Author: Marilyn Dishes

I have never made Irish Soda Bread before & that has been a mistake! It is so good! I ate it warm from the oven with butter, that melted into it…& today I am eating it toasted with peanut butter! The recipe I chose to make was from kingarthurflour.com  This is not a yeasted bread. It is dense & hearty. Nicely sweeten from the currants that are studded throughout this bread. I am going to cut it up, put it in the freezer so that I have it for a while!  I didn’t have all of  the ingredients exactly as the recipe called for so I used what I had in the house. The recipe calls for buttermilk but I never have that so made my own. As usual, I will put the link to the original recipe here.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/irish-soda-bread-recipe

Here is how I made this

Irish Soda Bread  (adapted from kingarthurflour.com)

Ingredients 

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cup bread flour

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

2/3 cup currants

1 1/3 cup buttermilk *** I put regular milk into a measuring cup, just short of 1 1/3 cups, then I added 1 1/4 tsp of vinegar, gave it a stir & let it sit until needed  ***the ‘formula’ for making a substitute for buttermilk is: 1 cup milk/1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice. let stand for 5 -10 minutes 

1 large egg

Method

Preheat oven to 400f

Grease a 8″ or 9″ round cake pan ***I buttered the pan I used but you can spray it with non-stick spray or grease the pan  however you like! I used a light coloured cake pan

***I used my food processor to mix this together. If you co not want to use a food processor use a bowl & when you add the butter you can mix it in with your hands or a pastry blender.

1. In the bowl of your food processor, put the flours, sugar, baking soda & salt. Pulse for a few seconds to mix the dry ingredients together
2. Add the currants to the flour & pulse to distribute them throughout
3. Add the butter & pulse the food processor until there are not any large pieces of butter.
4. Put the egg into the ‘buttermilk” & whisk together so that the egg is beaten in there, or alternatively, beat the egg & add to the milk & stir
5. With the food processor running, pour the milk/egg mixture through the feed tube & process until combined & a soft dough is formed *** do not over processes. You don’t want this dough to become a ball of dough!
6. Take the dough out of the food processor & put onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for a bit until the dough forms into a nice flat  ball.
7. Put into the greased cake pan & flatten to fit the pan
8. Using a sharp knife, cut an x into the top of the dough, cutting down about 1/2 inch
9. Bake for 45 -60 minutes…Mine was done at 45 minutes

Enjoy!