Irish Soda Bread---with Raisins

This recipe was in the latest [Feb/Mar.2010] issue of Cooking Club.com,in preparation, I'm sure, for St. Patrick's Day. I've made it twice in one week, so I think that means it's a keeper! Here it is, so I won't be fumbling through a stack of the magazines, trying to remember which issue it was in, and also for Pauline, my good blog friend.

Rustic Irish Soda Bread

1/2 cup dried currants or raisins

1/2 cup hot brewed black tea

2 tsps caraway seeds [I'm just quoting the recipe here. I hate caraway seeds which are a common ingredient in soda bread, so I always leave them out!]

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 Tblsps packed brown sugar

1 Tblsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a pie pan or small cookie sheet. I sometimes just sprinkle the pan with flour, no grease. Pour the hot tea over the raisins in a small bowl and let sit for ten minutes. Drain well.

Crush caraway seeds, if using, to release nauseating smell---oops! I mean fragrance!

Whisk flours, soda and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in raisins and, if you must, caraway seeds.

Combine buttermilk, melted butter and brown sugar. Gradually stir into dry ingredients just until they are moistened.

Knead dough a few times dusting with a little flour to keep it from sticking. Form the dough into a ball and place in pan. Flatten slightly to a thickness of 1 1/2 to 2 inches.

Dust lightly with flour and, with a sharp knife, cut a 1/2 deep cross on top of the bread. Legend has it, according to the magazine, that this allows the fairies or the devil to escape........sounds like a lot of mullarky to me!

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the bread is golden brown, sounds hollow when the bottom is tapped and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool slightly on a wire rack before slicing. Try not to eat the whole thing at one sitting.....or maybe that's just a problem for me!

Note to Pauline: My favourite recipe for Brown Soda bread is in the post titled "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread." You might also like my recipe for Tea Scones.

Tea Scones

My recipe for these scones is on an ancient piece of lined copybook paper. It is worn thin with age, all brown-spotted and tattered, and I'm afraid, if I don't get it on the blog here soon, it may just get thin enough to disappear altogether! Don't count on these scones to make you, or any part of you, disappear though! With fully one and a half sticks of butter there's very little chance they'd help anyone lose weight! But it's okay to indulge once in a while!

3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter [1 1/2 sticks or 6 oz.]
3/4 cup dark or yellow raisins, or currants, washed and dried
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup light cream


Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda and salt. Stir with a whisk to blend well.
Cut butter into flour mix with knives until it looks like coarse meal. I switch to a pastry cutter to finish the job.
Add raisins or currants.
Gradually add buttermilk, mixing only enough to wet the dry ingredients. If needed add a little more buttermilk until the ingredients hold together.
Turn out onto a well floured surface and pat gently [or use a rolling pin]to 1/2" thickness.
With a sharp floured knife cut into 2" -2 1/2" strips, then crosswise into squares.
Place on a buttered cookie sheet, leaving a little breathing room between!
Brush tops with cream and sprinkle with a little sugar.
Bake at 450 degrees F for 15-18 minutes, until golden .
Serve warm with more butter, jam, marmalade, cheese, or all by themselves! With a big cup of tea, of course.

Whenever my mother made scones she wouldn't let us eat them 'til they cooled off. "They'll sit like stones in your stomachs," was her rationale. What a waste! They're best eaten warm from the oven, though there's nothing wrong with toasting them next morning for breakfast-if they last that long.

"Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread....."

We ate a lot of Irish soda bread when I was growing up. Breakfast, all through the winter, consisted of big bowls of porridge with milk and sugar, and thick slices of home made soda bread, washed down with gallons of strong hot tea.

My father started the porridge in the evening in the double boiler. There was no "quick" or "instant" in those days. Just as there was no mind-boggling array of sugar-coated dry cereals. Oh, they existed alright, just not at our house, much as we might have longed for them. My mother had fixed ideas about what was good for growing children. Sugary, dry cereals did not feature on her list. And in matters of nutrition, she was the boss, just as she was in the realm of shoe selection! You ate your porridge or you went to school hungry; you wore your brown, sensible [B.O.R.I.N.G ]lace up shoes or you went barefoot. Needless to say, I never went to school hungry or barefoot. Rebellion never entered my mind.....

Fortunately, we didn't only have porridge. When you had choked down a big bowl of the stuff, you could have as many slices of brown bread as you wanted. No holds barred on how much butter or marmalade you slathered on! The weather was damp and chilly in Winter, and often in Spring and Autumn too. My mother believed a big breakfast got us off to a healthy start. It was a given that we'd learn better on a full stomach. She would have scoffed to hear about all the time and money that is wasted on surveys and studies these days to find out what common sense told her.

Back then, brown bread was just part of the landscape. But now it's one of my favourite foods. The Lads [the OC and the Bean] can take it or leave it, but for me it's comfort food; conjures up memories of coming in from school on a chilly winter day to find the kitchen filled with the heavenly smell of baking bread. And it's so easy to make.........

It would sound romantic to say this recipe was handed down to me from my mother. But I was far from her when I became interested in baking bread myself. Many's the loaf of Irish bread I've baked along the way that could have been used to prop the door open, or to sink the body before the cops arrived....And then I found this recipe in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, one year, on St.Patrick's Day. Of all the Irish bread recipes I've tried, it's my favourite.





O'Brien Irish Bread

1 1/2 cups stone-ground whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour [I use 3/4 a.p. flour and 1/4 cup of wheat germ]

1/4 cup dry oat bran hot cereal

1/4 cup regular rolled oats

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp soft butter

1 1/2 cups buttermilk, divided

3 tbsp melted butter


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Dust a baking sheey with flour.
In a large bowl combine both flours, dry cereal, oats, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir with a whisk to blend well.

Cut in the soft butter.

Stir in 1 1/4 cups buttermilk. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup buttermilk, kneading in the bowl as little as possible until dough is moist.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 7" round loaf. Place loaf on the floured baking sheet. With a sharp knife cut an "x" into the surface

Bake bread for 40-45 minutes,until it is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped with a knife.

Remove bread from the oven and place on a wire rack. Brush loaf with melted butter and allow to cool at least one hour before slicing.

This bread is delicious with butter and marmalade for breakfast. Or maybe you have to be Irish to think so!