RUMSON: A LUCKY FIRST IRISH SODA BREAD

013015 Irish soda bread3Debbie Bagnell, the winner of last year’s Irish Soda Bread competition at the Oceanic Public Library in Rumson. Below, a slice of her bread. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)

By SUSAN ERICSON

013015 Irish soda bread1“It was so surreal. I felt like it was part of a movie scene. There were men in kilts and bagpipes,” says Debbie Bagnell.

A self-described cooking-and-crafting hobbyist and homemaker says, Bagnell was recalling the day her Irish Soda Bread won first place at Oceanic Public Library‘s first annual baking competition in Rumson.

The win was a bit flukey.

“I had no intention of entering,” she said. “I had never baked an Irish Soda Bread before.”

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