We’ve got three recipes on the go today: 

Mrs. Houghston’s Famous Irish Soda Farls  
Lime-Berry Limerick Lower-Sugar Jam &
Popping “Pot o’ Gold” Mustard

Mrs. Houghston’s Famous Irish Soda Farls 

Mrs. Houston is the housekeeper in the story I wrote for the kids this week, A Study in Emerald, (we’re currently reading Chapter Three).  She prepares her famous individually sized Irish Soda Breads, or “Farls,” for Holmes and McUaitson on a regular basis.   A less successful imitation plays a key role in the story later on, when syrup- (or is it venom-?) soaked farls are found at one of the crime scenes…Of course, grass snakes don’t eat bread. So, I had to imagine that Mrs. Hughston’s “Farls” were more like little frog-meat loaves than mini-soda breads. In the book, they’re more often called “Amphibian Farls” than Soda Breads.  But we’ll take the human version, please and thank you!

There are two main methods of making Irish Soda bread. The first is to bake the bread in the oven, the second is to prepare it on a skillet.  There are also two ways of “styling” a loaf, either baking it whole, with a cross cut into the top, or slicing it into four sections, known as “farls,” and venting them individually.  The notion of baking farls or even smaller, individual soda breads with the kids intrigued me, so I took a look around for a few good basic recipes. The first recipe that caught my attention was the classic Cook’s Illustrated recipe for soda bread. Then, on the Smitten Kitchen blog, I found an “Americanized” version of the CI recipe (“Americanized” by the additions of eggs, sugar, raisins, and caraway seeds). These were divided into 8-smaller sized “scones.” I thought a version of this sweeter, creamier recipe  would suit the kids’ palates a bit more, so I experimented with it and adapted it to my liking. We also decided to go on and do something highly “un-Irish” ourselves by adding chocolate chips to half the batch. We’ve suggested some other more sophisticated additions below.  In the end, they come out like oversized buttermilk biscuits…No one here’s complaining about that!

Mrs. Houghston’s Famous Irish Soda Farls
Adapted from the receipt for Irish Soda Bread Scones, Smitten Kitchen 

Ingredients
3 c flour
1 c cake flour
.25 c sugar
1.5 tsp baking soda, or, as we call it “b.s.,” or, on this occasion, “blarney soda”
1.5 tsp cream of tartar
.5 tsp salt
7 tbs butter (soften 5, and reserve the last two to melt and brush on the farls)
1.5 cups buttermilk (we don’t like to substitute sour milk here! do so only it if you absolutely have to!)
1 egg, bashed about with a fork
Optional Mix-ins: Choose One (Add the smaller amount for a half batch, larger amount for a whole batch)
.5-1 c butterscotch or chocolate chips 
.5-1 c chopped dried figs soaked in rum or cognac and drained
.25-.5 c each chopped candied ginger slices & orange peels 

Method
Heat oven to 400F.
Whisk dry ingredients in a bowl.

With their fingers, have the kids cut the 4 tbs of soft butter into the dry mix until they have coarse crumbs.
Add the buttermilk and the egg, and stir until the dough begins to come together.
If you’re not adding any mix-ins, just overturn the dough onto a floured work surface.
If you’re adding mix-ins to the whole dough, barely incorporate them now and turn the dough out onto a floured work surface.
If you’re adding mix-ins to half of the dough, do your best to divide the barely formed dough into two parts, and overturn the non-mix-in dough onto a floured work surface.
 
Then, BARELY incorporate the mix-ins into the portion of dough you kept in the bowl before overturning onto a floured surface.
Knead the dough(s) for just a few moments (each), just until ilumpy and bumpy and rough and tumble looking, like the face of a drunken sailor in the sudden storm.
Form your dough or doughs into one large or two smaller lumpy ball(s).
Use a knife (we like those big plastic lettuce choppers) to slice the large ball into 8 farls or the two smaller balls into 4 farls each. 

If desired, make each farl a little neater by forming it into a ball of its own. 
Put your farls on a parchment lined pan.
 Use a frog, shamrock or similarly festive cookie cutter to make an impression at least an inch deep in the center of each farl.
 
Bake 15-20 minutes (ours took 17). [SK suggests testing with a thermometer for an internal temperature of 170 F.]
Remove farls from oven.
Brush with melted butter.
Cool a bit, about 3-5 minutes, or until you can’t stand it any longer and you just have to take a bite and burn your tongue!
Wrap the still-warm farls in kichen towels (2-3 per towel will suffice).
This will keep them soft and help them last a bit longer, as they’re only really good for a day or two.
If you’re desperate, you can place an old hardened loaf in a moistened paper bag and warm it in a moderate oven for a few minutes or in the microwave for a few seconds to soften!  This softening effect does not last long, however, so eat up!!!
The plain farls taste great with even more butter and those extra spoonfuls of hot Lime-Berry Jam that didn’t fit it into last jar!!!!

Lime-Berry Limerick Lower-Sugar Jam (Made with Pomona’s Pectin)
In our story, A Study in Emerald, Mrs. Limerick keeps a boarding house. She’s not necessarily an honest or a savoury woman, but she’ at least “semi-sweet.”.   Pomona Pectin, which is available at most organic or healthy grocery shops, is a pectin formulated to alow you to use considerably less sugar sugar when making jams and jellies. We re-named this lower sugar, limey jam in Mrs. Limerick’s honour. The recipe below is our multi-berry adaptation of a favourite recipe of ours for Blackberry Lime Jam from the hitchhikingtoheaven blog and also featured in one of our favourite cookbooks, We Sure Can!, by Sarah B. Hood.

Lime-Bery Limerick Lower-Sugar Jam
Ingredients
4 cups mashed mixed berries
(Berries aren’t really in season, so we defrosted two 600g frozen mixed pack of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries and mashed them. It provided just over 4 cups!)
zest of 5 limes (we used a microplane)
.25 c lime juice
1.75 c sugar
2.5 tsp Pomona’s calcium water
2.5 tsp Pomona’s pectin powder

Method
Prepare Pomona’s “Calcium Water” following the instructions in the box.
Sterilize 6 -.5Pint Canning Jars or the equivalent according to preference.
Whisk the sugar and pectin powder together in a bowl and set aside.
Place the mashed berries in a pot on the stove and add lime zest, lime juice, and “calcium water.”
Bring the berry pot to a boil.
Add the sugar-pectin mixture to the pot.
Stir vigorously for 1-2 minutes to dissolve the pectin.
Return to the jam to a boil and then remove it from the heat.
Ladle the hot jam into sterilized jars, leaving .25-in head space.
Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Note that Pomona’s pectin takes longer to set than other pectins. The jam might not really appear set in the jar for several days.

Popping “Pot o’Gold” Mustard
Bea was really into a “popping” mustard she purchased at a local farmer’s market over the summer. It was a grainy mustard, and the seeds inside seemed to be full of liquid and “popped” in your mouth. We’ve tweaked some of our summer recipes in order to achieve the desired effect. The trick seems to be to soak the mustard seeds in the vinegar mixture for at least 48 hours! To make this mustard truly “golden,” be sure to use only yellow mustard seeds and white vinegar. We didn’t quite have enough on hand, so we did a mix of dark and light mustard seeds, and we added balsamic vinegar to top off the soaking liquid. Call it “Tarnished ‘Pot o ‘Gold’ Mustard” or whatever you will…it tastes fabulous!


Popping Pot o’ Gold Mustard
Ingredients
makes 2.75 pints
1 c mustard seeds
1 c vinegar (white, cider, and/or balsamic)
2/3 c water
5 tbs brown sugar
2 tbs diced garlic
1 tsp tumeric
1 c honey or maple syrup (optional)

Method
Mix all of the wet ingredients EXCEPT the honey/syrup in a bowl.
Add the mustard seeds.
Cover and let soak in the refrigerator for 48 hours. (24 hours makes for a fine cheat!)
Sterilize 3 -.5pt and 1- .25pt canning jars.
Divide the mixture in half and use a stick blender or a food processor to pulverize one half of the mixture until thick.
Re-incorporate the pulverized mustard into the bowl of grainy mustard and pulverize for just a moment to incorporate.
Put the combined mustard in a pot on the stovetop.
Add the optional honey/syrup, and boil for 1-2 minutes.
Ladle hot mustard into into hot jars.
Process cans in boiling water for 10 minutes.

If you like this post, you might also like to see the Serpent Mobiles & Stick Puppets we made today!
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