Name: American Irish Soda Bread
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 65 min
Ingredients: 3 cups all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 1/4 teaspoon baking soda; 3/4 teaspoon salt; 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar; 1 cup dried currants; 1 large egg (at room temperature); 1 3/4 cups buttermilk (at room temperature); 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted); 1 tablespoon half-and-half or milk; 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

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March has finally arrived! Yes! Yippee! Can you tell I get excited about March? It’s because it means springtime. Spring is my favorite season of all. I love to watch the landscape turn green and blossom with new growth. I am so tired of the dull grey of winter. It also because of Easter and St. Patrick’s day celebrations. I celebrate with food for sure. I’m celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with American Irish Soda Bread.

Easter has a lot of food associated with it. There is all the typical Easter dinner fare. However, I get most excited over two things: Cadbury mini eggs and caramel eggs. I smiled typing those words. Seriously. Now if only the Nestle would bring back their Nestle Crunch caramel eggs then I would be in paradise. Why, oh why, did they stop making those delightful eggs? Maybe I will see them again one day.

Anyway, back to the American Irish Soda Bread. The Twelve Loaves challenge this month is to bake a bread for a March holiday or celebration. I’ve heard about Irish soda bread but never actually tasted it. I went looking for recipes and ran across one for an Americanized version that is a little sweeter. Plus it calls for dried currants and I adore them. One of my favorite currant recipes is Buttermilk Currant Scones. I decided to start with the American Irish version and save baking a regular one for another day.

This bread is one I will make again and again. First it is quick and easy. So quick you need to be sure you have the oven ready and preheated before you start mixing ingredients together. I strongly suggest putting a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom rack to catch drips or spill-over. The bread itself is light, a little sweet, and has a crunchy sugar top. I ate my slice from the bottom up so I could enjoy the crunchy top for the last few bites. Warming up a slice for a few seconds in the microwave and then spreading butter on it is a good thing too.

How about more bread recipes for March? The Twelve Loaves bakers have some great ones to share:

Grammy’s Italian Easter Bread by Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious
Hot Cross Buns by Holly at A Baker’s House
Almond and Ginger Kulich by Paula at Vintage Kitchen
American Irish Soda Bread by Renee at Magnolia Days
Hot Cross Buns by Lora at Cake Duchess
Pinca: Croatian Easter Bread by Sherron at Simply Gourmet
Jamaican Zucchini Spiced Bun by Lyn at The Lovely Pantry
Plaited Easter Bread with Cream Cheese Filling by Liz at That Skinny Chick Can Bake
Greek Easter Bread by Alice at Hip Foodie Mom

#TwelveLoaves March: Holiday Bread. Bake a bread, yeast or quick bread, loaf or individual. This #TwelveLoaves is all about the incredible holiday breads featured in March. Do you have a favorite Easter, Passover, or St. Patrick’s Day Bread? We would love to see it. Let’s get baking!

Want to join the #TwelveLoaves group? It’s easy!

When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your blog post; this helps us to get more members as well as share everyone’s posts. Please make sure that your bread is inspired by the theme!
Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of my blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.
Have your Twelve Loaves bread that you baked this March, 2013 posted on your blog by March 31, 2013.

Happy Bread Baking!

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