Irish Soda Bread

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, so I made a loaf of Irish Soda Bread for the festivities. This is a quick bread – no yeast involved. There are tons of variations and different recipes. I made mine sweet and cake-like. Some traditionalists might object, but it tastes good!

Irish Soda Bread

Recipe by The Cooking LawyerCourse: Dinner, Dessert, Breakfast, AnytimeCuisine: Irish-AmericanDifficulty: Easy
Servings

8

servings
Prep time

30

minutes
Cooking time

45

minutes
Total time

1

hour 

15

minutes

Ingredients

  • 3 cups of sifted all-purpose flour (or 14 oz. by weight)

  • 1 tsp baking soda

  • 1/2 tsp baking powder

  • 1/4 cream of tartar

  • 3/4 tsp of salt

  • 3/4 cup of sugar

  • 1.5 cups of buttermilk (or see below if you don’t have buttermilk)

  • 1 egg

  • 1 cup of raisins

  • 1/2 cup cold butter, cubed

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • Mix dry ingredients in bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tarter, salt, and sugar.
  • In another large bowl, whisk buttermilk with egg.
  • Slowly add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to mix, but avoid overmixing.
  • Add the raisins.
  • Once combined, add the cubes of cold butter to the mixture with a pastry blender.
  • Form bread into an oval. Place in a seasoned cast-iron skillet.
  • Score the bread with a knife into a cross.
  • Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes

  • Don’t have buttermilk? Not to fear! For each half cup of buttermilk needed, add 1 TBS of cider vinegar or apple juice to a measuring cup, then add the amount of milk or half-half to reach the desired amount of buttermilk. For this recipe, I added 3 TBS of apple cider vinegar, then filled the measuring cup to 1.5 cups using a combination of half and half and skim milk (mostly because I was trying to use up my half and half and didn’t have enough to just use half and half).

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