We had a huge snowstorm this past week, resulting in the city essentially shutting down for a day, and I got a snow day! So, of course, as soon as I knew it was coming I began planning my baking projects. And what better to make when you're stuck inside all day than bread, which is usually a 3-6 hour process from start to finish.
Given it's St. Patrick's Day week, I'd been seeing Irish Soda Bread recipes all over the place, and remembered how freakin' delicious it is. And - lucky for me and my love - it doesn't take hours to make; from start to cooled bread, only about 2.5! I know that recipes for this particular item can vary widely, however, and I wanted the one that I knew I already loved, so off to my folder of Mom's recipes I went.
With this recipe you end up with a thick batter (almost as if you were making a cake), you bake it in a 9" springform, and the resulting bread is dense and moist with a crispy crust and just a little sweetness underlying all that caraway goodness. It's my favorite, so I thought you should have the chance for it to be yours too.
Happy Baking!
INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES
4 cups AP Flour (480g)
3/4 cup Sugar (150g)
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
2.25 cups Buttermilk
1 Egg
1 tablespoon Butter, melted
2 tablespoons Caraway Seeds*
1 cup Raisins
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon sugar
stand mixer w. beater blade OR mixing bowl with hand whisk
large measuring cup
9” springform pan
*I only had 1 tablespoon left so I made it with that amount and it was delicious.
DIRECTIONS
Preheat your oven to 375F. Lightly spray or grease a 9” springform pan.
Mix/whisk all of your dry ingredients together in your stand mixer or mixing bowl: 480g AP flour (4c), 150g sugar (3/4c), 4tsp BP, 1/2tsp BS, and 1tsp salt.
Whisk your wet ingredients together in a measuring cup: 2.25c buttermilk, 1 egg, 1 TB of melted butter.
Mix your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients until fully combined. Don’t worry about overbeating as you would with a cake batter, because since this is a bread a little gluten development is perfectly fine. Make sure there’s no traces of dry ingredients left and its fully homogenous.
Mix in 2TB caraway seeds and 1c raisins.
Pour the batter into your pan, mix your glaze ingredients (1TB milk and 1tsp sugar) together to then pour over the top. It’s not enough to cover it, that’s fine, but it will give those spots its on a nice browned crispy texture.
Bake for one hour or until a toothpick or tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let cool until you can handle the pan, then run a thin butter knife around the edge to make sure it’s loose and remove the side of the pan. Let cool completely on the bottom before removing.