A taste of the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day.  My ancestors on my mother's side are from Germany and I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch) country.  When it came to St. Patrick's Day I never considered myself Irish and I sort of felt left out!  But then my sister received a subscription to Ancestry.com and we discovered there are lots of Irish in my family!  Praise God!

Now when I make Irish Soda Bread I feel part of the dough!  I did make it yesterday and we are enjoying it today.  So, I decided to share my recipe.  I had lunch with an Irish friend several years ago and she served warm Irish Soda Bread. I asked for the recipe and here it is:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Plump 3/4 cup raisins (toss them into boiling water for 1 minute. 

2 1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar or 2 tbsp.

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt (optional)

Cut in 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick) with pastry blender.

Blend in drained raisins

1 tbs.  caraway (optional)

Add 1 cup buttermilk.

Turn onto well-floured board and knead (coat your hands with flour as batter will be sticky).  Shape into loaf in greased 8" layer cake pan or on cookie sheet.  Cut cross on top.  Brush top of loaf with remnants of buttermilk.   Bake 30-35 minutes.  

A wonderful way to celebrate the feast of this great Irish Bishop is to take time to read the Confession of St. Patrick (in his own words) http://www.confessio.ie/etexts/confessio_english#01

St. Patrick pray for us.  Pray for our country.  Pray that our Holy Triune God will become the center of our lives.