Everyone needs a great Irish Bread Recipe and this is a GREAT one. Bread can be an intimidating thing to make but Irish Bread is an easy place to start. No yeast or rising to deal with. My family asks for this Irish Bread Recipe all year round and it is wonderful for breakfast and after school snacks… anytime of the day. Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day so this recipe is a tasty way to celebrate the holiday and your new found Irish identity.
“May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light, may good luck pursue each morning and night”
-Unknown
I have tried many Irish Bread recipes over the years. I will say my favorite Irish Bread is from our local pub, The Chieftain Pub in Plainville, MA. At dinner service you get a basket of bread when you sit down, it is heavenly. I have tried to get them to teach it to me, but in true Irish fashion, there is no recipe. Just a little bit of this and a little bit of that. My grandmother’s recipe, which was also fantastic has been lost with time which makes me sad. But I am happy with the one that I have come up with. This recipe is a mix of many other recipes I have tried over the years. I would say there are two tips for this recipe, one is soaking the raisins in hot water to plump them up. It is a game changer and two is sprinkling sugar on the top to get that sweet crunchy topping.
If you are interested in more foodie content, please check out the Recipes page of my blog Sunday Chefs for more tried and true family recipes and restaurant reviews.
Equipment
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- This makes two Irish Breads for me and I use 9 inch glass plates.
- Spray the pie plates with cooking spray or coat with butter.
- Combine all the dry ingredients and sift or whisk them until combined well.
- While you are preparing all this. Soak the raisins in very hot water for about 10 minutes. This plumps them up.
- Drain them and coat in white sugar or flour so they don't sink to the bottom of the bread.
- I have found that using your hands to mix this works the best. It is messy but it works.
- Add the butter and combine well.
- Add the raisins and combine well, make sure all the raisins are separated and coated well in the flour mixture.
- Add all the wet ingredients (heavy cream, buttermilk, and the egg and stir until well incorporated.
- Pour the mixture into the pie plates and cut a cross in the top (tradition) and sprinkle the top with sugar for a sweet crunchy top.
- Bake for at least an hour until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.
I did a lot of research on restaurants before going to Rome, especially ones that catered to food allergies. I have to say it was difficult. The general consensus was that Rome was very allergy friendly and we did find this to be true. But information on specific restaurants was tough to find. I knew the places that we wanted to visit (i.e. Colosseum, Vatican, Pantheon, etc.) So I wanted to discover restaurant choices near our destinations, so I wouldn’t be wandering with a “Hangry” family trying to find a place to eat. We were not looking for fancy…. inexpensive, great food, great atmosphere and food allergy friendly. 
Franco was our waiter and he was fabulous. He was very friendly and told us the food allergies were not a problem, they would make it work (I made the food allergy cards, but honestly never had to use them..the one place we tried, seemed confused by them. But I am still glad that I had them, just in case).
We got the Caprese salad, Bruschetta, Pette di pollo al limone (lemon chicken) Penna all’ arrabbietta (penne with spicy tomato sauce), Spaghetti alla carbonara (pasta carbonara) and Margherita pizza and a lot of wine (house wine). Always get the house wine in Italy! The food was amazing.
I forgot this and we had no cash. Franco was so wonderful and felt so bad he walked my husband to the nearest ATM and then brought us free desserts and “sexy wine”. The “sexy wine” is something you have to discover for yourself. When he brought it and I gleefully cried “Is this the sexy wine?” he was thrilled I knew what it was. (I do my research.. haha). It was wonderful!
As we were leaving, Mickey (the owner) was sitting outside and thanked us for coming. We are from Boston and he is great friends with the former mayor of Boston and former Vatican ambassador, Ray Flynn. We had a wonderful conversation about Rome and Boston.