Irish Soda Bread

Every year I think of baking this wonderful bread too late.  But this year I am actually early!  In reality, this bread is wonderful any time of year - not just for St Patrick’s Day.

Not your typical Irish Soda Bread because it does not contain fennel seeds, and it has a delicious cinnamon/sugar topping (definitely not traditional), but eat a slice warm from the oven, top it with a bit of good salted butter, brew yourself a cup of tea, and settle back for what could be the best part of your day.

This is a large soda bread, but it freezes beautifully. Just cut into portions and wrap well.

This recipe is from someone I worked with many years ago. We lost touch, but her recipe is still my tried-and-true favorite soda bread. Hope you enjoy it!

Barb’s Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients:

4 C flour

1 t. baking soda

1 C sugar

3/4 C melted butter

1 C raisins (pre-soaked in water)

1-1/3 C buttermilk

1 egg

2 t cinnamon

1 t sugar

Directions:

Make a cinnamon-sugar mixture for top of bread (you can adjust these measurements to your liking).

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Foil-line a 10" oven-proof frying pan  (I use a cast iron pan) and butter the foil.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and sugar. Then combine the remaining ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix all together until just combined. Scrape batter into foil-lined pan.

Make a cross in the top of the dough with a knife (FYI: a reference I found said this was not for religious reasons; it was a very practical way to divvy up the bread into four portions - pretty smart, huh?). 

Sprinkle the top of dough with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake for 1 hour.