Irish Soda Bread
Hayley's mother, Janet, makes this bread for her first entry in the Scone Sisters' contest. It's a quick bread (no yeast or rising) that is often served as part of a Saint Patrick's Day feast. Even those who think they don't like Irish soda bread love this recipe.
Ingredients
- 4½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for your hands and the counter
- 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp caraway seeds
- 1 cup raisins
- 5 Tbsp very cold unsalted butter
- 1¾ cups buttermilk (or milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice added)
- 1 large egg
Instructions
- Mix the dry ingredients-the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and caraway seeds-together in a big bowl.
- Cut butter into the dry ingredients. The colder the butter, the lighter the batter.
- Stir in the raisins.
- When the butter is pea sized, whisk the buttermilk or milk together with one egg.
- Fold the egg-and-milk mixture into the dry ingredients.
- Move the batter to a floured surface. (Parchment paper with a little flour sprinkled on it works well.) Dust your hands with flour and knead the dough briefly into a round. Again, the shorter the time, even as little as 30 seconds, the better.
- Move the batter to a prepared greased pan. (This can be a pie plate, cake pan, or cast-iron skillet.) Those round pans help the bread keep its shape. Make a cross in the batter with a sharp knife.
- Bake in a 400-degree oven for about 25 minutes. You can check the bread halfway through to see if the top is getting too brown. If so, cover with foil for the second half of baking.
- Let the loaf cool for ten minutes or more before you slice it.
- Serve warm with more butter and possibly raspberry jam, or breakfast, maybe with peanut butter?