James Joyce seemed an appropriate way to mark St. Patrick’s Day, and rereading my high school copy of the short stories that make up Dubliners seemed less daunting than jumping into Finnegans Wake. Similarly, while soda bread is not exclusively Irish, it is inextricably linked with St. Patrick’s Day, and is much easier to make than the feast of goose, ham, and spiced beef featured in “The Dead”.  

Ever since reading Dubliners in high school, I have imagined a film version that interweaves the different stories, scored by Flogging Molly. We open on a flashback of Michael Furey at Greta’s window. Snow falls. Dubliners. As the opening credits roll we follow a young boy through turn of the century Dublin, to the tune of Rare Olde Times. The stories and characters intertwine culminating in the Morkan’s holiday party. So, if you are a Hollywood producer looking for a gloomy version of Love Actually, get at me.

There is some hot debate about the authenticity of soda bread feat. raisins, so, lacking in raisins anyway, I tested out two variations sans fruit; Thug Kitchen Easier-Than-Pie Soda Bread, and The New York Times Traditional Irish Soda Bread.

The main difference between the two is that the traditional recipe calls for buttermilk, and Thug Kitchen’s recipe is vegan, so calls for almond milk mixed with lemon juice to activate the baking soda. Through no fault of the recipe, this was surprisingly trying, as I dropped the almond milk on the kitchen floor, breaking the seal, which I not once but thrice forgot, spilling milk all over the kitchen counter, table and floor as I shook the almond milk before pouring, and then poured it out of a broken spout. My error in making the Time’s soda bread was realizing too late I had made only one slash, not the signature soda bread cross, so it ended up looking like a brain.  Two very easy recipes, made much messier than they really should be.

What to do with your soda bread leftovers?

Irish French Toast Recipe

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup milk

6 slices of soda bread

2 tablespoons butter

Slice your soda bread. French toast is better with bread that’s a bit stale, but soda bread always has a kind of stale vibe to me. I prefer a thinner slice of bread for my French toast, but always forget that until I’ve done nice thick slices.

Whisk together the eggs, cinnamon, vanilla, and milk. You can go for a full teaspoon of vanilla if you want. I just happened to run out.

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.

Give your bread a dip in the egg mixture. Make sure to get all sides nice and eggy.

Add to skillet and fry until golden. Flip and fry the other side.

Plate and drizzle with syrup, berries, more butter, confectioner sugar, whatever you like.