Happy St. Patrick's Day

This is a repost from a 2011 post.

 Spotted Dog is in the oven as I type. Wishing you all a Happy St. Patick's Day!



May you always have a fire in your hearth

And flour in your bin.

May the cooking fairies smile kindly upon you

And may you always have spotted dog on your table.

Okay, so it's not a real Irish blessing (duh). In fact it's a really bad impersonation of one, but I couldn't resist. I don't have a poetic bone in my body, but sometimes...well just count this as one of those times I thought I did.

It's already St. Patrick's Day! All over the world, at least I'm pretty sure it's worldwide, people will be dining on Irish fare, or what they think is Irish fare. And we am no any different. We are approaching our St. Patrick's Day meal a little differently this year. Since there are just the two of us I decided not to make Guinness stew and colconnon. But I did make "Spotted Dog". Spotted Dog is probably the husband's favorite bread that I bake. It is super simple, and a great way to use up that extra buttermilk you have in the refrigerator, but yet I don't make it more than once a year, and he relishes every morsel.

I found the recipe in the late 90's when we were going to have some friends in for a St. Patrick's Day party. The recipe came from the "Will O'Glenn" Irish Bead and Breakfast in Glenn, Michigan.

Spotted Dog
(Irish Soda Bread)                               
Make one loaf

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp double acting baking powder
5 Tbs sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a small bowl, cover raisins with boiling water and let stand for 5 minutes. In a large bowl, sift flour, soda, baking powder, and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Drain raisins, stir into flour mixture. Add buttermilk all at once. Stir vigorously with fork.

Shape into ball. Place on a greased 8-inch pie plate. bake 15 minutes at 400F, reduce heat to 375F and bake for 30 more minutes, or until a knife comes out clean

Remove from pie plate. Cool one hour. Cut into wedged or slices. Makes 10 large servings.

As for the rest of our St. Patrick's Day meal, I have Three Many Cooks to thank. We'll be celebrating the day with their Corned Beef and Cabbage Slaw Sliders and Baked Potato Chips with Paprika and Garlic.

Chan fhiach cuirm gun a còmhradh.

A feast is no use without good talk.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!