“The Farmette Cookbook: Recipes and Adventures from My Life on an Irish Farm.” By Imen McDonnell. Roost Books. 384 pages. $35

“The Farmette Cookbook”  is, conceptually, exactly the kind of cookbook you’d imagine springing from the mind of an uninspired rom-com screenwriter in Hollywood. Imen McDonnell was, by her own description, “a young woman building an exciting career while living and working in Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles” when she met a “dashing” Irishman named Richard and “the fog of love” carried her off to his family farm in Dunmoylan, Ireland.

There is a lot of other insipid blather in her introduction, about trading in her “Weitzmans” (that’s code for expensive and chic) for Wellingtons. But just skip over the pitch for the movie where she’s played by Reese Witherspoon because the recipes in this book are quite good. They reflect Irish classics influenced by an American working with local, farm-fresh ingredients (many recipes involve buttermilk made from Richard’s cows), and the half-dozen recipes I made from it were all excellent.

I started with the Smoky and Salty Buttermilk Vanilla Fudge, even though I question any fudge that doesn’t involve chocolate, and brought the results to work, where colleagues fell on it and praised its creamy, tangy qualities. And this without me even topping it with smoked sea salt as ordered (I used plain). For my son’s birthday, I deviated from my ever-reliable Epicurious recipe to test McDonnell’s Rich Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, which featured one recipe for the filling and another for the frosting. It was heavenly, if not particularly Irish, and a reminder to me not to get stuck in a cake rut.

Her Classic Dublin Lawyer, a simple dish involving lobster, butter, whiskey (torched) and cream, was a keeper, and this from a woman who believes that steamed with butter is even more dependably pleasing than an Irish farmer bringing you buttermilk. I stepped into less-well-tread territory (for me) by trying her Irish Dulse Miso Soup, subbing in Maine grown kombu (seaweed) and dulse, which was perfect for a virtuous day of food penance after the rich Dublin Lawyer.

My only quibble with McDonnell’s recipe writing was an error in measurements in her Traditional White Soda Bread – she is off in her metric conversion for the buttermilk, which could lead to soggy dough issues. Precision is especially important with a type of bread that tends to be hard to pull off successfully, no matter how simple it might seem.

Her Best Brown Bread was the most “Irish” recipe I tested, and since we’re about to hit St. Patrick’s Day, that’s the one included here. It came out of the oven nicely rounded (I used a cast iron pan as suggested), golden brown and smelling just right. Served warm with butter it was dreamy, just like life with Richard.

The Best Brown Bread comes out smelling just right and goes great with butter.

BEST BROWN BREAD

McDonnell suggests Bob’s Red Mills whole wheat flour. Recipe tester Mary Pols used King Arthur. It tastes best on the same day “but three days after I made it, the interior was still moist and chewy,” Pols said.

Makes 1 loaf

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups coarse-ground whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

11/2 cups buttermilk

1 large egg

1 tablespoon honey

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, salt and baking soda. Mix in the whole-wheat flour. Rub or cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.

In a separate vessel, whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and honey.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquids. Mix together with a spoon. The dough will be wet and sticky. Pour into a greased loaf pan or an oiled cast iron pan and cut a line or a cross down the middle.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, pop the bread out of the pan and cover with a tea towel.

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