Irish Authors and Cinnamon Bread

Happy belated Easter! We celebrated with a cold egg hunt in the backyard and a relaxing Sunday at my sister-in-law’s house in Chicago. It definitely does not feel like spring, because this morning, April 18th, we woke up to snow! Beautiful, and not that cold for a snowy day, but still. I’m so ready for spring. I want everything to be green and in bloom. I want to plant vegetables and cook and eat outside. Instead I’m wrapped in an electric blanket reading books and thinking about baked goods.

I’ve read some really great books by Irish authors lately and I’ve been contemplating the possible reasons that so many of the world’s best authors, past and present, are Irish. Is it the weather? The religious and political turmoil? I just read Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, a short piece of fiction about the Magdalene Laundries - institutions run by the Catholic order which operated in Ireland from the 18th to the late 20th centuries, and where hundreds of young unwed mothers and their children experienced abusive conditions, cruelty and even death. It took just an hour to read but was so moving. And truly thought provoking. It made me think about the role of religion and morality in society and the tough decisions humans are faced with.

Immediately after finishing Small Things Like These, I listened to the book Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan. It received a lot of praise and I was intrigued, but didn’t even know that it was by another Irish author until I started the audio version. I have to tell you, this one made me wish that all audiobooks could be read by people with Irish accents. The narrator of the book had such a clear and lyrical voice. And her accent just carried me away. I could not stop listening. The book, though sad and disturbing at times, was beautiful and compelling.

I have no idea what it is about Irish authors. But thank goodness for them. Especially because it is still snowing in late April. I may have to get another few books to carry me through this cold spring. And some more cold weather recipes as well. Here’s a good one that I cannot believe it took me so long to make; cinnamon bread.

This is the chocolate version. The first few loaves went to fast for us to photograph.

My kids recently developed a fondness for cinnamon bread. I made the mistake of buying it on sale at Piggly Wiggly earlier this year and they were hooked. These little half-loaves of cinnamon bread cost about $5 each! I get that there’s butter in there but doesn’t it seem way too expensive for grocery store bread? It feels that way, especially when my kids can polish a whole one off in one sitting. Of course my first thought was that I could make it myself without too much effort. And that it would be much cheaper (and better). I have my frugal, immigrant father to thank for that reaction I suppose. Thanks (for the bread) Dad!

My most trusted source when it comes to baking, is King Arthur Flour. They relentlessly test their recipes and manage to make them mostly impossible to mess up, even for amateur bakers like me. As suspected, they have a foolproof recipe for cinnamon bread. It’s super simple and really, really good. I started out by making a single loaf and made a double batch the next day. A couple of days later, I made another double batch but instead of making both cinnamon, I made one chocolate and one cinnamon.

These loaves disappeared so quickly. I laughed to myself that it would have cost $50 if I let my family consume that much store-bought cinnamon bread! And in addition to the savings, my house smelled amazing. There is no air freshener in the world that beats the smell of fresh bread. This bread also makes really good french toast. I made some the other day - in the oven, on a baking sheet - and it was so easy. Highly recommend.

Roll out the dough; Brush with egg wash: Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar; Roll up and put in the pan: Let rise until puffy and filling up the pan; Bake.

For cinnamon bread, I followed the recipe here, doubling it for two loaves.

For the chocolate version*:

Instead of using cinnamon sugar, I added mini-chocolate chips to one side of the bread as I rolled it out, and added cocoa powder and sugar in about a 1:1 ratio in place of the cinnamon sugar. I threw some extra mini-chocolate chips on top of the filling before rolling it up.

*The chocolate version was a hit, but don’t make this if your kids are chocoholics like mine are or they will never want the cinnamon version again.

4 Bumps and a Birthday Cake

The Irish have some weird traditions, I have to tell you. Have you ever heard of “Birthday Bumps”?  Birthday bumps are a tradition in Ireland where the birthday person is taken by the arms and legs and bounced up and down in the air with their head touching the floor the same number of times as their years of life. While I think my kids (including the birthday girl)  would have really enjoyed it if we bumped Noelle on her birthday, she’s gotten too big for me to do this without fear of dropping her on her head. Instead, I baked her a cake and let her lick the spoon.

These two were so excited about the cake and the birthday.

At her age (or any age), all you really need to make a birthday special is CAKE. Even though I didn’t know how to change a diaper until I had my first child, somehow I knew how important cakes were going to be to my kids. Before I had my oldest, Emmett, I bought all of the equipment necessary to make a layer cake. After he was born, I studied cake decorating youtube videos so that I would be ready for his 1st birthday.  Ever since, I’ve been making each of my kids a homemade cake for their birthdays.  Sometimes they tell me what flavor or theme they want months in advance, and just as with Halloween costumes, they change their minds at the last minute, requiring me to start from square one.   

This year, Noelle surprised me by sticking to the Chocolate on Chocolate “Lollipop” themed cake which she requested back in October. Paul thought I was going to make the cake look like a Lollipop. I told him that he’s clearly been watching too much of the Great British Bakeoff and who does he think I am anyway?  I made something much, much easier and all of the kids loved it. 

I decided to use a recipe from the amazing book Zoe Bakes Cakes, which I was able to download from the library. Amazingly, I followed the recipes exactly for both the frosting and the cake and I’m not sorry! I topped it with her fave, lollipops and a caramel apple, and a lollipop candle. She was in heaven. And it reminded me how little it takes to make their special day feel truly special. 

It looks wonky here but once it gets covered with frosting it will all even out.

I just spread it on thick and don’t worry about what it looks like. I’ll fix it later.

After smoothing things out a bit.

Don’t you just want to eat this with a spoon?

I made chocolate shavings that I put on the top. I tried to put them on the sides but just gave up. The frosting was too set by then and I was afraid I was going to ruin the cake by messing with it anymore. I bought the lollipops from Ashley’s and the candied apple from Sweettrio in Grafton. Love both shops! So many sweet treats!

 If you want to make this cake, the recipe is here. I scaled the cake recipe down by half to make a 4-layer 6-inch cake and I made ⅔ of the frosting recipe, which was EXACTLY enough. Emmett helped me with the math. Everyone helped me eat the tops of the cake layers after I leveled them. I cannot believe my baby is 4 years old! 

 Happy December everyone! I know it’s a busy time and I hope you are enjoying it.  I’ve been doing all of my Christmas shopping locally which has been really fun. We’ve shopped everywhere in Cedarburg, but also Grafton, Port Washington and other places close by and it’s been a great way to see more of the area. There are so many unique places to shop right here in our community. And for those of you who have shopped with us in Long Grove, Crystal Lake or here in Cedarburg, THANK YOU. It means so much to us that you have supported our family business. Whether you’ve been coming in for decades, or just once, we appreciate you. Happy Holidays! 

Milwaukee Irish Fest and Late Summer Disappearing Roasted Tomato Tart

The kids love these hats and gloves. I actually want one of these hats for myself!

This weekend is Milwaukee Irish Fest! I have a love-hate relationship with Milwaukee Irish Fest due to Paul’s OBSESSION with it. He made us schedule our wedding and shorten our honeymoon so that we could be back in time for the fest. As we speak, my brother-in-law has a moving truck in the driveway full of all of the stuff they need for their booth. My sister-in-law is staying in Milwaukee so she can work with her brothers all weekend. It truly is a family affair.  Despite all of the hard work, long nights, and, in previous years, long drives back-and-forth from Chicago to Milwaukee, it’s Paul’s favorite weekend of the year. He will be in the store this weekend but at the fest each evening after he closes so be on the lookout for him if you go! I’m happy that we are so much closer now and I’m glad the festival is back. 

This one’s definitely my child.

Unlike my relationship with the fest, I unequivocally LOVE this time of year.  As a sun worshipper, late August is probably the best time of year for me, weather wise. But it’s also bittersweet because the school-year is approaching and everything is about to become more scheduled, the days will be shorter, the cold will come. I try to set these things aside and just soak in the last of the summer. As part of that, I usually go crazy with summer produce, canning and freezing and trying to preserve a tiny bit of summer that can be pulled out of the pantry in the dead of winter. I also try to make my favorite summer foods before it’s too late. 

And do I love any food more than a savory tart? I love that you can make them ahead. I love that they always taste best at room temperature. I love that they transcend seasons and  “meal times” and are good any time. I love that they travel well.   I love that they aren’t fussy, you can cut off a wedge and eat them out of hand. I love that they are easy to make. I love that they don’t need meat to be delicious. I could go on and on. In late summer, I also love tomatoes. People say they get sick of them, and I guess I get it, when you have a garden and they all come at once or all come for a long time (I’m looking at you, people with longer growing seasons) you can get inundated with them.  How much caprese salad can a person eat? Well, I can eat a lot actually. But, I also love to take some of that bounty and roast it.  I slow-roast cherry and grape tomatoes this time of year and freeze them to toss with pasta or throw into soup once it starts getting cold outside. 

The other day, I married two of my favorite things, roasted tomatoes and savory tarts. As expected, I was in heaven.  Admittedly, the recipe is sort of involved, the kind of recipe I usually don’t like, too many components, sub-recipes (ugh), too time consuming. I get it. But, none of the elements require a lot of hands-on time, and when you make most of them ahead, it only takes a few minutes to throw together and bake. I had the pastry dough and caramelized onions in the freezer, so that part was done. And I roasted the tomatoes a few days before so I was able to roll out the dough, top it, chill it and pop it in the oven, get on a conference call and pull it out to cool before my next meeting.  

All I could think about during that second meeting was lunch. The smell of this tart cooling in my kitchen was highly distracting. By the time the meeting was over all I wanted to do was eat. It's no wonder I didn’t take a photo of my masterpiece, eh hem, the tart. It was SO good. The next day, I had another slice for lunch. An hour later, it occurred to me that I hadn’t taken a photo of the tart since it came out of the oven. But when I went back to the kitchen, the rest of the tart was gone. The kids had eaten lunch already and left with the babysitter. No one was even home! I searched high and low, wondering if I accidentally put it in the freezer or the pantry or somewhere it didn’t belong. Nope. It had literally vanished into thin air. I was less worried about the fact that this could mean someone was in my house unbeknownst to me, than the fact that the rest of the tart was gone. If I had criminal leanings, I would definitely steal a tomato tart over the tv so I knew this thief  and I would get along just fine. 

When Paul got home from the store, he brought the remaining piece of the tart with him. I was so happy to see him it.  As it turned out, when Emmett was “working” at the store that morning, Paul asked him to bring him some lunch after he got home. So Emmett brought him the tart when the kids left the house with the babysitter.  Mystery solved. But the fact that two people can almost finish this tart in just two days is evidence that it does, in fact, disappear. I know it’s asking a lot, all of the steps, the roasting, the dough etc. but you should really give it a go. The roasted tomatoes are good on their own so if you have a lot, I highly suggest doubling or tripling the amount. They freeze well. I throw a few over a bed of arugula and eat them with creamy burrata and a drizzle of olive oil for a fancy yet super-quick working-from-home lunch. They taste like the last, most special part of summer. 

The tart definitely doesn’t need the ham. Next time I will leave well enough alone!

I will also add even more basil. I added caramelized onions that I had in the freezer . In the instructions, I streamline this process by adding the onion/shallots to the roasted tomato mixture.

This is what the roasted tomatoes should look like, still soft, not too shriveled or dry but not juicy like raw ones either.

It’s a galette, I don’t think it’s supposed to look perfect. Personally, I never try to make it look uniform which starts with the fact that I don’t worry much about the edges when I roll it out, but if you are more of a perfectionist, you can roll it into an actual circle and crimp it all over in a more symmetric way.

Don’t forget the egg wash! It gives your crust color.

Crust 

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold

• 1/2 cup sour cream, cold

• 1 egg (for egg wash)

Tomatoes

• 2 lbs fresh tomatoes

• 1 small onion/2-3 shallots (optional) 

• ¼ cup olive oil

• 1 tbsp combination of fresh thyme and rosemary

• Salt to taste

Filling

• 1-2 cups roasted tomatoes

• 1 cup shredded cheese (white cheddar, gouda, whatever you like)

• ⅓ cup sour cream or creme fraiche

• ¼ cup caramelized onion or shallot

• 2 tbsp or more chopped fresh basil

• 2-3 slices of ham (optional)

Roast the tomatoes (and onions/shallots)

Preheat oven to 250 F

Cut tomatoes into ¼ inch thick slides or halves if you are using cherry or grape tomatoes. 

Cut shallots, if using in thin slices

Toss tomatoes and onions/shallots (if using) in salt, olive oil and fresh thyme and rosemary

Spread tomato mixture on a large baking sheet and roast for 2-3 hours until there is no longer liquid pooling on the baking sheet but tomatoes are still soft to the touch.

Make the crust

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add the butter, working it in to make a coarse/crumbly mixture. Leave most of the butter in large, pea-sized pieces.

Add the sour cream, and stir with a wooden spoon until it starts to come together. 

Dump it out on a floured work surface and knead until you can form it into a ball. 

Shape the ball into more of a square and roll it out until it’s about half an inch thick. Then fold it in three, like a letter. 

Flip the dough over, turn it 90 degrees and roll it out again into a large rectangle.  Fold it in three again.  

Fold your letter of dough in half once more so it is basically a rectangle and chill for at least 30 minutes before using. 

Assemble and bake

Heat oven to 375 F and put oven rack on lower middle half of the oven

Roll out dough into a rough circle

Sprinkle with cheese (and pieces of ham if using) leaving a 1 inch border all around where you will fold over the edges later

Add basil to sour cream and spread over cheese

Top with tomato mixture

Sprinkle with more cheese

Fold up edges of dough to form a border of crust

Whisk egg in a bowl and brush onto crust

Put tart in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to resolidify the butter in the crust. This prevents it from melting, which would allow the water in the butter to interact with the gluten in the flour, resulting in a less-flaky, more bread-like dough

Bake for 35-45 minutes until crust is brown and cooked through - use a spatula to lift galette and take a peek at the bottom of your crust to make sure it’s golden before removing from the oven. 

Be warned. This will literally disappear.