I have been making (and eating) Irish Soda Bread for as long as I can recall. I remember it being available from time to time in my house growing up and I remember my Grammy making it when I was a kid as well. I am not sure if I ever helped her make it or not, I would like to think that I did. I can say with confidence (as well as a number of contests won, accolades from family, friends and neighbors and a feature on TODAY) that this is The Best Irish Soda Bread!
Ingredients :
- 4½ cups of flour
- 1¼ cup sugar
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- dash of salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2½ cups raisins
- 2 cups buttermilk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 large egg
Directions :
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
To make 1 large loaf, use a 10-12 inch cast iron pan or ovenproof skillet with 2-inch or better sides or to make 2 loaves use 2 smaller cast iron skillets, oven proof pans or 2 cake pans.
Cut a big enough circle of parchment paper out to line both the bottom and the sides of your pan(s).
Whisk the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl until blended, add the butter and raisins and stir well.
Add buttermilk, heavy cream and egg to the dry ingredients and stir until incorporated – do not over mix.
Pour mixture into pan(s) and cook for one hour or until toothpick or skewer inserted comes out dry. For smaller loaves, check after 45 minutes, however, most likely it will take an hour to bake. Once a wooden skewer inserted comes out not “wet” it is done.
Cool a bit then flip out of the pan(s), peel off parchment paper and allow the bead to cool on a cooling rack, that is if you don’t just dig right in like my family and I do!
Source : soufflebombay.com
