Beer, Cheese & Garlic Soda Bread for St Patrick’s Day
“It’s St Patrick’s Day and you’re not wearing green… you’re going to get punched!”
Said the Sorority girl in my costume class the first time I went to America on an international exchange in college. I don’t know if text conveys it, but she was genuinely concerned for me - apparently, that’s a thing if you don’t wear green on St Patrick’s Day. I pulled a face and said, as the person in the room that lived closest to Ireland, that wasn’t a thing our way…… Another thing we didn’t have was green beer.
Shamrock Shake Ice Cream Ale by The White Hag
This year I got a green beer - the Shamrock Shake Ice Cream Ale from The White Hag. There’s a review of it over on the Love Beer Learning Insta page if you want to see what I thought. If you don’t like mint, this is not for you!
I also decided to spontaneously make soda bread for dinner. It had to include beer, obviously - I love a bit of cooking with beer. Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tbs honey
75ml beer
50ml buttermilk (if you don’t have any see notes below)
A handful of grated cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Method
Preheat the oven to 200oC
Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet ingredients in another.
*Note - if you don’t have buttermilk you can use ⅓ cup of milk and 1tsp of vinegar. let it sit for 10 mins then add half to the wet ingredients. For beer selection, Guinness is an obvious choice, or a porter. I didn’t have any Irish beer in I could make this with (spontaneous remember?) so I used Scottish beer (don’t hate me!) - McEwan’s Levy which has nutty notes.
Add the wet to the dry and combine until they make a sticky dough. Add the cheese and the garlic powder.
Turn out onto a well-floured surface and knead a few times.
Shape into a loaf and scores a deep cross through the middle of the loaf. Bake for 30 mins.
This made enough for me and The Hubs to have as a side with dinner with a little leftover that I’m munching on now!
You can also use different fillings or go plain - it’s amazing warm with butter.
Let me know how you get on in the comments!
