBQ chicken pizza smoked on the grill sounds fantastic, doesn't it?

We make 4 pizzas in our home, so I usually make 2 batches of dough. First, add water, yeast, and sugar to a bowl or measuring cup. Stir it all together. Now, there's some controversy over whether you should disrupt the yeast by stirring it, but I'm no pro cook and I do what works for me, so I say stir away. I also use warmer than normal water, meaning the water is usually on the hotter end of warm. The temperature I use is just warmer than bath water for your children. Does that make sense? I'm sure a professional cook is dropping their jaw at my techniques right now. Oh, well. 

After about 15 minutes of sitting around your yeast mixture should look like this!

Now you're ready to make your dough. Add 2 cups of flour and your salt to a mixing bowl. Then slowly add your yeast mixture. While that is mixing add honey and olive oil. It should all be pretty runny. As you're mixing, carefully continue to add more flour until it begins to pull away from the bowl and wrap itself around the dough hook.

At this point the dough will still be a little sticky, so I like to finish it off by kneading in a little flour by hand. You know the dough is good and ready to rise when it is still sticky, but not sticking to your hands.

Place the ball of dough in a greased mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place it in a warm area in your home.

While your dough is rising gather up all of your favorite pizza toppings and have them ready to go in little bowls, so you're not scrambling around later. Fresh basil is flavor and smell you shouldn't miss out on, so try and add some if you can. 

After about and hour or so your dough should be all puffed up. As the weather warms up or if your home is on the warmer side it shouldn't take your dough long to rise. Sometimes I'll have dough overflowing out the sides of the bowl. The kids love it!

At this point you are going to begin making your pizza, so place your stones in the oven and preheat them at 475˚F degrees. Pizza stones are a must to get that perfect crust. We've had our stones for so long that they've become well seasoned. 

Since I don't have a pizza peel, but have one on my wish list we use parchment paper and my favorite extra large cookie sheets, that fit 20 cookies on them, but that's a different story. The sheet works like a pizza peel, but you need to use parchment paper underneath, so the pizza doesn't stick to the the cookie sheet. I like to sprinkle a little cornmeal on top of the parchment paper.

After expeirmenting with different sauces here and there I've found that it's best to keep things simple, and it's also cheaper. I just use regular tomato sauce and add some spices into the mix. Sometimes we'll just use sliced up tomatoes or if we want to get really crazy we'll use BBQ or Alfredo sauce depending on the type of pizza we're making. After trying to make fun, fancy pizzas I've learned that my children just don't care about the fancy, schmancy stuff, so why splurge on stuff they won't appreciate? I have been known to sneak jalapeños or green chiles on a few slices when they're not looking though. We all love cheese and my Lutheran Stud used to say, "You can never have too much cheese on a pizza." Well, now I disagree with that statement. While we do love our cheese, it can weigh down your pizza, and drown out the flavors from the toppings, not to mention make everything just fall off the crust. Now, we have nice even coverage with our cheese.

BeauJo's Pizza is one of our favorite pizza restaurants around here. They're know for their Mountain Pies that have a hand rolled crust that puffs up beautifully then you eat the crust dipped in a little honey. Since we've eaten there it's been my goal to create a similar crust. I think I've finally come close.

Once your pizza is ready for the oven, your stones should be preheating, just slide them off the cookie sheet onto the pizza stone and you're good to go!

After 12-14 minutes they'll be ready to come out of the oven and they'll be gorgeous!

See that crust? I think it looks a lot like BeauJo's. :) 

With a stone countertop we slide those pizzas right on the counter. It makes for easier slicing. Let the pizzas sit for a few minutes, so all the cheese settles. Then slice it, grab your favorite beer and enjoy your pizza!

Now if you're still a little scared of yeast, Adriane, start with a simple roll like this. These rolls are super easy and my family raves over them. I make these for sliders, mini-sandwiches, and just plain ole eating.

Pumpkin Muffin Donut Holes

I am always looking for new recipes to try. Lauren made these cute little donuts and when I looked in my pantry for all of the ingredients and found ALL of them I figured I'd try them out too! They were very loved by my children and super easy to make.

I wanted to make them bite size for the children, so made little minis.

I also made a few bigger donuts. They turned out quite nicely.

Perhaps the reason they were so loved was because they were dipped in a bowl of melted butter,

or maybe, because after they were dipped in butter they were smashed into a cinnamon and sugar mixture. It was sweetness heaven right there.

The problem with these cute little donuts are that you won't be able to eat just one since they're so small. Before you know you've eaten 11 and by that time you might as well eat the whole batch because why not? You've already ruined all the work you did in your last workout. Now go on and try these lovely donuts. I hope that you'll love them just as much as I do.

Chicken Soup

We've eaten a lot of soup this winter. It seems to have been a staple around here. This soup though, has been well loved. I made this soup for our Lenten Suppers at church and every time I made it there was none left. I even tripled the batch this last time. I usually like to sample other soups at church, but knowing mine may disappear I snatched a small bowl of soup to eat at home later. It was perfect for lunch the next day.

This soup is chock full of veggies, so if you're planting a garden be sure to include these vegetables. They freeze well making it super easy to pull them out later for this soup! I think almost all of the ingredients in this soup were grown in our garden. The flavor from the green chiles and spices add a wonderful kick to the already succulent flavor. Your taste buds will thank you!

You'll love the ease that comes with making this soup too. Just put everything in a crock pot and walk away.

Enjoy!

Glazed Lemon Cookies

Our church has a food pantry every 2nd Saturday of the month. While they give out a ton of food there is often some perishable items that are left, and can't be saved for the next month. My Lutheran Stud texted me a photo of a box of lemons and asked if I wanted them. Of course I wanted them even though I had no idea what I was going to do with them. After a little research on things that would use up several lemons at a time I found these Lemon Glazed Cookies. 

Cookies are a staple around here, but usually on the menu are chocolate chip cookies. My children have told me that they have a new favorite cookie. I think the glaze on these cookies is what sold them . . . and me too! They licked the leftover glaze clean.

Seriously, if you love lemon anything you won't be able to eat just one. I've had to work hard to stop myself from eating 5 in one sitting. I made these cookies for dessert for our Lenten supper at church and they were disappearing before the meal was even served.

I think the fresh lemon juice really gives it the kick that everyone loves, so be sure to use fresh lemons and not that bottled stuff.

Now, if you're a lemon lover, like myself, get baking. You'll have to practice some self control, just like me. 

60 Minute Rolls

These dinner rolls have become a staple in our home. As far as dinner rolls go, this one takes the cake on speed. From start to finish you can have them done in 60 minutes. That's right! It takes just one hour to make them. These rolls have saved me many times when I have forgotten to make my rolls earlier in the day.

Begin by proofing your yeast with a mixture of water, yeast, and sugar. After just 10-15 minutes your yeast should look just as fabulous as this.

Add some flour to a mixing bowl and make a well in the center. When the yeast has been proofed pour yeast mixture into the center of the well. 

Melt some butter and add it to the dough. Then add a little more flour.

Once the dough gathers around the dough hook and pulls away from the side of the mixing bowl roll into a ball and let the dough rise for about 15 minutes.

The dough should rise quickly if it's in a warm place. Then punch dough down and form 24 balls. Space them out evenly on two baking sheets. Let them rise while the oven is preheating. Then bake them!

In just 10 minutes you'll have some hot, buttery rolls ready to be devoured.

These rolls go great with everything. I even make sliders with them or eat them with a little butter too! It's a win win kind of roll. Thank you to my sister-in-law, Nikara, for sharing this recipe with me. I adapted it just a tad, because I just love butter over oil. ;)