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CRAVINGS: MOM’S IRISH SODA BREAD SCONES

100816alices-sodabreadscones3Irish soda bread scones from Alice’s Kitchen in Sea Bright. (Photo by Susan Ericson. Click to enlarge)

By SUSAN ERICSON

piehole_cravingsWhen 23-year-old Shauna Harten gets a craving, it’s likely to be for Irish soda bread scones. And not just scones like those her mother used to make, but the genuine article.

When the Sea Bright resident was studying hospitality at Florida International University, she’d have her mom ship them down to her, she tells PieHole.

“My roommates really liked them, too,” she said. “They looked forward to the delivery almost as much as I did.”
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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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