Pastry Chef Liz O’Connell,
who can trace her heritage back to Ireland, has been making Irish
Soda Bread ever since she first entered the kitchen. Every year
she bakes it on St. Patrick’s Day, but she can’t even
remember where the original family recipe came from. The recipe
included here isn’t the one she grew up making, but it is
the one you will find in the breadbaskets at Harvest, where
she works in Cambridge.
”When I made it growing up it was more of a tea cake,”
Chef O’Connell says. “The one here is more of a bread,
which is more traditional Irish.”
Chef O’Connell’s grandparents visit Ireland every year,
and O’Connell herself has been there twice. The Guinness
Cake recipe was inspired by a similar dish her grandparents
sampled one year in Galway. Chef O’Connell added her own touches
to it with cocoa and a hint of orange.
Bread
pudding is a staple around Ireland and the United Kingdom, and
Chef O’Connell took a special interest in it after working
in London at Mosimann’s, the official caterer to the Royal
Family. Her Irish Bread Pudding follows tradition with apples, cinnamon
and whiskey, which in Irish means “water of life.”
“They love their puddings over there,” Chef O’Connell
says. “And there’s plenty to choose from.”
With a name like Molly Hanson,
you might assume that our other pastry chef is Irish as well, but
she’s not. She used to work at Harvest with Chef
O’Connell, and the two remain good friends. Chef Hanson now
works at Excelsior and Grill 23 & Bar in Boston,
not far from where she grew up in New England. Her Caraway
Tea Cake recipe isn’t the overly sweet afternoon treat
you may expect. It’s buttery and rich, to be sure, but the
pungency of the caraway seeds makes it a tangier, less conventional
accompaniment to a warm brew.
Her other recipe, for Rhubarb
Pie, begins with traditional Irish scone dough, baked on top
of rhubarb.
“It’s like scones baked on fruit,” Chef Hanson
says. “The rhubarb can be altered quite a bit according to
your tastes, depending on how tart the rhubarb is.”
Early season rhubarb is available now, and Chef Hanson got hers
for recipe testing from Whole Foods. In the earlier part of the
season, rhubarb tends to be lighter and slightly stronger. If you
cannot find rhubarb near you, simply substitute apples seasoned
with cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg – or make up a filling of
your own.
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