Tuesdays with Dorie - Irish Soda Bread

St. Paddy's Day finally arrived!  I had been anticipating this holiday for weeks so I could make Irish soda bread to go with the traditional corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots.  Since I'd never made soda bread before and simple recipes with just a few ingredients are often deceiving, I did a little research here and here.  Thanks to Galletista for providing the Epicurious link at the Tuesday's with Dorie Blog Roll where you can find links to the other TWD-BWJ blogs.

This bread is so simple and delicious I can't believe I haven't made it before.  You can see Marion Cunningham making soda bread with Julia Child here.  It takes just a few minutes to assemble and mix the ingredients and minimum handling to shape it.  No special pans needed...it can be baked in a pie plate.  The Irish peasants, who didn't have ovens, cooked theirs in cast iron pots called bastibles over an open turf fire.  The ingredients are things they would have had and could afford; wheat they had grown themselves for the flour, buttermilk left over from making butter, bread soda, and salt.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Rugelach: Taste 10, Looks 7

You say roo-ga-lach and I say roo-ga-la...whatever way you pronounce it these little (or not so little) "cookies" are more like a small pastry and absolutely delicious.  And they provided the perfect opportunity to use all those bits and bobs left over from Christmas baking.  The dough is made in a stand mixer and the fillings went together in the food processor in only a few minutes.  Get the recipe from this Tuesday's hosts, Jessica of My Baking Heart and Margaret of The Urban Hiker.