Traditional Irish Soda Bread with Raisins with a Steady Rise

Traditional Irish Soda Bread with Raisins with a Steady Rise is filed under Quick breads and built around all-purpose flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Plan on 12 slices.

Count on 5 minutes of prep, 40 minutes of cooking, about 45 minutes from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup unsalted butter cold, cubed
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ¾ cup raisins or currants

How the cooking goes

1. Heat the oven to 375° F.
2. In a medium bowl whisk the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and sugar. Dump it on the counter or on a large wooden cutting board. You can also make this in a mixing bowl with a pastry blender or your hands.
3. Sprinkle the cold butter cubes over the flour mixture and cut in with a bench scraper or rub in with your hands until the butter pieces are almost indiscernible.
4. Slowly add the buttermilk, scooping the flour over the buttermilk and working it in. Do this gently. At first you use the bench scraper to mound the flour on top of the buttermilk until it is absorbed before adding a little more. After a dough begins to form, you abandon the bench scraper and just use the hands to kneed in the buttermilk until a cohesive dough forms. There shouldn’t be any dry patches but it shouldn’t be sticky either. At this point gently, but quickly, kneed in the raisins. You can always use a little more or a little less buttermilk. You want to kneed it as little as possible so that it doesn’t become tough.
5. Stand Mixer Method – you can also do this in a electric mixer. Simply add the dry ingredients to the bowl of the electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, along with the cubed butter and mix on low speed until no large pieces of butter remain. You want the butter to almost disappear into the flour mixture. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the buttermilk just until a cohesive dough forms. With a electric mixer, try to be very careful not to over mix. Turn out the dough onto the counter and kneed in the raisins.
6. Shape into a round loaf and make two cuts in the shape of a cross on the top of the dough. Make sure they are ½ inch deep for the prettiest loaf. Place in a cast iron skillet or on a parchment lined sheet pan, and bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. It is easy to over-bake this bread, so watch it!

After it comes off the heat

Wait until the loaf is cool before slicing. Wrap it at room temperature, and freeze slices you will not eat in a couple of days.

If you want another plate from Quick breads, open Pumpkin Bread with a Steady Rise and Moist Banana Bread with a Steady Rise.