Milwaukee Irish Festival 2022

Thank you for coming out to the Milwaukee Irish Festival this year. So many friends of the store stopped by our booth and it was great to see everyone. We really appreciate your support. The fest continues today - we would love to see you!

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.

Meyer Lemon Marmalade

Rainy Paddy’s Day Parade.

Hello there. Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day!  Are you looking forward to Spring as much as I am? Daylight savings plus having a few sunny days has been an incredible prelude to warmer weather. I’m looking forward to getting outside more, longer days, grilling, gardening, camping, the pool, all of it! I know, I’m getting ahead of myself by a few months with some of that stuff, but I also know that time flies. 

I’m really looking forward to Spring for another reason too. By the time March comes around, I’m so sick of eating all of the same things. Broccoli, cauliflower, oranges, apples. These foods are fine, but I’m so ready for some new fruits and veggies. But I have found a new ingredient that has improved my bread baking. For the past month or so, I’ve been making bread with Red Fife wheat grown and milled here in Wisconsin. It is SO good. The Red Fife flour tastes nutty and is a little bit reminiscent of rye, in a very subtle way. I love this homemade bread toasted with butter and jam.

 I also love homemade jam, another favorite summer pastime, picking fruit and canning. I love how there’s always a new fruit in season every few weeks throughout the summer.  And having jam all winter isn’t too bad either.  I still remember going strawberry picking with my mom and my brother when I was small and we lived in Oregon.  We would get pounds and pounds of berries and make so many jars of strawberry jam. That jam was amazing. Nothing like store bought. I still love making jam. And even though I usually think of it as a summer activity, citrus fruits work great for winter jam. 

Last time I was at Trader Joe’s I bought a bag of Meyer lemons. When I got home, I stuck them in the back of my fridge where they’ve  been ever since. Meyer lemons are so good, but for me, they aren’t sour enough to use like a regular lemon or lime, so aside from putting in a dessert, I struggle with how to use them. Good thing I ran out of jam yesterday. Well, I never really run out actually, unless I’m too lazy to walk down to the store where we almost always have some jam, marmalade, golden syrup, and all kinds of things I can use. Still, I had these lemons and they wouldn’t last much longer.

I read a couple of recipes for Meyer Lemon Marmalade.  It seemed like a lot of the steps were designed to minimize the bitterness that can be present with too much rind and pith which makes sense. But those steps can be a pain. I read a few recipes that were simpler, but a lot of their reviews complained of bitterness, so I decided to take the time to remove the pith completely and blanch the rind multiple times. It took some time, but I was just hanging out around the house anyway and the result was worth it. 

Ingredients

1 ¼ to 1 ½ cup sugar

6 Meyer lemons 

1 tbs pectin 

Directions

Juice the lemons

Place the seeds in a cheesecloth bag and set aside. (optional)

Remove flesh and pith so that you have only the skin of each lemon left.

Cut the lemon rinds into strips.

Place in pot and cover with cold water. 

Bring to a boil and boil for one minute. 

Strain and run cold water over them.

Repeat boiling for one minute and straining twice. 

Place rind back in the pot, add sugar, reserved juice, pectin and bag of seeds.

Simmer for about 45 minutes until set. 

Spoon into a jar and refrigerate.

Jam will last 2 -4 weeks.

*Note: This jam will firm up a lot as it cools, don't cook it down until it has a jam-like consistency or it will end up too firm. I stopped cooking mine when it was about the consistency of maple syrup, maybe slightly thinner. 

The seeds have pectin in them which will help the jam thicken without adding pectin, but you can skip this step and it will be fine.

Little lemon caps.

Pulp, throw this away.

Rind - cut this up.

You should be able to get this at the grocery store. You can make this jam without this but it may take longer to set.

Blanching the rind.

Here it is when it’s almost done, you can see the bubbles get larger.