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Photo courtesy of Baked By Susan
Green beer? Check. Corned beef and cabbage? Check. For dessert, pick up a scrumptious loaf of local Irish soda bread for the perfect St. Patrick’s Day meal.
By Bianca Asare and Michelle Gillan Larkin
Whether everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day is debatable, but one thing is certain: Irish soda bread is pleasing no matter how you slice it. Room temp, toasted, with or without raisins, dusted with powdered sugar, or crusty and plain on top, this little piece of Ireland goes down easy, and it makes no difference where your people hail from. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite places to pick up a loaf of Irish soda bread in Westchester. May the road rise to meet you on your quest for the perfect loaf, and may your soda bread be light as air and your butter thick and melty.
Baked by Susan
379 S Riverside Ave, Croton-on-Hudson; 914.862.0874
Served by the slice or the loaf, this Irish soda bread is made fresh from scratch daily without caraway seeds and with lots of raisins and a little sugar.
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Delite Bake Shop
773 Yonkers Ave, Yonkers; 914.965.4690
In the baking business for more than 80 years, this perennially popular neighborhood shop serves Irish soda bread as a seasonal staple that has kept customers happy, satisfied, and returning for decades. It’s light, it’s fluffy, and it’s made both with and without raisins.
Photo courtesy of Delite Bake Shop
Homestyle Desserts Bakery
24 South Water Street, Peekskill; 914.737.4659
At Homestyle, presentation is just as important as taste. Made with black raisins for the look and golden raisins for the sweet taste, this Irish soda bread will surely satisfy both your taste buds and your Instagram feed.
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LMNOP Bakery
Believing that heirloom recipes (passed down from mothers to mothers) are “just the best,” according to bread baker extraordinaire Anne Mayhew of Katonah, this hunk o’goodness is rich with flavor and tender from buttermilk, butter, eggs, freshly milled wheat, currants, and caraway.
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The Kneaded Bread
181 N Main St, Port Chester; 914.937.9489
Loading its bread with caraway seeds and just a little bit of sugar, The Kneaded Bread chooses savory over sweet. Made with traditional currants and without raisins, the soda bread is praised for its moist, dense texture and top-notch crust.
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Nutmeg
64 Main Street, Tuckahoe; 914.779.1328
This husband-and-wife, owner-and-baker duo has combined the best parts of their grandmothers’ recipes to create the perfect, traditional Irish soda bread. Filled with currants and golden raisins, and slightly sweet, it’s a warming, soothing taste of family history.
Susan Lawrence
26 N Greeley Ave, Chappaqua; 914.238.8833
They line up early for the soda bread at this downtown mainstay (they line up for the babka too, but that’s a whole ‘nother thing and holiday), and they get it warm and fresh from the oven with its golden crusty exterior, perfectly defined peaks, and tender fine-textured center. “It’s truly an authentic artisanal loaf, inspired by the many variations for ‘Soda Cake’ found in my collection of handwritten 19th century recipe books and in museum archives,” says proprietor Mark Kramer, who’s been known to quip that his quaint, always bustling shop thoughtfully transforms to Susan O’Lawrence this time of year.
Irish Soda Bread Courtesy of Susan Lawrence
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