Joe’s Soda Bread Ice Cream
This ice cream happened because friend saw a recipe for an ice cream made with brown bread. He thought it might be fun to make it with Irish soda bread, for St. Patrick’s Day. It worked out really well. When I first added the bread to the ice cream, I tasted it and thought it was good, but needed something more. I had already made the butterscotch sauce to serve with it, so I added a little and the end result was a really fun and different ice cream. The ice cream actually tasted a lot like butter pecan. I served it to a friend the other night and she loved it.
This would be a fun dessert for St. Patrick’s day, or any day really, and it was super easy to make. Thanks, Joe, for the inspiration.
So here is the recipe. I have also included the recipes for the bread and the butterscotch sauce, although, you can buy them already made.
Joe’s Soda Bread Ice Cream
1 ½ qts. Vanilla ice cream
4 cups crumbled soda bread*
½ cup butterscotch sauce**
Soften ice cream and fold in the soda bread and butterscotch sauce. Return to freezer to firm up before serving.
* You can just buy a soda bread or use the recipe below
** I made my own butterscotch sauce, then had extra for serving. Feel free to just buy a jar if you don’t want to make your own. Serve some sauce, warmed with the ice cream to drizzle over.
Irish Soda Bread
2 c. flour
½ t. each baking powder and baking soda
¼ t. salt
2 T. butter
¾ c. raisins, currants or golden raisins, optional, I used golden raisins
2 t. caraway seeds
1 egg, beaten
1 c. buttermilk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dust a baking sheet with a little flour. Combine dry ingredients in bowl and cut in butter to resemble coarse crumbs. Add raisins and caraway seeds. Combine egg and milk and set 2 tablespoons of this mixture aside. Add remaining milk mixture to flour mixture and combine just until dough forms into a ball. Place on baking sheet, brush with reserved egg mixture and cut a crisscross on top of loaf. Bake about 25 minutes or until bread sounds hollow. Makes 1.
Butterscotch Sauce
6 T. butter
½ c. half and half
½ c. brown sugar
1 t. molasses*
½ -1 teaspoon salt
1 t. vanilla
Melt butter in a heavy bottomed pan. Add remaining ingredients, except vanilla, to the pan. Stir to mix well, then bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Sauce will thicken as it cools. Store in fridge and warm a little before using. Makes about a cup of sauce. Keeps for weeks in the fridge, but you’ll eat it long before that.
*The addition of a little molasses was because my original recipe called for dark brown sugar. I only had light brown sugar. I liked the flavor that extra molasses added to the finished sauce. Feel free to omit the extra molasses, or add a pinch more, depending on how dark you want your finished sauce
Corned Beef “Reuben” Strata
If you need a new recipe for corned beef- I would suggest making this strata. It contains all the ingredients found in a traditional Reuben sandwich, but with a twist. These “Reubens” are baked, after being soaked in an egg custard.
The dish is assembled at least a few hours before baking, so you can make it the day before, or in the morning. Just pop in the oven about an hour before you want to serve it.
Strata just means layers. Ingredients are layered before pouring over an egg/milk mixture. These layers add flavor to the final dish. In this strata, layers include rye bread, Swiss cheese, corned beef, sauerkraut and thousand island dressing. Of course, you can play around with the ingredients you use. If you don’t like sauerkraut, you can leave it out- or only put in on some of the sandwiches. Strata can be served for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner.
I used very thinly sliced corned beef from the deli. You can also use home-cooked corned beef. Just dice it or shred it up. If you have leftover corned beef from St. Patrick’s Day, this is a great recipe for using it. I also used homemade Thousand Island dressing, but use what you like. You can also serve extra dressing on the side.
Reuben Strata
12 slices rye bread
6 slices Swiss cheese
12 oz. thinned sliced corned beef- or 2 cups chopped corned beef
1 c. sauerkraut, squeezed dry
½ c. Thousand Island dressing*
3 eggs
2 c. milk
½ t. salt
½ t. hot pepper sauce, or to taste
Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking dish. Place six slices of bread on bottom of the dish. You might have to trim the bread to fit. Top each slice of bread with a slice of cheese. Top cheese with the corned beef and sauerkraut. You can use a little more or less sauerkraut, depending on your taste. Spoon about a tablespoon of the dressing over each “sandwich”. Top with remaining six slices of bread, trimmed to fit pan, if needed. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over sandwiches. Cover dish and let stand in the fridge, several hours or overnight. Bake, uncovered, in a 350-degree oven for 40-45 minutes, or until puffed and set. Let sit a few minutes before serving. Serves 6.
*Homemade Thousand Island Dressing is just equal parts of sweet pickle relish, ketchup and mayo. You can make your own pretty easily.
Shepherd’s Pie
If you are looking for a traditional dish for St. Patrick’s Day, you might want to make a Shepherd’s Pie. Shepherd’s pie is a mix of ground lamb and veggies, in a gravy, that are topped with mashed potatoes. Then it is baked until the mixture is heated through and potatoes brown a little.
It’s a lovely dish anytime, not just for a holiday. There are a lot of variations for shepherd’s pie, but it is made with ground lamb. You can use ground beef, but then it is called a cottage pie. It will still be tasty, just less traditional.
The potatoes are mashed, then spread over the meat mixture. You can pipe the potatoes on top, for a pretty presentation. I used a small ice cream scoop to place my potatoes on top. It looked pretty good.
I brushed the potatoes with some beaten egg, to give them a nice shine. You can sprinkle with some Parmesan cheese, if you like. For even more color on the potatoes, you can place under the broiler for a few minutes.
I used sherry in my gravy. Red wine would also be nice. I also added some parsley to my mashed potatoes.
Shepherd’s Pie
2 T. oil
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 lbs. ground lamb
2 c. peas
5 T. flour
1 c. chicken stock- or a bit more
½ c. sherry
2 t. thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 lbs. potatoes
1 c. sour cream
3 T. butter
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ c. chopped parsley
1 egg
Heat oil in large skillet. Sauté onions until tender. Add carrots and cook until carrots are tender. Add lamb and cook until lamb is no longer pink. Add peas and flour, then stir until flour is mixed in. Add stock, sherry and thyme. Cook until thickened and bubbly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. While cooking the meat mixture, peel, dice and boil potatoes until tender. Drain potatoes and mash until smooth. Add sour cream, butter and seasonings. Place meat mixture in a 9×13 inch baking dish. Top with the mashed potatoes. You can spread them, pipe them on or, as I did, use an ice cream scoop. Beat the egg and brush the potatoes with the egg. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until potatoes start to brown and mixture is heated through. You can place under the broiler, if you like, for more color. Serves 6-8.
Key Lime Pie for Pi Day!!!
Since March 14th is celebrated by some of us math nerds as Pi Day- 3.14 , I decided to make a Key Lime Pie!! I figure any way I can get more Vitamin C is a good thing, right?
I had decided to go with a classic version: graham crust, creamy filling and a little meringue to top it off. The pie itself is simple and fast to make, although it does need time to chill. I think it takes more time to juice all those tiny limes, than it does to make the actual pie. I cheated a little this year and bought bottled key lime juice. It’s the first time I used bottled lime juice and it worked really well.
One of the traditional ingredients in key lime pie is sweetened condensed milk. You can, if needed, make your own sweetened condensed milk, instead of using store bought. I’ve included the recipe at the bottom of this post.
Key Lime Pie
Crust:
1 ¼ c. graham cracker crumbs
⅓ c. melted butter
¼ c. brown sugar
Filling:
2 cans sweetened condensed milk*
1 c. key lime juice
Topping:
2 eggs whites
½ t. cream of tartar
2 T. sugar
In medium bowl, combine crust ingredients and toss until mixed well. Press crust into the bottom and sides of a pie pan. I use a 9-inch deep dish pan. Bake crust in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. Cool. Reduce oven to 325 degrees. Combine filling ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir until well mixed. It will look sort of soupy, but as you stir, the filling becomes pretty thick- like pudding. Pour into crust. Prepare topping. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Slowly add the sugar, while still beating the eggs whites, until stiff peaks form. Spread or pipe the egg whites over the filling. Bake pie 25-28 minutes- or until meringue topping is golden brown. Chill at least 6 hours before serving. Serves 6-8.
* You can make your own sweetened condensed milk, if you prefer. Here is the recipe.
Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 c. dry non-fat milk
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. boiling water
3 T. butter, melted and hot
Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Can be stored in the fridge and used within 3 days. This is the same as 1 (14 oz.) can.
Colcannon
Colcannon is perhaps the ultimate comfort food. This traditional Irish dish is made with potatoes, kale, green onions, parsley and butter. There are variations made with cabbage or Brussels sprouts. All of those versions are pretty good. This is a great side dish for your St. Patrick’s Day dinner. It’s pretty, too.
I have made colcannon with Brussels sprouts, chives and even used ramps one time. For the version I made last night I used kale. I wonder why I don’t colcannon more often. It is so good- and simple to make. A friend said she uses it to top her Shepherd’s Pie. I’ll have to try colcannon on Shepherd’s Pie soon.
Here is the version I made last night.
Colcannon
1 1/2 lbs. potatoes
1/4 lb. kale, or a bit more
3/4 c. finely chopped green onions or chives
1/2 c. chopped parsley
4 oz. butter
salt and fresh ground pepper
Peel the potatoes and cut them into chunks. Boil in salted water until very tender. Meanwhile, trim the stems out of the kale and blanch in boiling water for a few minutes. Remove kale and drain. Rinse with cold water to cool down. Squeeze out excess water and chop the kale finely. Set aside. Once the potatoes are tender, drain well and place in a mixing bowl. Add the butter and mash the potatoes until pretty smooth. A few lumps are not a problem. Stir in the kale, green onions and parsley. Mix well, adding salt and pepper to taste. Serves 4.
Potatoes O’Brien
In all honesty, I love potatoes in pretty much any dish. Sometimes you just want to go with an old time classic. I always loved when my mom made potatoes O’Brien.
Potatoes O’Brien are hash browns, with onions and diced peppers. The combination is so tasty. To speed up the cooking process, I cooked the potatoes in the microwave first. You could also just use raw, diced potatoes. Either way, the end result is sure to be a hit.
Potatoes O’Brien could also be a nice side dish for your St. Patrick’s day dinner.
Potatoes O’Brien
oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 c. chopped sweet pepper- I used baby peppers, sliced in rings
2 lbs. potatoes, diced, peeling is optional
salt and pepper
fresh parsley and thyme, optional
In skillet, heat a couple of tablespoons of oil. Saute onion until tender, add peppers and cook until the peppers are tender. Remove from skillet and set aside. Add a few more tablespoons of oil to the skillet and let it get pretty hot. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring often, until the potatoes are browned. They should be cooked, tender in the middle, crisp on the outside. I cooked the potatoes in the microwave first, then diced them once they were cool enough to handle. This made them cook up faster, but raw potatoes are fine, too. Return onion mixture to skillet with the potatoes, season with salt and pepper to taste and add the fresh herbs, if you like. Stir together until heated through. Serves 4-6.
Irish Soda Bread – Bread Pudding
This is a great dessert for St. Patrick’s Day. Simple and not too sweet, it is a perfect way to finish your holiday meal. It is made with a traditional Irish soda bread. I used a loaf of soda bread I had baked the day before. You could buy a loaf of soda bread, if you prefer. I included the recipe for soda bread at the bottom of this post.
The bread was cubed up and allowed to sit around for a day, to dry out a little. You can also cube the bread and toast it in a low oven for 10-15 minutes. A slightly dried bread will stand up better to the custard.
For the custard I used milks, eggs, flavorings and a little whiskey. I would have added Bailey’s, if I had it. The addition of alcohol is optional.
Store cooled bread pudding in the fridge, but take out before serving- or warm a little before serving. It is great just as is, but you could dust with powdered sugar, or top with a scoop of ice cream or a spoonful of whipped cream.
Irish Soda Bread – Bread Pudding
6-8 c. cubed, day-old soda bread- recipe follows
2½ c. milk or half and half
5 eggs
½ c. sugar, plus extra for sprinkling on top
¼ c. whiskey, optional
1 T. vanilla
1 T. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9×9-inch baking pan. Place cubed soda bread in prepared pan. Set aside. Beat together remaining ingredients and pour over the soda bread. Sprinkle top with a little extra sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until bread pudding is set and a little golden on top. I used a glass pan- it might take a little longer in a metal pan. Bread pudding should be golden around the edges, too. Cool a bit before serving. Serve as is, or with whipped cream or ice cream. Serves 6-8.
Soda Bread
2 c. flour
½ t. each baking powder and baking soda
¼ t. salt
2 T. butter
¾ c. raisins, currants or golden raisins, optional
2 t. caraway seeds
1 egg, beaten
1 c. buttermilk
melted butter, optional
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dust a baking sheet with a little flour. Combine dry ingredients in bowl and cut in butter to resemble coarse crumbs. Add raisins and caraway seeds. Combine egg and milk and set 2 tablespoons of this mixture aside. Add remaining milk mixture to flour mixture and combine just until dough forms into a ball. Place on baking sheet, brush with reserved egg mixture and cut a crisscross on top of loaf. Bake about 25 minutes or until bread sounds hollow. Place on rack to cool. You can brush the loaf with a little melted butter, if you like. Makes 1.
Mom’s Corned Beef Hash
My mom used to make the best hash. I didn’t have any specific recipe for hash, so I made a point of writing down what I did, and measuring ingredients, so I could share the recipe with you. The hash tasted a lot like my mom’s. That made me smile. Here is the recipe. Hope you give it a try.
Corned Beef Hash
4 T. oil, butter or bacon fat
2-3 medium onions, peeled and chopped
1-1½ lbs. potatoes, 4-5 medium, cut in cubes, peeling optional
1 lb. corned beef, cut into ½- inch cubes
Salt and pepper
Eggs, optional
In skillet, heat up your fat of choice. Cook onions over medium heat until translucent. Add cubed potatoes and cook until potatoes and onions are starting to brown. Rather than constantly stirring, I let the potato and onion mixture cook a few minutes, then turn over sections with a spatula. It seems to get them brown faster. Check a few random potatoes to make sure they are tender. Add the corned beef and continue cooking until everything is starting to get a little crispy. Season to taste with salt and pepper. At this point you can serve it. I like to add the eggs. To add the eggs, crack and add eggs, one at a time, to the pan. Keep some space between the eggs, if you can. Turn heat down to medium low and cover the pan. It should take about 5 minutes for the eggs to cook, with the whites firm and the yolks runny. Try not to keep peeking. I know you want to, but every time you remove the lid, the heat dissipates. Wait 3 minutes to check the first time, if you can. Don’t set the heat too high, or you will burn the bottom of the hash while the eggs cook. I usually add one egg for each person I am serving. Feel free to allow more eggs per person, depending on your guests. Serves about 4.
Note: If you want to save yourself from dicing potatoes, you can use frozen hash browns. I prefer diced fresh potatoes, but the hash browns will save you time.
Irish Soda Bread
It’s that time of year. Irish food in on the mind. This soda bread is a classic. Simple and fast to make, it can be served with breakfast, lunch or dinner.
The soda bread is like a big scone or biscuit. It has a crisp, outer crust, with a crumbly, soft center. I like to serve soda bread with butter and jam.
I used raisins, but you can substitute currants, golden raisins, or just leave them out, if you prefer.
I make soda bread all through the year, not just for St. Patrick’s Day. Right from the oven with some butter and jam. Yum.
Irish Soda Bread
2 c. flour
½ t. each baking powder and baking soda
¼ t. salt
2 T. butter
¾ c. raisins, currants or golden raisins, optional
2 t. caraway seeds
1 egg, beaten
1 c. buttermilk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dust a baking sheet with a little flour. Combine dry ingredients in bowl and cut in butter to resemble coarse crumbs. Add raisins and caraway seeds. Combine egg and milk and set 2 tablespoons of this mixture aside. Add remaining milk mixture to flour mixture and combine just until dough forms into a ball. Place on baking sheet, brush with reserved egg mixture and cut a crisscross on top of loaf. Bake about 25 minutes or until bread sounds hollow. Makes 1.
Egg-Free Baking
With bird flu, egg shortages and rising prices, it seemed like a good time to do some baking without eggs. I have plenty of egg-free recipes already and I have shared many of them on this website before. I could share lists of egg replacers, but I wanted to test a number of them myself to let you know how they worked. Let’s start with some of the options.
Egg Substitutes
To replace eggs in a recipe you have a lot of options. Some are vegan, some not. To replace each egg use ¼ cup of any of these: applesauce, mashed banana, Greek yogurt, sour cream, silken tofu, buttermilk or , carbonated water.
You can also use 3 T. aquafaba (liquid from canned garbanzo beans) or 1T. flax seed meal plus 3 T. water. There are also commercial egg replacers available. Follow their package directions.
Keep in mind, other ingredients like baking powder, baking soda and cream of tartar can all help baked foods to rise without eggs. Make sure those ingredients are fresh to insure best results.
I started with a recipe for baked doughnuts. The recipe calls for one egg and makes 6 doughnuts. I made the basic recipe, then made 5 more batches, each with a different replacement for the egg. I made doughnuts with mashed banana, applesauce, carbonated water, flax seed meal and buttermilk. After they were cool, I placed the doughnuts in a bag with powdered sugar and tossed them gently to coat. I took the doughnuts to a cooking class and asked my students to try them. They gave me some excellent feedback. Bottom line is that they all worked. Some better than others but none failed.
So here is how things worked out with more details.
Baked Vanilla Doughnuts
1 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
1 t. baking powder
½ t. salt
2 T. unsalted butter. melted
1 egg
½ c. milk or half and half
1 t. vanilla
Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, milk, butter and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together until well combined. Spoon the batter into the doughnut pan or use a plastic bag. Cut a corner off the bottom of the bag and pipe the batter into each doughnut cavity, filling ¾ of the way full. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Doughnuts can be rolled in powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar- or glazed and topped with sprinkles. Makes 6.
The Variations: for all the variations I used 1/4 cup of the substitute to replace one egg, except for the flax seed meal. For the flax seed meal I used 1 tablespoon mixed into 3 T. of water.
Banana : They rose fine and took an extra couple of minutes to bake. I assume because of the extra moisture. The texture was similar and they looked like the original. They did have a slight taste of banana. Which is fine, unless you don’t want a banana doughnut. One of my students said he really liked the banana flavor, which was faint.
Applesauce: I used unsweetened applesauce. Like the banana, they took and extra minute or two to bake. They rose fine, had a nice texture and there was no taste of apple.
Carbonated Water: These also took more time to bake. Not a surprise with the extra moisture. They also rose a little more than any of the other variations, including the original recipe with an egg. They had a nice texture. Different from the others. Lighter, but a little chewy. Not tough or unpleasant, just different.
Flax Seed Meal: This is the only version that looked a little different from the others. There were tiny flecks of flax in the doughnuts. The appearance was not an issue for me. They rose fine and tasted like the original recipe.
Buttermilk: I didn’t have buttermilk, so I added a teaspoon of lemon juice to the measuring cup and added milk to equal 1/4 cup. I let it sit for a few minutes before mixing the dough. One of my students said she could taste the slight tang from the buttermilk and liked the flavor.
Summary: You have options that work. If you can’t get eggs or are running low, no need to panic. You can use any number of different ingredients and should still be able to bake successfully. Even when eggs are abundant we can sometimes run out. Its nice to know there are solutions that really will work.
I recently tried out a recipe for a vegan lemon curd. It is both egg and butter free. I made it a few times before coming up with a version that I really liked. I realized that the egg free version was actually easier to make. Using almond milk, cornstarch and avocado oil, along with the sugar, lemon juice and zest was easier to cook. When made with eggs, I had to be so careful not to scramble the eggs. The egg free version just thickened up when cooked without the risk of over cooking the eggs. Of course, you could use butter instead of the oil and it will still work. Here is the link to the lemon curd recipe.
