Bake from Scratch July/August 2020

IN A DEPARTURE FROM PAST LETTERS, I’m currently writing this not from my office in Birmingham, Alabama, but from my home, socially distancing from my coworkers and friends as we face a global pandemic. Travel is one of the great passions of my life, but the current climate has my fellow adventurers and me grounded at the time this issue went to press. This Authentic Ireland issue has offered me the perfect escape. When we visited Ireland in January to produce and photograph this issue, we had no idea what the future held. But as bakers, we know we don’t necessarily have to leave our homes to enrich our lives with exciting new experiences. All we have to do is head to the kitchen and preheat our ovens. For this…

BARS AND COOKIES Chocolate-Cherry Browned Butter Sandwich Cookies with Whiskey Buttercream 82 Fifteens 67 Glazed Oat Cookies 72 Guinness Brownies 80 BREADS Brown Soda Bread 38 Custard Brioche Tarts 62 Herb Scones with Chive Cream and Smoked Salmon 93 Irish Cheddar White Soda Bread 34 Irish Potato Farls 57 Irish Soda Bread 94 Oaten Bread 72 Soda Bread Pizza 60 Soda Farls 35 Summer Squash Flatbreads 15 Sweet White Scones 62 Tomato Irish Soda Bread Dinner Rolls with Fried Shallot Butter 95 Waterford Blaa Rolls 30 CAKES Apple Slice Traybake 68 Banana-Blueberry Oat Cake 74 Barmbrack 110Berries & Irish Cream Coffee Cake 79 Chocolate Guinness Cake with White Knight Frosting 93 Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake 105 Gur Cake 67 Irish Cream Cake 13 Irish Sponge Cake with Strawberry Preserves and Cream 66 Peach Streusel Snack Cake 111 Rhubarb & Ginger Upside-Down Cake 25 Ricotta Cheesecake with Fresh Blueberries 23 Vanilla Bean Berry Pound Cake with Sour Cream Vanilla Glaze 5 FROSTINGS, FILLINGS, GARNISHES,…

THE IRISH COOKBOOK by JP McMahon A compendium of recipes from some of the most respected chefs and bakers of Ireland, The Irish Cookbook offers a deep dive into everything from soda bread to porter cake. Containing 480 recipes and 1,000 years of history, this is the go-to cookbook for those looking to explore Irish cuisine. Available at amazon.com. REAL IRISH FOOD by David Bowers A cookbook devoted to translating the Irish palate for Americans, Real Irish Food helps you transform American pantry staples into something distinctly Irish. New York food writer David Bowers spent years in Dublin gathering true Ireland cuisine insight and then combined this knowledge with his practical understanding of available American ingredients. Available at amazon.com. CLONAKILTY WHISKEY A venerable distillery run by the Scully family in County Cork, Clonakilty produces Irish whiskey that…

KERRYGOLD BUTTER A recurring theme you’ll see throughout this issue is the Irish people’s pride for their unsurpassed dairy. Kerrygold butter is one of these sterling examples, a European-style butter produced in County Kerry with dairy from Jersey cows fed by brilliantly green Irish grassland, turning the butter a brilliant yellow. Its extra fat content leads to flaky pastries and particularly rich baked goods. Available in most stores. MCCANN’S STEEL CUT IRISH OATMEAL An Irish brand since the 1800s, McCann’s has secured a name for itself by making the most of one of Ireland’s greatest agricultural crops: oats. Steel-cut oats in particular are the Irish way of serving oats, cutting the oat with a steel blade to produce finer pieces. They’re nuttier and chewier than old-fashioned oats and serve as both a toothsome topping…

When I was a child growing up in Ireland, we used to do our bake for the week every Saturday morning, like a lot of other Irish households at the time. We would make soda bread, cinnamon rock buns, scones, some sort of oat cookie, and always a delicious cake to be had over the weekend. Every few weeks, the cake would change to adjust to what was growing in the garden, and during spring and summer, we would make a delicious upside-down rhubarb cake. I have adjusted the recipe slightly over the years, and I’ve added in crystallised ginger, which gives a wonderful sweetness and zing to the rhubarb. If you don’t have rhubarb, you can make this with soft fruits, pears, apples, and even oranges. I love to…

There’s a fierce patriotism that exists around certain foods, the kind that runs through the veins of locals who grew up with it and can tell you just where to find the best version—and just where you can go if you disagree on where that is. No one can touch France’s claim to croissant fame. You can’t visit England without tucking into a platter (or five) of fish and chips. And Ireland? Well, the Emerald Isle has its fair share of delicacies, to be sure. But none are so interwoven in the fabric of past and present as the humble Waterford blaa. Waterford sits at the bottom of the island in Ireland’s Ancient East, southwest of Dublin and northeast of Cork, the perfect stopping point to break up an Irish road trip.…