Irish bread recipes for St. Patrick's Day

Baking is a labor of love that keeps our ancestors alive

Buttermilk? Check.

Flour? Check.

Kerrygold butter? Check, check, check and check.

You can never have too much of the world’s best butter which came from Irish cows eating Irish grass on the most beautiful island in the world. Of course, I’m biased, since my dad’s parents both came from Ireland.

I just finished binge baking 16 loaves of Irish bread. And doing a load of laundry and sweeping the kitchen, since my jeans, shirt, socks and floor were covered in flour. Yes, I have aprons. But there’s something about wearing the ingredients that makes you become the bread you bake.

I bake two kinds: the Irish soda bread recipe my gramma from County Mayo passed down to us and brown bread, the kind served all over Ireland.

The brown bread recipe is the closest one I can find to the chewy, moist bread they serve at every B&B on the Emerald Isle. I use this one that ran in the Wall Street Journal years ago.

I share them in photos from my three-ring notebook of favorite recipes because if I actually typed a recipe out for you, I might forget a teaspoon of this or that and ruin your reputation as a baker.

Here’s my gramma’s recipe from Claremorris, County Mayo. I use the full amount of buttermilk below, 2 cups.

I hope you enjoy these recipes. Be sure to bake with intention and joy, so you can enjoy the experience and bring others joy — and bread.

The thing about baking Irish bread is you don’t do in on the run. Baking slows you down. You have to wipe off the counters, put out all the ingredients and measuring cups and spoons and your favorite wooden mixing spoons and that giant bowl that everything gets stirred in all year long and blast Irish pub music.

And you have to bake more than you need to give some away.

That’s the best part. I bought one of those silicone baking compartments that make four small loaves at once. That way the neighbors get a loaf and a sister or brother. My grandkids can ask for a special tailor-made loaf without raisins or with extra raisins or with chocolate chips. I know, heresy, but the things you do for love, right?

Also, buy extra butter so you can give a small stick of butter away with every loaf.

My gramma baked her bread in a cast iron skillet, but I don’t own one. She also added caraway seeds, but no one in this family is fond of them. She likely drew a cross on the top of her loaves, so I do that but it vanishes in the dough during baking.

At least she and God know it’s there.

I dedicate a whole day to baking Irish bread. As I’ve often said, if baking is any labor at all, it's a labor of love.

A love that gets passed from generation to generation.

Mary Josephine Ansbro from County Clare. I never got to meet her, but she’s present in my kitchen when I bake with her.