Bread Time. This is How You Do It.

I made a bunch of bread for the family Thanksgiving feast. Sweet potato, cheddar/mustard, mushroom, beer, carrot, and Irish soda. Nine loaves of six different kinds - doubled up on sweet potato, beer, and Irish soda breads.

Overall they turned out quite well. I put extra cheese in the cheddar bread, which ended up overpowering the subtle flavors normally given by the whole grain mustard and the cayenne pepper. So that was a mistake, though not the worst possible. I will now tell you how to make the Irish soda bread. It caught my eye because, one - it's leavened by baking soda, so there was no double or triple two-hour rising, and two - you put raisins in it... after soaking them in Jameson whiskey.

So here's how you make Irish soda bread.
Step one: Jameson

Step two: Jameson.

Step 3: make the bread.

Step 4: what step four? (that is to say: Jameson)

This bread is really halfway between a bread and a scone, mostly having less sugar and butter than a scone. I was happy with how it turned out. Soaking the raisins in Jameson not only gives them a fuller flavor, but also re-hydrates them to a degree and keeps the surface raisins from burning in the oven.

Here's the pile-o'-bread, courtesy of The Bread Bible, a fantastic recipe book that makes me much better at baking bread than I in fact am.

(beer bread and soda bread wrapped in polystyrene, other breads in tin foil)

Note on Step 3: one possible improvement is to get someone to do it for you.