A Pinch of Love, A Smidgen of Joy - St. Patrick's Day!

 

Momma had Irish roots and was very proud of this fact, but never was it more evident than on St. Patrick's Day. Her family, the Caseys (originally O'Casey), came to the U.S. from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Irish pride runs deep in our family, and we love celebrating the green, shamrock-loving holiday. Growing up, Momma would not only decorate the house for the holiday but also bring out her favorite Irish-inspired dishes, like Eire Pie for a green dessert and a freshly-baked reuben loaf for a hearty dinner.

One of my favorite St. Patrick's Day memories was in 2012 when Mom and Dad, along with my nephew, Jacob, visited me in Savannah, Georgia to celebrate Jacob's 10th birthday and St. Patrick's Day. My husband, Nathan, and I lived in Savannah for several years, and we loved watching the city's infamous parade through the historic streets and squares of downtown. The city turns into a veritable Irish explosion of color, sights, sounds and tastes. There are bagpipes playing, fountains flowing with green water, green beer and desserts aplenty, people dressed as leprechauns, and families and friends doing what the Irish do best - celebrating!

 

 

It seems fitting to honor Momma's memory and my own Irish roots by celebrating this JOYful holiday with an Irish-inspired dessert. I took a dessert, originally from my Mom's cookbook "A Pinch of This, A Smidgen of That," and tweaked an ingredient to make it especially Irish. :) For the "Decadent Chocolate Chip Cake" (see pg. 105 of the cookbook), in place of 1 cup vegetable oil, I brought it down to 1/2 cup of oil and added 1/2 cup of Bailey's Irish Cream. I also add 2 tablespoons of Irish Cream to the chocolate buttercream frosting (adapted from "The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook"), in place of regular milk. The cake comes out moist, oh so heavenly, and something any Irish folk would approve. In honor of Momma and St. Patrick's Day, I dub this cake the "Decadent Irish Cream Chocolate Chip Cake."

"Decadent Irish Cream Chocolate Chip Cake"
(original recipe for "Decadent Chocolate Chip Cake" in "A Pinch of This, A Smidgen of That" Cookbook, pg. 105)

Ingredients:

1 package German chocolate cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
1 (3.9 ou.) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream liquor
4 eggs
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet mini-chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan or spray with non-stick coating. (*Note: Instead of using a bundt pan for the cake, I divided it into three 8 inch round non-stick cake pans that I greased with Crisco and floured. After baking, I iced the top of each layer and made it into a triple layer cake.)
Whisk lumps out of cake mix, and then combine it with pudding mix and sugar. Mix wet ingredients: oil, Irish Cream, eggs, water, sour cream and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry, and beat until smooth. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan(s). If baking into three 8-inch round pans, bake two on top rack and one on bottom rack for 20 minutes. Rotate racks and bake for another 25-30 minutes, or until knife inserted into cake comes out clean. If baking into bundt pan bake for 1 hour. Allow cake(s) to cool. To serve, sprinkle powdered sugar over the top of the cake, or ice it with your favorite frosting. (I used the chocolate buttercream recipe from "The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook" and added Irish Cream in place of the milk.) EnJOY!



The basic cake ingredients for Mom's original "Decadent Chocolate Chip Cake"



The secret "Irish" ingredient :)

 

Whisk the lumps out of the cake mix before adding other dry ingredients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whisk together the wet ingredients before adding to the dry ones.



Beat the wet ingredients gradually into the dry ingredients.



Fold in the mini-chocolate chips into the well-mixed batter.



This is what the final batter should look like before pouring it in pan(s) to bake.



I used three 9-inch round non-stick cake pans and greased them with Crisco and sprinkled all-purpose flour.



I evenly distributed the cake batter into the three round pans to be baked.



After allowing my cakes to cool for at least 2 hours, I individually frosted each layer with a homemade chocolate buttercream from "The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook"



Happy St. Patrick's Day! <3 td="">

 

Top 'O the Mornin' to Ya'

“Top of the morning to you”, or more casually “Top o’ the mornin’ to ya”, is a well-known traditional Irish greeting that Irish people don’t really use anymore, but I think we should. Beginning the day in a positive spirit and sharing that spirit with those around us can make all of us enJOY better days.

One way to start the day off right is with a yummy breakfast. Your mother was right: Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Not only does it give you energy to start a new day, but breakfast is linked to many health benefits.

Eating breakfast is important for everyone, but is especially so for children and adolescents. According to the American Dietetic Association, children who eat breakfast perform better in the classroom and on the playground, with better concentration, problem-solving skills, and eye-hand coordination. Even if you think you don’t have time to eat breakfast, biscuits with a piece of ham or egg tucked inside provide grab-and-go options that fill the bill.

Our grandson, Samuel, loves hot biscuits with gravy for breakfast. He also enJOYs biscuits stuffed with ham and cheese. When he spends the night, I make sure we have plenty of biscuits for him to enJOY, however he chooses to eat them. Seems like he always wakes up extra hungry after a good night's sleep.

Biscuits are great topped with plain white gravy or chocolate gravy. (Have you ever eaten Chocolate Gravy? If not, check out the recipe on page 94 of "A Pinch of This ... A Smidgen of That" cookbook.) My husband likes sausage gravy and biscuits, but I think his favorite biscuit topping is butter and either homemade blackberry jelly or peach jam. I try to keep a good supply of both on hand.

When I was growing up, I remember my momma making homemade buttermilk biscuits every morning for breakfast. They were soooooooo good! I only wish I'd paid more attention to her method of making those biscuits. Unfortunately, by the time I was old enough to want to learn how to make them, she had passed away. (You can learn from my mistakes! Ask your momma NOW to show you her kitchen secrets before it's too late!) I've tried dozens of biscuit recipes over the almost 40 years I've been married, and none compare to my momma's fluffy, delicious, high-rise biscuits. But, I'm still trying ... and always learning!

The recipe I want to share with you today still can't compete with my momma's, but it's pretty close. I still have a few "tweaks" I want to try with it, but I didn't want to wait until then to share this great biscuit recipe with you. I can tell you, these are delicious fresh and hot from the oven -- crispy on the outside and tender and fluffy inside -- and they are equally as good when they are a day old, if you wrap them in a paper towel and microwave them for a few seconds. I just bag up the leftovers from breakfast on Saturday morning, and we enJOY them with ham and cheese or other accompaniments during the week. It's a quick, but nourishing, treat with a hot cup of coffee. And, it makes you want to say, "Top 'o the mornin' to ya'", I promise!

So, let's get started and make a nice batch of yummy biscuits. Go gather your ingredients and "mise en place" (pronounced: miz on plas). My daughter tells me this is French for "putting in place". (Whatever it is, I know it sure helps avoid some messes in the kitchen if your ingredients are organized and ready to grab when you need them!)

Here's what you'll need:

First, you need to preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. (It's important the biscuits go directly into the hot oven.) Lightly grease a cookie sheet or biscuit pan. I like to use air-bake cookie sheets.

Use a wisk to blend flour, salt, cream of tartar, sugar, and baking powder.

   

If you're really energetic, you could sift this mixture, but I think it turns out fine just to use a whisk.

Use a pastry cutter to incorporate butter (cut into small cubes) into the flour mixture.

Lightly beat egg in milk before stirring it in the flour mixture.

Add the egg and milk mixture all at once. Work quickly, using a spatula to combine.

Mix only long enough for most of the flour to be taken up. DO NOT KNEAD. Flour a work space and turn the lump of dough out onto the counter. You may have a bit of flour in the bottom of the bowl when you turn it out onto the floured countertop, but it will work in as you press the dough down and roll it out.

Knead only a couple of times to get the rest of the flour worked in. Don’t ever-knead the dough as you would yeast bread. The dough should appear floury on the outside and sticky on the inside. Using your fingers and palm, press the dough down and use a dough roller to flatten to half-inch thickness.

Cut to desired size (mine were about 2 1/2 inch diameter) 

and place on a lightly greased baking-sheet (I like the air-bake sheets). I can get about 15 to 20 medium-sized biscuits out of this dough. You might get more or less, depending on the size of the cutter you use.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, or until they reach desired golden brown. I rarely use a timer; I just pull them out when I like how they look. You might start checking them at about 10 minutes (just look through the glass door---if your oven has one---don't open it until you think they are done). Allow them to go a little longer, depending on the degree of browning you desire.

When hot out of the oven, these biscuits are flaky in the outside and moist in the inside (and oh soooo good slathered with a pat of butter and some jam or jelly).

They will soften a bit on the outside after they cool, but they hold together well and remain delicious as leftovers. Store leftovers in a plastic bag. To warm, wrap desired amount of biscuits in a paper towel and microwave about 15 seconds.
EnJOY!

Don't forget to save the recipe below in your recipe file! Leave me a comment and let me know how yours turns out and what you used to top them. (Hint: Sorghum molasses just makes these better and better!)

 

 

HIGH-RISE BISCUITS

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups of all purpose flour (you may substitute a cup of whole wheat, if you prefer)
1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup of butter.
1 egg
1 cup of milk (I used 2%, but I want to try buttermilk to see how it turns out. I'll let you know!)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. (It's important the biscuits go directly into the hot oven.) Lightly grease a cookie sheet or biscuit pan. I like to use air-bake cookie sheets.

 

Use a whisk to blend flour, salt, cream of tartar, sugar, and baking powder. Use a pastry cutter to incorporate butter (cut into small cubes) into the flour mixture.

Lightly beat egg in milk before stirring it in the flour mixture. Work quickly, using a spatula to combine. You may have a bit of flour in the bottom of the bowl when you turn it out onto the floured countertop, but it will work in as you press the dough down and roll it out. Knead only a couple of times to get the rest of the flour worked in. Don’t ever-knead the dough as you would yeast bread. The dough should appear floury on the outside and sticky on the inside.

Using your fingers and palm, press the dough down and roll to half-inch thickness. Cut to desired size and place on a lightly greased baking-sheet (I like the air-bake sheets). Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, or until they reach desired golden brown. I rarely use a timer; I just pull them out when I like how they look. I can get about 15 to 20 medium-sized biscuits out of this dough. You might get more or less, depending on the size of the cutter you use.

When hot out of the oven, these biscuits are flaky in the outside and moist in the inside. Store leftovers in a plastic bag and microwave to warm. (They will soften a bit on the outside after they cool, but they hold together well and remain delicious as leftovers.)

With St. Patrick's Day coming up in a couple of weeks, I've been thinking a lot about  my Irish heritage. Food was often scarce for the Irish in olden times. The biscuits we shared in today's recipe would have been a special treat to many. Famines had ravaged potato harvests and driven Irish immigrants to America to escape the hardships. One result of experiencing hard times is that we often become even more thankful for God's blessings and even more willing to tell Him so. Mealtimes are appropriate times to acknowledge and ask for God's continued blessings on our homes and families.



Irish blessings have been handed down through the ages to enrich many occasions. Irish prayers are suitable for all the family and instill a sense of deep belonging. You would be touched by Irish blessings said prior to meals that are generally blessings to give thanks and gratitude for food that was often hard to come by. Irish blessings before meals often give thanks for the abundance at the table, since poverty was prevalent among the Irish population. Here is one such prayer: “May the blessings of each day be the blessings you need most.”

 

You may have heard these Irish blessings repeated during a St. Patrick's Day celebration: “May good luck be your friend in whatever you do, and may trouble be always a stranger to you.”

 

Always appropriate and welcomed by all is this blessing:

“May this luck of the Irish be always at hand,

and good friends always near you.

May each and every coming day,

bring some special JOY to cheer you.”

 

Don't forget to give THANKS for your "daily bread", even if it is only biscuits!

 

Gra, Dilseacht, Cairdeas

Gra, Dilseacht, Cairdeas (graw, deel-shockt, korr-djass) ... Love, Loyalty, Friendship ... are three qualities that the Irish display proudly, and not just in their traditional jewelry. One of the common ways the Irish display these qualities is in the traditional foods they share with others.

Today, I enJOYed baking and reading about traditional Irish Soda Bread and the multiple versions of recipes that have evolved over the years. It may come as a shock to Irish-Americans that their Irish ancestors who left Ireland during the Famine years did not bring a recipe for Irish Soda Bread with them, but may have picked up the "tradition" after migrating to the United States. My Casey family ancestors (http://www.cfainusa.org) left Ireland in the early 1700s before the Potato Famine began in the 1840s.  Beginning in 1845 and lasting for six years, the potato famine killed over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused another million to flee the country. Irish soda bread became popular in Ireland after the Famine years. If your Irish ancestors had the good sense to leave Ireland for America either before (as my family did) or during the Famine years, they never learned about making soda bread in Ireland. (SOURCE: The History Place, http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/introduction.htm and Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread, http://www.sodabread.us/index.htm) I encourage you to go to the SOURCE sites and read the very interesting history behind this tasty concoction of flour, baking powder, salt, and of course--soda. And if you have Irish ancestry--or even if you don't-- and want to join (it's FREE), check out how to become an official member of the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread. Here's the membership certificate:

Our loaf of Irish Soda Bread didn't last long today, but I did manage to snap some photos of the process and of the finished product before we began slicing away at it. I'll include the complete recipe below the tutorial so you can print your own copy or save it in your recipe file. In honor of my ancestors, I'm calling my version (I tweaked the recipe just slightly), Casey Clan's Irish Soda Bread. The basic soda bread is made with flour, baking soda, salt, and soured milk (or buttermilk). The Irish who enJOYed this bread were poor and could afford the more expensive ingredients, so it began as a very simple recipe. Over the years, it has evolved with additional ingredients. In America and other parts of the world, we tend to forget that this is a basic "quick bread" served with meals and not a "dessert dish."

Also, don't forget the other yummy St. Patrick's Day recipe for Eire Pie, here: http://www.pinchofthissmidgenofthat.blogspot.com/search/label/Eire%20%28AY-reh%29%20Pie

Casey Clan's IRISH SODA BREAD

Let's begin by gathering our ingredients:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with a rack set in lower third of oven. Use a couple of tablespoons of room temperature butter to coat a 10-inch round cast-iron skillet; set aside. (I thought I took a photo of the prepared skillet, but must have been dreaming... just imagine a skillet completely coated in softened butter... there you go!)
Now, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and wheat germ.

The wheat germ (or wheat bran, if you don't have wheat germ), is optional. I think it's just as good without it.

Cube COLD butter before adding it to the mixture.

Add cubed butter, sour cream and egg;

mix, using a pastry blender, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Stir in raisins (optional), buttermilk, and caraway seeds (optional) and mix until a sticky dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and form into a rounded--sort of mounded--- loaf.

Dust the top lightly with flour before transferring to prepared skillet.

Place in prepared skillet.

Using a sharp knife score a large "X" in the center.

Transfer to preheated oven. Bake until loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. If top begins to brown too quickly, loosely cover with a piece of parchment paper-lined aluminum foil. (I didn't have to do this, and it baked perfectly at one hour baking time.) Remove from oven and while still hot, coat the top crust with butter.

Transfer to a wire rack, cookie sheet, or platter to cool.

Slice, slather with Irish Butter (or salted butter) and enJOY!

A Little Bit 'O History

The oldest reference found to date to a published Soda Bread recipe was in County Down, Ireland ( NOV 1836, Farmer's Magazine (London) p.328, referencing Irish newspaper in County Down).

"A correspondent of the Newry Telegraph gives the following receipt for making 'soda bread', stating that 'there is no bread to be had equal to it for invigorating the body, promoting digestion, strengthening the stomach, and improving the state of the bowels.' He says, 'put a pound and a half of good wheaten meal into a large bowl, mix with it two teaspoonfuls of finely-powdered salt, then take a large teaspoonful of super-carbonate of soda, dissolve it in half a teacupful of cold water, and add it to the meal; rub up all intimately together, then pour into the bowl as much very sour buttermilk as will make the whole into soft dough (it should be as soft as could possibly be handled, and the softer the better,) form it into a cake of about an inch thickness, and put it into a flat Dutch oven or frying-pan, with some metallic cover, such as an oven-lid or griddle, apply a moderate heat underneath for twenty minutes, then lay some clear live coals upon the lid, and keep it so for half an hour longer (the under heat being allowed to fall off gradually for the last fifteen minutes,) taking off the cover occasionally to see that it does not burn.'"  (SOURCE: http://www.sodabread.us/index.htm)

Casey Clan's Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 Tablespoons Wheat Germ (or Wheat Bran)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, plus 2 Tablespoons more, softened, to coat skillet

1 (8-ounce) container sour cream

1 large egg

2 cups raisins (optional... some say that raisins were not included in the TRADITIONAL bread)

1 cup buttermilk

Caraway seeds (optional---I didn't use these. Caraway seeds )

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with a rack set in lower third of oven. Use a couple of tablespoons of room temperature butter to coat a 10-inch round cast-iron skillet; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and wheat germ. Add cubed butter, sour cream and egg; mix, using a pastry blender, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in raisins, buttermilk, and caraway seeds, if using, and mix until a sticky dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and form into a rounded--sort of mounded--- loaf. Place in prepared skillet. Using a sharp knife score a large "X" in the center. Transfer to preheated oven. Bake until loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. If top begins to brown too quickly, loosely cover with a piece of parchment paper-lined aluminum foil. (I didn't have to do this, and it baked perfectly at one hour baking time.) Transfer to a wire rack, cookie sheet, or platter to cool. Slice, slather with Irish Butter (or salted butter) and enJOY!

Rath Dé ort!

(rah jay urt) (The Grace of God be with you!)

(Source: http://irish-sayings.com/cats/irishblessings/)