September 2015 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Soda Bread

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge was a bit of a double-edged sword for me. It was very exciting because it was the first time I was the challenge host. It was a little bit of a let down because there wasn't the anticipation of "what will this month's challenge be??" on the first day of the month.

As the host, I was able to choose any baking task that my little heart desired and my heart chose to challenge our bakers to make soda bread. I thought it was a fun nod to my Irish ancestry and my desire to travel to Ireland.

I made the whole wheat soda bread recipe my parents brought back from their first trip to Ireland in 1985 as the example for the challenge when I wrote it up a few months ago. To keep things fresh, I opted to make my other go-to soda bread recipe when I baked for the actual challenge this month. It is definitely a comfort food for me and it didn't fail to hit the mark.

Interestingly, I made the soda bread and banana bread (ewww!) the same day. The kids had slices of each as a scientific experiment. Both kiddos gave a thumbs up to the banana bread (probably because of the chocolate chips I included in the batter) and a "so so" rating to the soda bread. (I'm ok with that ... more soda bread for me!) What really tickled me was when Annika referred to the soda bread as "caffeine bread" because she thought the "soda" of soda bread was in reference to soda pop, not baking soda. :)

Annika: Bread Judge #1

Conor: Bread Judge #2

My Irish soda bread - ta da!

For the month of September Meredith from the Poco Loco Olsons challenged us to experiment with soda bread. (HEY! That's ME!) 

December 2014 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Dutch Sweet Bread

This month, we Daring Bakers were challenged to make Dutch sweet bread. We could choose from three recipes that were provided by the challenge's host. I opted to make kruidkoek,which is a quick bread that is seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg.

I was grateful that this month's challenge wasn't going to be overly time consuming, considering how crazy December gets. I was also grateful, after my first attempt at the challenge, for golf's creation of the Mulligan. I made the kruidkoek early in the month and really should have measured my bread pan prior to putting the batter in it. My pan was about 2 inches shorter than the recipe called for, but I decided to go for it anyway ... big mistake. The bread was still raw in the middle and the outside looked like someone put dynamite just under the surface. We chose to call it "interesting" and "unique" instead of the more fitting "ugly as all get out." On an up note, the taste was quite lovely ... very Christmas-y.

Today (nothing like working right up to a deadline, eh?), I tried the recipe again, but put the batter into two bread pans in hopes that would accommodate the quantity of batter better and allow the middle to bake all the way though. Well, I found success in terms of the batter not over-taking the pan, but still ran into the problem of the middle not being done and the outside being over done. Again, the flavor was nice, but it was tough to get past the raw middle texture and crouton exterior.

For the month of December, Andrea from 4pure took us on a trip to the Netherlands. She challenged us to take our taste buds on a joyride through the land of sugar and spice by baking three different types of Dutch sweet bread