Easy Irish Soda Bread recipe

 Sometimes making homemade bread feels like it could be difficult and time consuming, but it's your lucky day. Mrs Doyle's Irish soda bread can be made quickly and easily by almost anyone. Yes this is a shortcut bread but it certainly doesn’t skimp on flavor. 

Irish soda bread is so easy because it only needs a few ingredients, and the one that makes it taste so good is buttermilk. The buttermilk is so important because it reacts with the baking soda and so permits the bread’s leavening, and of course it gives the bread that great flavor, so with a cup of the best Irish tea and a slice of soda bread you can relax and if you are living far away from Ireland or if you are with friends and family you will always feel at home with this great soda bread and a nice cup of Mrs Doyle's tea .  

• Mrs Doyle soda bread recipe gives a bread that has a golden brown crust and also a dense crumb, just lovely. Mrs Doyle's Irish bread isn’t heavy, it’s really tender and soft, the crust is perfectly crisp as soon as it comes out of the oven,  and in a day or too it's even better and it is the perfect bread for an great Irish breakfast , so if you are sending a friend or relative an Irish gift for Christmas or a Irish gift hamper well why not make up Mrs Doyle's Irish soda bread and send it to them as well Go On Go

• So how do you make the best Irish soda bread? The method

• First whisk buttermilk and one egg together, at the same time whisk a little sugar, flour, baking soda, together in another bowl. Now cut some butter into the flour mixture, remember that cutting the butter into the flour is an important step, and this is how you get the great flaky texture. Go on use your hands and mix it up, and then using a very good knife, score the dough, so that heat gets into the center so that the bread will bake well. Also please note that Irish soda bread can be made with out an egg, it's really up to you. However an egg will add a little richness to the soda bread. Feel free to skip it to make a slightly lighter loaf. No other changes necessary, and if eggs are not for you ,simply leave out the egg. Finally  bake until it's golden brown as easy as it gets .

Mrs Doyle's Irish Christmas cakes are made in lots of different ways, all with lots of love and in general they are variations on the old fashioned fruitcake. They are very tasty, and they can be light, dark, a little moist, a little dry, sometimes heavy, and even sometimes spongy . Mrs Doyle's Irish Christmas cakes are made in many different shapes, sometimes with a little with frosting, or a dusting of icing sugar and of course they can be as simple and plain as you like .

So what are the special ingredients and what do they represent? well the  dried fruits in the cake may represent the fantastic eastern spices which the three Wise Men brought to the newborn King! And remember just to make things a little more interesting the fruits are sometimes soaked overnight in Irish whiskey.

 

So what are the ingredients of Mrs Doyle's Christmas  cakes ? ok here it comes , now remember , this cake only tastes great if you enjoy it with friends and family and a nice cup of decent Irish tea for everyone  !

 

My Christmas Cake Ingredients:

100ml  Irish whiskey

quarter of table spoon of ground clove

50g ground almonds

grated rind of 1 lemon & 1 orange

150g  raisins

125g  stoned dates

quarter of a block of real Irish butter

125g sultanas

100g glace cherries

extra butter for greasing

200g soft brown sugar

4 eggs

grated rind of 1 lemon & 1 orange

2 table spoons of black treacle 

225g  plain flour

half a table spoon of salt

1 rounded table spoon of baking powder

1 table spoon of  mixed spice

quarter of teaspoon of  grated nutmeg

 grated nutmeg and a little few teaspoons of Irish whiskey 

 

My Method:

        You should Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F), around Gas mark.

Now grease a 20cm cake tin and then line it with greaseproof paper. Next wrap some newspaper around the outside of your cake tin with string. This should  help the outside of the cake from going too brown during the cooking and so help it from  drying out.

Now it's time to beat together in a big bowl all that lovely  sugar & butter until its all very creamy. Next  add the eggs, add a little  flour in with each egg, and some treacle and perhaps a few grated fruit rinds and make sure you mix all  for a few minutes.

it's time to stir the flour and baking powder into the bowl of all these lovely soaked fruits and add some salt, some  spices and a few almonds, again stir all of these great ingredients together and mix well.

Now fold the fruit mix into the amazing egg mix, stir it all evenly. Now spoon the mix into the big cake tin, and maybe pull a little bit back in the middle of the cake , this will help as it rises, it will level itself off perfectly.

So Bake in the oven for 3 hours. If it is browning a lot , then cover it loosely with some tin foil. Now cook for another 30 minutes. You will know the cake is ready if you insert a fine skewer into the middle of the cake , and it  comes out clean and really dry.

Now it's time to leave the cake to cool in the tin. 

When the cake is cool, you can remove it from the tin, take off the lining paper, and  wrap it first in clean greaseproof paper and then in tinfoil.

Here is the secret!  do all this in November and each week leading up to Christmas, pour another little bit of your favourite drink over it. This will help the  alcohol to penetrate to the Christmas cake and will make it taste so Irish Go On Go!

here's a hint for the perfect Irish gift to send to some one you love or may be a self gift ? yes go on try a Mrs Doyle's Irish Christmas breakfast hamper for everyone to enjoy with your Christmas cake , you can check out just how good Mrs Doyle's tea is vs Barry's ! no competition at all ! 

It seems  a little filtered tea into at least one of your daily glasses of water could provide you with enough wrinkle-fighting antioxidants and detoxifying botanicals to keep you looking young and also feeling fresher than when you were 21.

Our skin is the largest organ we have, the secret of great glowing skin is to be healthy. Organic green teas have lots of polyphenols which can help fight free radicals and so help prevent skin damage from UV light, which is one of the main causes of  wrinkles. 

When we get a little older we have more exposure to UV light, and your skin can look old and it can even change the skins colour. In some studies Oolong tea has been found to have skin lighting abilities and may decrease the amount of melanin at the cellular level. 

Does green tea help your skin? 

Green tea can help ease the removal of extra fluids and also help accelerate toxin elimination, adding a little hint of grapefruit to green tea gives a sweet kick to the to it , and can also help to even out your complexion.

Perhaps one of the reasons we have a little feeling of pure pleasure is because tea drinking can help lower the post stress cortisol levels. Cortisol is a common steroid hormone and has many roles like controlling blood sugar levels and can act as an anti-inflammatory and also help to influencing memory formation and help control your blood pressure. Also Teas made with cinnamon can help curb some peoples appetite? How cinnamon works is not exactly known but it is believed that it keeps blood glucose levels stable and so reduces cravings, so adding cinnamon to food can help reduce glucose levels after eating .

 

 

This month our recommended teas are Chillout tea

 Chill out tea can be a great green tea, its a nice simple mixture of green tea, cucumber, mint, and is crisp and refreshing and helps at working in collagen-boosting antioxidants.

So Go On there are so many good things about enjoying a nice cup of tea,

Go On be nice to your self !

Oolong tea comes from the leaves of the Camellia Sinensis plant, and it is  totally  good for you

Health Benefits of Oolong Tea

 Can oolong tea be used to help with weight loss?

We know oolong tea has many health benefits. Oolong comes from the Camellia Sinensis plant and so it is  rich in antioxidants. 

If ypu want the best tea for your health , simply pick pure loose leaf tea, which is grown sustainably and grown  without pesticides or herbicides.Hand grown and crafted tea will always taste better and it will be so much better for the environment.

Oolong tea high in caffeine?

Oolong tea is usually picked later than many teas, so the leaf is lift on the bush for a longer time which increases its caffeine content. So yes the caffeine content in oolong tea is usually higher.So if you need a hit of caffeine it does the job but you can keep adding hot walter to the same leaves and it still tastes great after 3 OR 4 cups of tea!

The big question will oolong Tea help you loose weight?

There's is some research that may suggest that bacause there are higher caffeine levels in Oolong that it might help speed up metabolism, other than that theres no definite research to conclude anything else!

Can you put milk in Oolong Tea?

There is a type oolong called Milk Oolong which comes from Taiwan. It is made in a particular way to help the flavours and aromas of the hot milk.

We think it very important to chose your oolong very carefully. Puting milk in your oolong IS REALLY A PERSONAL TASTE TYPE THING! . Milk was not added in ancient times, but we love it with a dash of milk ,so Go On what ever you feel like, main think is to take your time and enjoy every cip!

Either way Mrs Doyle's Oolong tea has to be tasted it is totally amazing on the taste buds.

 

It all started one summer at Ireland's Electric Picnic Music festival, we were selling Irish tea to help UNICEF Ireland, and well Mrs Doyle walked by the tea tent and next thing you know she was making her famous Irish cream tea for everyone!

We got in all the newspapers and even got mentioned in the Irish Times and later in the Washington Post and of course the Irish gift stores wanted to stock Mrs Doyle's Irish teas. Eventually we persuaded Mrs Doyle to share all her famous Irish tea blends.

 After that, well, the word spread and next thing you know, Mrs Doyle's tea tent , was everywhere that summer, eventually we all took the advice of Mrs Doyle and decided that touring is only for the summer !

So We got technology, and now, Mrs Doyle's online Irish tea and gift store works 24 /7 

so Go On, try one of Mrs Doyle's happy teas

or 

sign up to Mrs Doyle's monthly tea box subscription and get 4 teas sent to you or a friend ,every month !     just tea-riffic

 

 

• The best tea for vegans and those drinking less milk 

Mrs Doyle's Irish breakfast tea is the winner of the best Irish breakfast tea on the island for the last 5 years and is so smooth that it tastes as good without milk as it does with Milk .

Mrs Doyle says its because of the finest teas and her secrete method of blending teas . There are other types of teas that work great without milk so here's Mrs Doyle's list    

• Oolong tea is a perfect tea any time of day
• White tea gives a great choice
• Yellow tea for those of us with an even milder taste
• Green tea is perhaps the best for a healthy option
• Try Ripe Pu’erh for a darker richer choice
• Earl grey is great for the zesty option
• Fruit teas will always  be  great in on a sunny day
• looking for something different try Rooibos tea 
• in the evening try Chamomile 

 

Its almost Saint Patrick's Day and Mrs Doyle is of course Irelands most famous tea lady so here's her favorite green tea mocktail ! So go on enjoy Irelands National day and go green 

Here's how you do it,  make a pot of Mrs Doyle's minty tea, not too hot, add a dash of ENNIS Irish non alcoholic gin, with a dash of lemon and a little lime juice and garnish with a few little Irish shamrocks and if your Canadian , may be a little maple syrup 

ok here's  the ingredients 

• Mrs Doyle's Minty tea 
• Ennis non alcoholic inspired gin
• lemon and a little lime juice  
• Irish shamrock 
• and a dash of maple syrup

Why Tea Is so fantastic for Mocktails

Tea can help add a little touch of bitterness with a little astringency to any mocktail. It is also a great  way to add layers and layers of flavor and by steeping your tea bags into your mocktail syrup it helps eliminate the necessity to add more liquid which could dilute the flavor even more .

The Trick to a Good Mocktail ?

You should keep in mind the viscosity, alcohol has a certain weight on your tongue and is very tangible different in the way it feels in your mouth. But how long do you put the tea in for ? well if you use a open tea bag so you can use loose leaf tea and then take it out without any fuss , its great !

We recommended brew times for the tea in a mocktail of around 5 minutes which gives a great concentration of flavors !

But won't the the longer you steep the tea make the mocktail bitter ?  yes a little but well that way the mocktail is definitely a sipper and will last a lot longer and feel like a real cocktail.

so here's Mrs Doyle's fav Mocktail for the start of the summer and how to make it ..

Earl Grey Mocktail !

How to make a Earl Grey Mocktail ?

Fill a big glass with crushed ice, then pour in 3/4 ounce of Mrs Doyle's royal earl grey tea , 1/2 ounce lemon juice, add 3-4 ounces tonic water and stir it up nice and slow and sit back and enjoy with friends in the garden ! 

Some people are near and some are far away , but on Saint Patrick's day its always  good to share a nice cup of tea! it's never been more important , so if its with some one at home, in house, or virtually on the internet, its all about the moment, its all about telling some one just how much you love them , so Go On, make a pot of the best tea on the island and give them a call from near or far away ! and in the spirit of Paddy himself we would encourage you, if you can,  to  make a donation to help children all over the world with UNICEF Ireland .....here's a picture of Mrs Doyle's lovely girls at Ireland's biggest music festival  "The Electric Picnic"  helping raise funds for UNICEF by selling Mrs Doyle's Happy tea ! They might not be  putting up Mrs Doyle's tea tent  physically this year but there will be a virtual       Mrs Doyle's tea tent on line this summer with a team of Mrs Doyle's lovely girls encouraging you all to make tea and make a small donation  to UNICEF IRElAND  , and  Mrs Doyle herself might even make a guest appearance on the big screen So Go On  checkout the festival

  www.electricpicnic.ie