If you follow The Well-Fed Newlyweds on Facebook (and if you don’t, you should), you know that I embarked on something of an Irish soda bread baking frenzy this week. Don’t ask me why; I’m not even sure myself. You see, for one thing, I’m not remotely Irish. I also don’t get into celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, so that can’t be it either. If I had to guess, I’d have to say my baking spree was brought about by this month’s Bon Appétit magazine.
In the March issue, Bon Appétit features an article written by Andrew McCarthy. Yes, that Andrew McCarthy, the actor, and former Brat Packer. Apparently he does some writing these days, and in the latest Bon Appétit, he chronicles his quest for the perfect Irish soda bread. I was intrigued, as I respect the significance of a culinary quest. (I may have undertaken one or two myself over the years.) I thus made a mental note to try out what he determined to be the ultimate soda bread.
And then it got really interesting. I think I was sort of brainwashed. Being the week of St. Patrick’s Day, I was bamboozled with images and articles about Irish food, Irish soda bread in particular. I’m an easy target for a promising sales pitch (I’m afraid to watch infomercials for fear of buying everything), so I was quickly drawn in. Irish soda bread had me firmly on its hook. So I picked three recipes (choosing to ignore the question of how the two of us would possibly eat that much soda bread before it went stale), and I got to work.
