Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Irish Soda Bread Scones (and other St. Patrick's Day Recipe Ideas!)


Guess what? My last post, Quinoa with White Beans and Veggies, was my 100th post here at the Barbershop! Silly me, I did not realize that as I was creating that post for you all to read; otherwise I would have said something then! I can't believe I've written that many posts for you here at the Barbershop. Wow!

Anyway, onto my 101st post. ;-) This recipe is simply a minor twist on a recipe I shared with you last year. About a year ago, I made Traditional Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick's Day. I wanted to make soda bread again this year because I love it, but I didn't want to do the same ol' thing. So what did I do? Something simple! I just made Irish soda bread scones instead of a loaf of bread. :)

The actual recipe I followed was the same recipe from the Barefoot Contessa that I used last year. To make scones instead of bread, I kneaded a handful of dough at a time instead of the entire loaf and then shaped each piece of dough into a circle and placed it on parchment paper. Just as when I made the regular loaf, I used a knife to score a criss-cross shape on the top of each scone before baking. Out of one batch, I made seven decent-sized scones (each was probably worth two servings!). 



I believe these took about 20 - 25 minutes to bake. To be completely honest, I did not time the baking! Oops. I just checked on them every now and then until they were slightly golden brown, as you can see below. Perfection!


I really enjoyed making Irish soda bread this way; I think I'll be doing it again, for sure! In fact, I've already made two batches of these scones so far this St. Patty's Day season. ;-)


These cute little scones are so easy to give away to others, especially when giving to just one or two people at a time who can't eat a whole loaf themselves. I tend to give away most of my baked goods, so making them into serving sizes that are easy to give away is great!


I typically enjoy soda bread plain, either "as is" or toasted (would recommend toasting it if you can!). Every now and again I'll have it with butter or jam too. For the sake of the blog and showing the bread with butter, I made the sacrifice of enjoying some butter on a couple small slices. Yummm.


No flash...


Flash!

Are you wondering what else to make for St. Patty's? Well, there's always shamrock-shaped sugar cookies,


or perhaps a healthy GREEN monster smoothie.


I'd also like to refer you to a blog that I LOVE, Brown Eyed Baker. She has some amazing ideas for St. Patty's recipes including Guinness milk chocolate ice cream, Irish car bomb cupcakes, Irish brown bread (she also has different recipes than I used for soda bread and scones), beer waffles, and many more! The Brown Eyed Baker is a genius. Go visit her site! Oh, and don't forget your boiled dinner of corned beef and cabbage!


For a nightcap, how about making your own homemade Bailey's irish cream liqueur? I stumbled upon this recipe this week, and it looks very do-able to make at home!

May the luck o' the Irish be with you this week, and I'll talk to y'all soon!

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