Irish Soda Bread: A Treat for Any Day

St. Patrick's Day comes only once a year, but you can enjoy Irish soda bread any day, if you make your own.

This version is sweet, brightly flavored with caraway seeds and packed with currants. It's from a book I wrote called "Good Bread." 

The steps are simple. Mix everything, then turn the dough out onto a board and knead it until well combined. 

Next, set the loaf in a large pie pan or on a baking sheet, then cut a cross in the top with a sharp knife.

There's no rising time, because this is a quick bread, leavened with soda and baking powder, not yeast. So you can put it in the oven right away. 

Here's how the loaf looks after it has baked for an hour or so. 

After it cools in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, you turn it out onto the rack for further cooling.

Then comes the great moment when you can cut into it. 

Here is how I like to eat the bread, with eggs for breakfast. In my opinion, it's best sliced thin and toasted. But you can cut thick slices, if you prefer.  

I've varied the recipe from time to time, such as replacing a small amount of all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour and adding raisins when I didn't have enough currants.

I've made my own buttermilk too when I didn't have time to go to the store. It's easy, all you do is add lemon juice to whole milk, about a tablespoon per cup of milk.

I hope you enjoy the bread as much as I do.

IRISH SODA BREAD
From "Good Bread" by Barbara Hansen

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 cups currants

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream thoroughly. Beat in the egg until well blended. Mix in the caraway seeds.

Save out 1/4 cup of the flour for kneading the bread. Combine the remaining flour, salt, baking powder and soda and add to the egg mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. 

Lastly, add the currants and work them in with your hands. The dough will be very sticky at this point. Turn it out onto the reserved flour on a work surface--I use a large board.  Knead about 1 minute, or until thoroughly blended, adding a small amount of additional flour if too sticky. The dough should not be dry, however.

Form the dough into a round loaf and place it in a well-greased 10-inch pie pan or on a greased baking sheet. With a sharp knife, cut a slash across the top of the bread in one direction, then a slash at right angles, forming a cross.

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Place it in the pie pan on a rack to cool for 10 minutes, or let it stand on the baking sheet. Then turn it out onto the rack to cool completely.

Makes 1 loaf.