'It's like therapy': Rugby's Eddie O'Sullivan writes book on baking

Celebrated Irish rugby coach Eddie O’Sullivan has changed tack from cooking up tactical insights on the field to cooking up a storm in the kitchen, with his new book, The Irish Soda Bread Bible.

In it, he has a refreshing take on bread baking that proves anyone -yes, anyone - can make real homemade bread without stress or yeast.

How?

“With three basic ingredients, flour, bread soda and buttermilk,” says Eddie, from Youghal. “It is so easy and it is done in no time.”

A nostalgic Eddie takes me back to his mother’s kitchen, wafting with the smell and flavours of homemade baking.

“My mother loved baking,” he says. “She was a dinger at it. Her father before her was a baker and he had his own bakery. I think their love of baking rubbed off on me.”

Sunday was a magical day in the O’Sullivan household.

“My mother always baked bread and cakes for hours after lunch on Sundays,” says Eddie. “That was her thing.

“Her coffee cake was absolutely divine, and it is one of my favourite things to bake. I had lost the recipe, and then my sister Gráinne gave it to me which was brilliant.”

But Eddie’s first love is Irish soda bread.

“I really love soda bread as well as sponge cakes, and I make sweet and savoury variations of soda bread that everybody can enjoy with a cup of tea.

“Mam would bake lovely bread and homemade treats for the six of us at home. She was old school as in she never measured the ingredients. Mam instinctively knew the correct amount of ingredients for the soda bread mixture, scones, and for the sponges.”

Mary’s soda bread was to die for.

“There is nothing like a slice of homemade soda bread fresh from the oven spread with butter and jam,” says Eddie.

Mary O’Sullivan spread the love created in her kitchen.

“Mam gave presents of bread and cakes to our cousins for birthdays and for Christmas. She was famous and renowned for her baking.”

Eddie is a household name in Ireland, having been involved in rugby for decades.

He played for the Garryowen club in the 1970s and 1980s, and turned out for Munster as a winger.

He then coached the national team for seven years in the early 2000s, winning three Triple Crowns and twice defeating Australia and South Africa. He oversaw Ireland’s famous record 43-13 victory over England at iconic Croke Park in 2007.

Eddie now divides his time between Youghal, Galway, and Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he is rugby coach.

It might seem to the masses that the field of play is a more familiar arena for Eddie than the kitchen?

He laughs.

“I love to bake. It’s a kind of therapy. I love that other people enjoy my homemade offerings.”

Like his mother before him, he wanted to spread that joy. Hence The Irish Bread Soda Bible. How did it come about?

“My friend’s daughter loves my soda bread, and she suggested that I self-publish a book about baking Irish soda bread,” he says.

“The Irish love soda bread and the Americans are buying into Irish soda bread, not to mention the large majority of the Irish American population living in the United States.”

Apart from the three essential ingredients - flour, buttermilk, and bread soda - what else is essential when baking soda bread?

“Having the oven temperature, 200 degrees, well up before you put the bread in the oven,” says Eddie.

“It takes five minutes to make the dough and 35 minutes to bake it.

“The other essential thing is to score the bread, made in a circular cake tin, with three significant deep cuts so that it almost falls apart. That is what makes it lovely and light.

“When the bread is baked after 35 minutes, turn off the oven and put the loaf back into the oven for five minutes. Some people wrap the soda bread in a tea towel. I don’t do that because it takes the crisp out of the crust.

“The next day, you can toast the soda bread which provides another. nutty, flavour. Delicious!”

Soda bread is easy to make, and it is cheap to make too.

“It is a great pay-off for little effort,” says Eddie. “I make soda bread all the time for my colleagues in the U.S.”

Eddie a master baker like his mother and his grandfather, enjoys baking variations of Irish soda bread.

“I love lemon and walnut soda bread, and blueberry and lime. It is all the same process with added ingredients,” he says.

“Cheddar and smoked paprika is another variation of soda bread that I love.”

Why does he get such satisfaction from baking soda bread and creating light fluffy sponges?

“I love the fun of it,” says Eddie. “I love putting the bread or sponge in the oven. Waiting for it to come out, eating it and sharing it.

“I love baking as a pastime. Having a cup of tea and eating soda bread, your bread. It’s great!”

There are lots of great things about soda bread.

“There is no yeast, no kneading, no waiting involved. The dough isn’t lying around.”

It’s doing its thing in the oven, magically rising as the mixture absorbs the heat, forming a crispy crust ready to cut, revealing the warm dough inside, ready to eat with melting butter and fruity jam.

Eddie adds: “There are thousands of recipes for Irish soda bread. Mine is a very simple one. There is nothing to be afraid of.”

His cookbook is for everyday bakers and never-before cooks.

With no formal culinary background, Eddie offers readers an authentic down-to-earth voice, proving that food doesn’t require years of training, just the right guidance, a little curiosity, and a willingness to try something new.

“I am proud of the book,” says Eddie.

“There is no mystery. It is simple, cheap, and tasty!

“Anyone can do it!”

The Irish Soda Bread Bible, by Eddie O’Sullivan, with 50 distinctive recipes, is available on Amazon, €12.19.