Here’s something quick to add to your St. Patrick’s Day celebration ! This Irish Soda Bread could actually be eaten any time of year. It’s done in an hour from start to finish. Perhaps it’s a bit of an Irish blessing to share this with others. The ingredients are simple and few. When I compared recipes, most of them seemed to generally have the same ingredients with same amounts of each, so here goes!
The Mix Up:
Whisk together the dry ingredients. Grate the COLD butter over the mix. Instead of using a pastry blender to cut butter into the dry ingredients, this method helps make the equal distribution an easier task. I use this when making buttermilk biscuits and scones. In this case though, I will use my fingers to rub the butter into the dry mix until it appears to have small bits throughout as visible below. Then, toss the raisins in the mix to coat. The flour coating will help suspend the raisins in the batter and prevent them from sinking to the bottom.
Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk/egg mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until mixture holds together, but do not over mix.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface and with lightly floured hands, form a round loaf. I think it looks like one giant scone!
The Bake:
Place the loaf in a buttered cast iron skillet. Bake for about 50 minutes in a 375 degree preheated oven. When tapping the top yields a hollow sound, remove it from the oven.
Immediately remove loaf to a cooling rack. Leaving it in the skillet to cool will change the texture.
I’m sure some of you may have concerns with raisins, but you could add your own variation by adding craisins(not Irish) or nothing at all. A lot of these recipes mentioned that currants are normally used, but I was out of those .
The Taste Test:
After a brief cooling period, I had to slice off a piece…or two…. It was great on its own or you could use slather a little Kerrygold butter on it or a wee bit of jam to go with your tea! Either way, I now have another item on the menu tonight to accompany my Corned Beef and Sauteed Cabbage and Vegetables. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 4 c all-purpose flour
- 1/4 c granulated sugar
- 1 t salt
- 1 t baking soda
- 1 c raisins/currants
- 6 T unsalted COLD butter, grated
- 1 3/4 c COLD buttermilk
- 1 large egg, COLD
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda.
- Using a box grater, grate the COLD butter over the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, rub the butter throughout the flour mixture.
- Toss the raisins into the flour mixture to coat; distribute equally.
- Whisk egg into buttermilk. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour it in. Stir with a wooden spoon just until ingredients are all incorporated.
- Turn dough onto a floured board. With floured hands, shape into a round mound of dough.
- Place it in a buttered cast iron pan. Cut a cross pattern on the top and place into the preheated oven for 50 minutes.
- If you tap on the top and it sounds hollow, it is done! Remove from pan to a cooling rack.
- Allow it to rest a little before slicing.
- Wrap any leftover bread with plastic wrap, then foil. Store at room temperature. Slice some later, toast it and spread on some butter or jam or both! Serve with some tea!
