by Lynn Greene
Two holiday breads
Both feature a decorative cross
St. Patrick’s Day arriving tomorrow and Easter only
a week away, it’s time to get baking. Irish soda bread
is fast, simple and tasty. A semi-organized baker could
even make a batch up Monday morning to take to work.
It’s a traditional bread — often served as an accompaniment
to a meal — that uses baking soda instead of yeast to
give it a rise. Because it is much faster to make, it
is often called a quick bread, along with such flavorful
offerings as banana bread, muffins and coffee cake.
Soda bread was introduced in the middle of the 1800s
— when bicarbonate of soda first was used. There is often
a cross cut into soda bread. Some think this is to ward
off evil; others believe it helps cook the bread, though
there is no basis in fact for either theory that I can
find.
Hot cross buns are traditionally served on Good Friday
— March 21 this year. They take longer to make since
they require yeast as a leavening ingredient. These buns
are iced with a crossing of sugar frosting. While they
now are associated with Christianity, there are references
to them with the cross intact in ancient history. The
cross is such an ancient symbol; who is to say what the
origin is exactly?
All I can say is, cooks are not silly ninnies, and cooking
often is a very good way to carry on old traditions,
and dare I say, superstitions. And that is as good a
way as any to imbed cultural archetypes into our subconscious.
Now that’s putting a lot of pressure on a little loaf
of bread!
Irish soda bread
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsps. baking powder
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease a 9- x 5-inch loaf pan.
Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking
soda. Blend egg and buttermilk together, and add all
at once to the flour mixture. Mix just until moistened.
Stir in melted butter. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted
in the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Wrap
in foil for several hours, or overnight, for best flavor.
Hot cross buns
Dough:
1 cup milk
2 Tbsps. yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
4 eggs
5 cups flour
1-1/3 cup raisins
1 egg white
Glaze:
1-1/3 cup powdered sugar
1-1/2 tsp. fresh lemon zest
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
1 to 2 Tbsps. milk
In a small saucepan, heat milk to very warm, but not
hot 110 F. If using an electric mixer, outfit with a
dough hook. Pour warm milk in the bowl of mixer and sprinkle
in yeast. Mix to dissolve and let sit for 5 minutes.
With mixer running at low speed, add sugar, salt, butter,
cinnamon, nutmeg and eggs. Gradually add flour — dough
will be wet and sticky — and continue kneading with dough
hook until smooth, about 5 minutes. Detach bowl, cover
with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 30 minutes
to 45 minutes.
Return bowl to mixer and knead until smooth and elastic,
for about 3 more minutes. Add currants or raisins and
knead until well-mixed. At this point, dough still will
be fairly wet and sticky. Shape dough in a ball, place
in a buttered dish, cover with plastic wrap and let rise
overnight in the refrigerator. Excess moisture will be
absorbed by the morning.
Let dough sit at room temperature for about a half-hour.
Line a large baking pan with parchment paper. Divide
dough in half, then half again and so on until you have
24 equal pieces Shape each portion into a ball and place
on baking sheet, about 1/2 inch apart (4-by-6 rows).
Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm,
draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Before placing the buns, now
doubled in size, into the oven, take a sharp knife and
carefully slash buns with a cross. Brush them with egg
white and place in oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce
heat to 350 F and bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes
more. Transfer to a wire rack.
Whisk together glaze ingredients, and spoon over buns
in a cross pattern. Serve warm.
— In England, the street peddlers hawked their buns
with this little ditty — the ha’ referring to a half-penny
coin, no longer in circulation:
Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
one ha’ penny,
two ha’ penny,
hot cross buns.
— Lynn Greene is senior editor for Community Shoppers Inc., which publishes this paper. Con-tact her at lgreene@communityshoppers.com. |
