If you’re one of the many who bake bread—and many more have gotten into bread-baking during the pandemic—here’s one for your repertoire.

And just in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

It’s a recipe for Irish brown bread: an “everyday” Irish brown bread recipe by Fred B. Dugan for King Arthur Flour.

Traditional Irish brown bread is a blend of whole wheat and white flours, baking soda, salt and buttermilk.

This version adds a bit of enrichment in the form of sugar and butter (or oil).

Slightly sweet with a craggy crumb, the recipe uses Irish-style wholemeal flour (photos #2 and #3), a soft flour coarsely ground from red whole wheat.

It’s King Arthur’s version of the whole grain flours used to bake traditional Irish breads.

It is key, says King Arthur, to use flour that imparts the right flavor and texture.

You can use the Irish-style flour for scones, tea brack (barmbrack) and other Irish baking; as well as in any non-yeast bread recipe calling for wholemeal flour.
 
 
RECIPE: IRISH BROWN BREAD

This recipe produces a dense, complex-tasting loaf of brown bread.

Slather on plenty of rich salted butter (we personally prefer unsalted) and optional marmalade.

Buy some Kerrygold butter, imported from Ireland.

It’s one of the best grass-fed butter brands, made from milk produced by cows that graze on Irish fields and primarily eat grass.

Irish butter is often more flavorful thanks to the grass the cows eat, so it can deliver even more buttery flavor in recipes.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line it with parchment.

2. STIR together in a large bowl, the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

3. MAKE a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk and the oil or butter. Stir together until blended; some lumps will remain.

4. TURN the dough out onto a floured board and knead about 10 times, or until it all holds together. Form the dough into a large ball and place it on the prepared baking sheet. Cut a deep cross in the top.

5. BAKE the bread for approximately 40 minutes, or until it tests done (a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean).

6. REMOVE the bread from the oven and cool it on a rack. Enjoy it warm or at room temperature. Serve with sweet butter and a dollop of marmalade, if desired.

7. STORE, well-wrapped, for a couple of days at room temperature; freeze for longer storage.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF BREAD
 
 
MORE IRISH BREAD RECIPES

 
 
 
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*Whole wheat pastry flour will make a moist loaf with fine crumb; Irish-Style Flour, a more traditional open-textured, drier loaf.

[1] Slather traditional Irish brown bread with salted butter: a treat for breakfast, tea time, anytime (photos #1. #2 and #3 © King Arthur Flour).

[2] You’ll need Irish-style wholemeal flour. You can get it from King Arthur Flour.

[3] Irish-style wholemeal flour is used for a number of Irish favorites.

[4] Treat yourself to some Kerrygold Irish butter (photo © Kerrygold).

[5] Keep baking! Bake a traditional Irish soda bread recipe (photo © Hot Bread Kitchen).

You can use whatever ingredients you like to make these St. Patrick’s Day roll-up sandwiches.

These shamrock-shaped sandwiches have no corned beef: they’re turkey and Swiss cheese.

But the fun is arranging the slices in the form of a shamrock, and decorating with a scallion stem and scattered diced scallions.

We do recommend adding at least a bit of green in the form of lettuce, arugula or watercress.
 
 
RECIPE: TURKEY ROLL-UPS FOR ST. PATRICK’S DAY

Substitute any meat and cheese in this recipe.

For a St. Patrick’s Day focus, use corned beef, Irish cheddar and Russian dressing or mustard instead of the cream cheese.

This recipe mixes cream cheese and cranberry sauce as the spread. Turkey and cranberry sauce are a natural pairing, or course. But if you don’t want the cranberry sauce, just leave it out.

This recipe was adapted from Culinary Hill.
 
 
Ingredients For 10 Servings

 
Preparation

1. MIX the cream cheese and cranberry sauce in a small bowl with until thoroughly combined.

2. PLACE a tortilla flat on a cutting board and spread with a thick layer of cream cheese, all the way to the edges. Layer 3 lettuce leaves down the middle of the tortilla.

3. LAYER 2 slices of turkey and 4 pieces of Swiss cheese on top of the lettuce. Top with several slices of tomatoes.

4. ROLL up. Starting at one end of the tortilla, roll tightly towards the filling. Continue rolling until the filling is tightly wrapped and the cream cheese holds the roll up together.

5. CONTINUE with the remaining tortillas until all have been assembled. If you won’t be consuming them shortly, Wrap each roll up tightly in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge until serving time. To serve, trim away any unfilled ends away. Slice each tortilla into 8 equal pieces.

6. CREATE the scallion stems and scattered garnish. Cut the white ends from the scallion and reserve for another use. Cut “stem-length” piece for each sandwich, and dice some of the thin to greens into garnish.

7. SERVE: Plate the sandwich pieces in a shamrock arrangement; add the scallion stem and the garnish.
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SANDWICHES
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF THE SANDWICH

[1] This St. Patrick’s Day sandwich is shamrock-shaped (photo © Atoria’s Family Bakery).

[2] Scallions create the stem of the “shamrock” (photo © Kyocera Cutlery | Facebook).

[3] We find lavash more flavorful than tortillas. These are from Atoria’s Family Bakery, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week (photo © Atoria’s).

[1] Reuben pizza, a new way to celebrate National Reuben Sandwich Day (photo © DeLallo).

[2] Classic Reuben sandwich (photo © J. Java | Fotolia).

[3] Reuben Irish Nachos. Here’s the recipe (photo © Idaho Potato Commission).

[4] Reuben muffins. Here’s the recipe (photo © King Arthur Flour).

[5] Hold the corned beef: a Reuben sandwich with duck, from creative chef Eric LeVine (photo © Eric LeVine).

[6] Hold the corned beef #2: a turkey Reuben (photo © National Turkey Federation).

March 14th is National Reuben Sandwich Day. But what about porting the Reuben concept to a different bread—a pizza crust instead of rye or pumpernickel?

Here’s a recipe for a Reuben Pizza with Corned Beef & Dijon Béchamel Sauce—corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and more. And there are additional Reuben-inspired recipes below.

> Take a look at the Reuben sandwich history.
 
 
RECIPE: REUBEN PIZZA

This recipe from DeLallo uses its pizza dough kit. You can make your own dough or buy it ready-made.

The “fusion” in this recipe is bechamel sauce, one of the French mother sauces.

It works better on a pizza than the Reuben Sandwich’s Russian dressing.

However, we admit to having a ramekin of Russian dressing on the side, as we ate our pizza.

Ingredients For The Pizza

 
Ingredients For The Dijon Béchamel Sauce

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the pizza dough. Combine the flour mix and yeast packet in a large mixing bowl with 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water. Stir with a fork until the dough begins to form. Knead by hand for 3 minutes, or until the dough is soft and smooth. Transfer to a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. All

2. ALLOW the dough to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. (After this step, you can refrigerate for use within 1-3 days.)

Meanwhile…

3. PREPARE the béchamel. In a large saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour and whisk for 1 minute. Add ½ of the milk and whisk until smooth. Whisk in remaining milk.

4. BRING to a boil. Add the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Whisk in Dijon mustard until combined. Remove from heat and set aside.

5. PREHEAT the oven to 500°F. Cut the prepared pizza dough in half. Roll out the dough into a circle on a floured surface. Spread the béchamel sauce on the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch edge all the way around.

6. ARRANGE the corned beef on top of the sauce. Sprinkle evenly with the Swiss and provolone. Brush the edge of the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the caraway seeds.

7. BAKE for 12-15 minutes or until the crust becomes golden. Remove the pizza from oven and top with remaining caraway seeds and red pepper flakes.
 
 
MORE REUBEN RECIPES

 
 
REUBEN SANDWICH VARIATIONS

The Reuben has been adapted many times over, including a substitute of pastrami, turkey (photo #6) or tongue for the corned beef; and coleslaw for the sauerkraut.

Rye or marble rye (photo #2) can stand in for the pumpernickel.

Some variations aren’t grilled (so the cheese isn’t melted, alas). But if you can, melt that cheese!

Check out these Reuben Sandwich variations:

March 13th is National Ginger Ale Day.

We’ve been drinking ginger ale since early childhood—Mom gave it to us not as much as a soft drink, but as a palliative for stomach aches.

It still works!

In fact, ginger tea has been brewed for centuries, if not millennia, to aid with everything from indigestion to arthritis (it’s an anti-inflammatory).

Just steep slices of fresh ginger root in hot water. Here’s more from Web MD.

But back to ginger ale:

Fortunately for those of us who reserve our sugar calories for dessert, ginger ale manufacturers make no sugar added* versions in addition to the classic sugar-sweetened (or in the case of the three largest brands, high fructose corn syrup-sweetened†).
 
 
REED’S GINGER ALE AMPS UP THE SPICE

We like our ginger ale to sizzle with spicy ginger flavor.

The top national brands (Canada Dry, Schweppes, Seagrams) are too subtle in flavor for us. They use “flavoring” instead of fresh ginger, and there’s not enough spice.

That’s why we like Reed’s ginger ale: real ginger, more spice.

Before ginger ale there was ginger beer; and before the days of commercial sodas, Reed’s tells us, ginger beers were made at home with a large amount of ginger.

The company searched for a traditional homemade recipe, and found a Jamaican formula that uses all-natural ingredients that you might have in your own fridge: fresh ginger root, sparkling water, pineapple juice, lemon juice, lime juice, honey, cane sugar and spices.

If you want to test your palate, here’s how Reed’s describes the flavor:

 
Reed’s has no caffeine, gluten, GMOs or preservatives.

Reed’s Original Real Ginger Ale is sweetened with cane sugar.

Reed’s Real Ginger Ale Zero Sugar is sweetened with erythritol, reb A (stevia leaf extract), and monk fruit extract.
 
 
REED’S GINGER BEER

There’s no National Ginger Beer Day, but we would be remiss not to mention Reed’s Ginger Beer (it’s a non-alcoholic ginger beer).

Truth be told, we love ginger beer even more than ginger ale.

It has that much more power and punch: Yowza!

Reed’s brews it in three strengths, too: Original, Extra (two times the ginger of Original) and Strongest (three times the ginger).

Think of them as Spicy, Spicier and Spiciest.

The Strongest can take your breath away. We love it.

Reed’s Ginger Beer is what you want for your Moscow Mule.

Speaking of which, there are cocktail and mocktail recipes on Reed’s website.
 
 
> GINGER ALE HISTORY

> GINGER ROOT HISTORY

> HOMEMADE GINGER ALE RECIPE

[1] Add some sparkle with Reed’s ginger ales, regular and zero sugar (photos #1, #2 and #3 © Reed’s).

[2] Regular and Zero Sugar ginger ales are equally refreshing.

[3] Want something stronger? Reed’s ginger beer is made in three strengths of spiciness.

[4] Fresh ginger root (photo © Jan Schone | Stock Xchange).

 
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*No Sugar Added (also called Unsweetened) and Sugar Free are different terms. No Sugar Added means just that: the manufacturer has added no sugar or other caloric sweetener to the product. However, some ingredients contain naturally-occurring sugar—think of fruit and milk products, which have naturally-occurring sugars: fructose and lactose, respectively. These cannot be called Sugar Free.

Sugar Free (also called Zero Sugar and Sugarless) means that a product contains less than 0.5 g of sugar and less than five calories per serving.

†High fructose corn syrup, abbreviated HFCS, is a sweeter form of corn syrup made from corn starch. The process was developed in the 1970s and introduced widely into American processed foods in the 1980s. It’s 20% cheaper and easier to transport than sugar. HFCS is used by manufacturers as a substitute for ordinary sugar (sucrose) in soft drinks and other consumer goods—yogurt, frozen foods and foods where you don’t expect to find sweeteners, such as bread, pasta sauce and soup.

HFCS in beverages seems to have the effect of stimulating the appetite. This, coupled with the pure caloric content of beverages sweetened with HFCS, and the preference of children and adults for soft drinks over nutritious beverages (milk, juice), is thought to be a cause of increased levels of obesity in America.

Check out the different types of sugar.

Here are the different types of noncaloric sweeteners.

[1] Torching an avocado at Crown Shy restaurant in New York City (photo © Crown Shy).

[2] Charred avocado salad. Here’s the recipe from Food & Wine (photo © Victor Protasio | Food & Wine).

[3] Just peel and torch! (photo © Love One Today).

We have enjoyed many a grilled avocado.

But what if you don’t have a grill, or if your backyard grill won’t be out until later in the season?

Solution:

Have a kitchen torch?

Then you can easily make torched—also called bruléed and charred—avocados.

In its simplest form, you can:

 
 
CHARRED AVOCADO RECIPE IDEAS

Many of the recipes in which you use avocado can substitute a torched avocado for a bit of charred, smokey flavor.

This avocado burger recipe tastes even better when the avocado is charred.

More ideas for torched avocados:

 
You can even used charred avocados to make guacamole.
 
 
GET OUT YOUR TORCH!

Torching is easy.

But if you’d like a video showing the process, here it is.
 
 
> AVOCADO HISTORY