"Steamed" ? Irish Soda Bread

Every year when St. Patrick's Day gets close, the portion of my family tree that is Irish comes to the surface, I start craving a good stout or ale and I want a loaf of soda bread in the house to nosh on, this year is no different! I normally beg my youngest who happens to work at a market to bring me a loaf of soda bread, but when the latest Kraft Food and Family magazine showed up in my post box, and it just so happened to have a soda bread recipe in it, I decided to tackle it on my own. 

There has been times when attempting bread baking, it is more like
an episode of  I Love Lucy 

What I envision bread baking to be like

There was one very big difference with this recipe...there would be no baking...that's right, NO BAKING! not in the traditional way at any rate. This bread would be "steamed" in a crock pot! Now I had seen a lot of recipes for crock pot bread on Pinterest before, but I just could not understand how bread could be good if "baked that way", but as I had all the ingredients, and  I did not know when I would see my daughter to have her bring me my yearly loaf, I decided to give it a whirl. 

I would rather have homemade bread vs store bought any day! 

Let's Get Started....

 Find recipe HERE

As always I gathered my ingredients and let my egg come to room temperature. I substituted golden raisins for regular. 

I got out my crock pot and sprayed it with cooking spray

Following the instructions I blended the wet ingredients
with the sugar.... 

Then dumped in the dry, and the raisins ( not shown)  .....

...and mixed until blended....

I kneaded the bread on a lightly floured surface as directed, and then put in the steam cooker, already sprayed with cooking spray,and cut the X, then put the lid on it, setting the heat to
high and the timer to three hours. 

The final result....looks like bread! 

First thing I notice is the top texture is a bit more doughy
looking....but smooth...and knife came out clean.

The texture has the nice air bubbles, is not as dry as
traditional soda bread, It could have perhaps steamed
for 10 more minutes for a drier texture....

After tasting, I give this a Ruby's Musings Approved stamp!
It was very yummy! So quick and easy and a dough that
I could easily see adapted to using other dried fruits. 

Overall as stated in the caption above, I give this bread my stamp of approval, I loved the ease, and I loved how moist the bread is, and the fact that I could easily add a bit of cinnamon, maybe some nutmeg and use different dried fruits to make a whole different type of bread. The texture is not as dry, probably due to the fact that it is steam baked, as traditional soda bread, and the taste is a little more sweet than traditional, but that is not a bad thing. I think it would be really yummy toasted with a bit of jam, and I plan to freeze it and then use it for a bread pudding or even French toast at some point...if I did not freeze some of it, I would eat the whole loaf, and that would not be a good thing. 

Next Week on the Blog...

Next week on the blog, a two part series on "What's it like to live with a retro/rockabilly/vintage wife", from the families point of view. In part one, I  will be sharing stories from some of my fans and even fellow bloggers' families, and then in part two even from my own family.  

Remember....

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