Waiter, there's a beer in my pudding!

 I was looking for a dessert to go with the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner on St. Pat's and stumbled upon this recipe for Chocolate Guinness Goodness. I happened to have some Great Lakes Brewery Edmund Fitzgerald Porter in the fridge and it sounded simple and delicious.

It didn't even dawn on me until recently that there was such a thing as homemade pudding until I saw a post on my friend Megan's blog A Sweet Spoonful on Butterscotch Pudding. I was reminded of this blog when I was looking for ideas for a personal chef client that loved old fashioned desserts. So I made some scratch chocolate pudding and my eyes were opened to how easy and delicious homemade pudding can be.

This recipe is a grown up pudding, perfect for a dinner party dessert when the menu focus is beer or just for a rich treat. The porter did not scream out from the recipe but gave an added richness. Guinness might leave a more obvious taste. I did not reduce the porter and add to the whipped cream, like the recipe said. I had some non-drinkers to serve and thought that might be offputting so I just sweetened the whipped cream. For adults I would take this extra step. I used Ghardelli Bittersweet chocolate chips for the chocolae. If you have pint glasses, the final dessert comes off looking like a glass of Guinness.

Should you finish off the extra beer even though it is 11 in the morning. You can't waste beer right? Just be careful it doesn't distract you and the cream boils over. Not saying this happened but it could, right?

Irish Soda Bread

If you grew up eating Irish Soda Bread on St. Pat's day apparently your version may be nothing like mine. My Irish Soda Bread has to have golden raisins and caraway seeds in it. I don't make it in the shape of snake with raisin eyes like I had when I was little and I never saw the need to dye everything green like in my childhood. But that doesn't mean I don't get a childish pleasure out of making a loaf and serving it on St. Pat's.

You can still make some to celebrate St. Pat's in a more family friendly way today than serving your kids a green beer. One of those really easy breads - no yeast. You should have most of the ingredients at home and you can cheat on the buttermilk if you don't want to stop at the store.

Irish Soda Bread

2 cups flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 T. sugar
1/2 stick cold butter cut into pieces
1 cup golden raisins (or regular raisins)
2 T. caraway seeds (optional but one of my favorite parts)
2/3 cup buttermilk (no buttermilk? look below)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In food processor, pulse together flour, baking powder, baking soda, caraway seeds, salt and sugar. Put butter pieces on top of flour mixture.

Whenever I make something where the butter needs to be "cut in" I usually slice the cold stick of butter (or half a stick in this case) into 3 long slices then turn the stick a quarter and cut into 3 slices. You should now have 9 long bars of butter still in a stick shape. Slice on the short end of the stick to produce pea sized squares of cold butter. If you do this before you are ready to use - throw the cubes back in the fridge to stay cold while you gather up everything else.

Add the butter and pulse until mixture is crumbly. Measure 2/3 cup buttermilk into a one cup container or bowl. Add the egg to the buttermilk; beat together. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Pulse till it comes together.

Place a small amount of flour on the counter. Turn dough out onto the counter and work in the raisins until incorporated. Don’t overwork the dough though or it will be tough.

Form the dough into a ball and place in a parchment lined pan to form a large disk of dough. Use a sharp knife to cut a cross over the top of the bread. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden on top. Slice and serve with Irish butter.

To make a substitute for buttermilk add a tablespoon of lemon juice to one cup of whole milk. The milk will curdle. Measure out the amount you need.

If you want to go authentic Andrew McCarthy wrote a story on it in March, Bon Appetit.