Copycat Rankin Irish Fruit Soda Bread Recipes

FRUIT SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 175c. Take a baking sheet and sprinkle with a small handful of flour
• In a large bowl, combing the flour, caster sugar, baking powder, baking soda, raisins and salt. Give everything a mix. This is your dry mix.
• Break the eggs into a cup and whisk gently with a fork for a few seconds. Pour all but 1 tbsp. of the egg into a separate bowl. Add in the buttermilk and melted butter and mix. This is your wet mix.
• Pour your wet mix into your dry mix and stir until you get a nice sticky dough. Don't overmix or you'll end up with tough bread. If you don't mind getting a bit sticky, you can do this stage with your hands. Form the dough into a rough cob or ball shape and place on your prepared baking sheet.
• Using a sharp knife, make a large cross in the middle - cutting about 1 inch into the bread. Using a pastry brush, give the whole loaf a egg wash using the reserved egg. Place in the over and cook for 45-50 minutes until the bread looks golden.
• Take out of the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before cutting up and serving with butter, or toasting and serving with butter.

FRUITY IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, allspice and salt and mix well. Cut the butter and shortening into small pieces and add to the flour mixture. Using your fingers, work the cold butter and shortening into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg, the buttermilk, the dried fruit and the walnuts and mix into the flour mixture until it is incorporated. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently until the dough forms a smooth ball. Shape the dough into a round loaf. Place the dough onto a lightly oiled baking sheet. Score the top of the loaf with a very sharp knife. Place the loaf in the oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown.

CHEF JOHN'S IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
• Whisk all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Cut butter into flour mixture using a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal.
• Beat buttermilk, egg, honey, and orange zest together in a bowl. Pour buttermilk mixture, currants, and raisins into flour mixture; stir with a wooden spoon until a wet, sticky dough comes together.
• Turn dough out onto a well-floured work surface; press dough together into a soft ball of dough and cut into 2 pieces. Form each half into a smooth, round loaf. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and let rest for 15 minutes. Cut a 1/2-inch deep "X" into the top of each loaf with a serrated knife.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown and fragrant, about 45 minutes. Transfer loaves to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

COPYCAT RANKIN IRISH FRUIT SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Pre-heat the oven to about 180 Celcius (around 350 Fahrenheit / Gas Mark 4), or perhaps just a little less.
• Lightly oil or grease a small (1Lb) loaf tin or lightly flour (or oil) a flat baking tray if you don't have / want to use a loaf tin.
• If substituting for the buttermilk with milk and lemon juice then do that now and put it aside.
• Sieve/sift the flour into a medium sized mixing bowl and add the salt. Scoop up handfuls and allow to drop back into the bowl to aerate the mixture.
• Add the Sultanas and if using them, caraway seeds and vitamin C powder.
• Stir together with a wooden spoon.
• Add and stir in the baking soda.
• Add enough of the buttermilk to make a soft dough. Now work quickly as the buttermilk and soda are already reacting. Knead the dough lightly - too much handling will toughen it, while too little means it won't rise properly. It should require a couple of minutes at most. Basically you're adding the buttermilk as you're kneading it just enough to work the ingredients together properly at which point it needs to be baked straight away in the hot oven.
• If using a baking tray rather than a loaf tin, then form a round loaf about as thick as your fist. Otherwise shape it to a similar size but such as will fit in the loaf tin.
• Place it on a lightly-floured baking tray and lightly cut a cross in the top with a floured knife "to let the faeries out so they don't jinx your bread", or just put it in the loaf tin and lengthways cut a line along the top.
• Put at once to bake near the top of the pre-heated oven. Bake for about 35-45 minutes. "When baked, the loaf will sound hollow when rapped on the bottom with your knuckles.".
• Wrap immediately in a clean tea-towel if you prefer the crust to be softer.
• This bread will keep well for a couple of days if very well wrapped. If unwrapped it will dry out very quickly - within half a day. It freezes beautifully.
• Best served slightly warm on its own or with butter.
• Note:.
• The Rankin recipe that I was copying does not use caraway seeds at all and uses sultanas not raisins. Some Irish fruit soda bread recipes use caraway seeds and a larger number don't. I love caraway seeds but I like this bread best without. I've listed as a suggestion only. I use Bread flour because I have plenty and I imagine it gives a better rise but I understand that plain flour (All Purpose Flour) works just fine-never used it myself.
• Historical notes:.
• There are hundreds or thousands of recipes, most of them contain egg or rice flour or cornflour etc. Such ingredients would not have been available to most poor Irish families in towns and cities. The point of Irish Soda Breads (as well as Scottish Shortbreads for that matter) was that it was made by a people so poor that they could not even afford to buy yeast (which was not readily available) to bake their daily bread and was basically the normal bread such as they baked every day which had sugar and fruit added as a special sweet and fruity Sunday treat because they couldn't afford to make a proper cake.
• It's convenient from a cutting point of view if you've got a very small loaf tin, but a flat or round baking tray will do fine. It was originally made as round loaf sitting on a griddle (UK: basically a form of frying pan) baked in a Bastible (an iron baking pot - a type of oven - they were made in Barnstable, Devon hence the name) over the glowing embers of a peat turf fire. Because of the way the bread rises it's not essential to be so accurate as it is with a yeast-based bread so volume measures (cups and spoons) could just as easily be used instead if you don't have a set of kitchen scales as would have been the case across Ireland in the early 1800s when they were first made.

AMERICAN-STYLE IRISH SODA BREAD WITH RAISINS AND CARAWAY SEED

Steps:

• Position oven rack to the upper-middle position; preheat oven to 400°.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Whisk the flours, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt together in a large bowl.
• Work the butter into the dry ingredients with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• Combine the buttermilk and egg with a fork.
• Add the buttermilk-egg mixture, raisins, and caraway seeds to the flour mixture; stir with a fork just until the dough begins to come together.
• Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead just until the dough becomes cohesive and bumpy; about 30 seconds (do not knead until smooth).
• Pat the dough into a 6-inch round about 2 inches thick, and lay on the prepared baking sheet.
• Cut a large 1/2-inch deep X into the top of the loaf using a serrated knife; brush top with 1 tablespoon melted butter.
• Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, about 40-45 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

RACHEL ALLEN'S IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C or mark 8).
• Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pout in most of the buttermilk, leaving about ¼ cup (50 ml) in the measuring cup. Using one hand with your fingers outstretched like a claw, bring the flour and liquid together, adding more buttermilk, if necessary. Don't knead the mixture, or it will become heavy. The dough should be soft, but not too wet and sticky.
• When the dough comes together, turn it onto a floured work surface and bring it together a little more. Pat the dough into a round about 1½ inches (4 cm) thick and cut a deep cross in it. Place on a baking sheet. (I lined mine with parchment paper.).
• Bake for 15 minutes. Turn down the heat to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C or gas mark 6) and bake for 30 minutes more. When done, the load will sound slightly hollow when tapped on the bottom and be golden in color.
• Rachel recommends turning the bread upside down for the last 5 minutes.

IRISH DARK SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Grease two loaf pans.
• Sift all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda and baking powder together into a large bowl.
• Add brown sugar and stir well to incorporate, being very careful to break up any lumps of brown sugar.
• Add buttermilk and stir well.
• Divide the dough between the two prepared loaf pans.
• Bake for about 45 minutes or until brown and crunchy.
• Cool on wire racks.

CORK COUNTY IRISH BREAD

Steps:

• Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; mix well and add raisins.
• Beat eggs in a smaller bowl.
• Add buttermilk to eggs and beat until combined.
• Add egg mixture to butter and dry ingredients.
• Stir until moistened.
• Pour into greased layer cake pan or pie pan. (Dough will be very thick and dense).
• Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour.
• *Delicious served hot with butter!*.