Fruity Irish Soda Bread Recipes

IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
• Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is mixed into the flour.
• With a fork, lightly beat the buttermilk, egg and orange zest together in a measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Combine the currants with 1 tablespoon of flour and mix into the dough. It will be very wet.
• Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and knead it a few times into a round loaf. Place the loaf on the prepared sheet pan and lightly cut an X into the top of the bread with a serrated knife. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. When you tap the loaf, it will have a hollow sound.
• Cool on a baking rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

CLASSIC IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°. Whisk together first 5 ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In another bowl, whisk together 1 egg and buttermilk. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. Stir in raisins., Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead gently 6-8 times. Shape into a 6-1/2-in. round loaf; place on a greased baking sheet. Using a sharp knife, make a shallow cross in top of loaf. Whisk remaining egg; brush over top., Bake until golden brown, 30-35 minutes. Remove from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.

AMAZINGLY EASY IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
• In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and margarine. Stir in 1 cup of buttermilk and egg. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine melted butter with 1/4 cup buttermilk; brush loaf with this mixture. Use a sharp knife to cut an 'X' into the top of the loaf.
• Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Check for doneness after 30 minutes. You may continue to brush the loaf with the butter mixture while it bakes.

RICH IRISH SODA BREAD

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and caraway seeds until well combined.
• Using a pastry cutter or two knives in scissor fashion, cut in butter until the mixture feels like coarse meal. Stir in raisins until evenly distributed.
• In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, and baking soda until well combined. Pour buttermilk mixture into the flour-and-butter mixture all at once, and stir with a fork until all the liquid is absorbed and the mixture begins to hold together. It should resemble a rough biscuit dough. Using your hands, press the dough into a round, dome-shaped loaf about 8 inches in diameter. Lift the loaf from the bowl, and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.
• In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk and cream together. With a pastry brush, brush the egg wash over the loaf. With a sharp knife or razor, incise a cross, about 1/2 inch deep, into the top of the loaf. Transfer to the oven. Bake, rotating halfway through, until it is deep golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center, about 70 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer bread from the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool.

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.

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.

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.