I thought the Crock Pot Corned Beef Dinner was very tasty. I wasn't expecting corned beef to be sweet but was quite sweet. If you don't like the idea of corned beef being sweet, don't use the glaze or reduce the amount of brown sugar in it. Since we didn't know what corned beef and cabbage was supposed to taste like, we didn't mind. My son said that it was the best St. Patrick's Day dinner he ever had. Of course, it was probably the only one he has ever eaten since he is only 9 years old! I thought that the amount of vegetables was excessive, at least for my family. There will be leftovers of the cabbage, potatoes and carrots at our house for quite a while.
I thought that the Irish Soda Bread dough was way too dry. I had to add about 1/4 cup of water to get it to form into a dough. Also the cooking time was too long for my oven. The bread got too brown. This soda bread is very dense but I think it is supposed to be like that. This bread got rave reviews from my son and my husband for taste.
Now for the Easter Bread. I have to admit that I don't know how to work with yeast. The dough looked good to me but when I put it aside for the first "rise" it didn't do much. I thought, "Well maybe it will rise more next time." But it didn't. It barely rose to half the size of the bundt pan I used. The cooking time of 40 minutes was too long. I took it out of the oven after only 25 minutes but the bread still got really brown. The glaze was lumpy too. I just couldn't get the lumps out. My husband and I bravely tasted it anyway. It was pretty good. It reminded me of the egg bread called Challah. I think that next time I will use a smaller pan and cook the bread for 25 minutes. Maybe that will help. I wouldn't call this a complete failure but it definitely wasn't my greatest success. I didn't take a picture of it because it was so strange looking.
The Creative Cook
