Irish Soda Bread, St. Patrick's Day 2014

We love all things Irish, more so myself than Larry. Larry is a bit of an Italian at heart.

Well with Today being St. Patrick's Day I wanted to make something special for my household. We can't just buy Irish Soda Bread, most of the time it has Eggs, Which you know by now, is a major Allergy in our house! So I bought the buttermilk yesterday, as well as fresh and plump raisins for our Egg Free Irish Soda Bread.

You need a few basic ingredients.

(I listed all the ingredients in the order in which we're going to use them. )

4 cups flour

4 Tablespoons Sugar

1 teaspoon Salt

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

4 Tablespoons COLD butter, we used Kerrigold.

1 Cup Raisins

1 egg (1/4 cup applesauce)

1 3/4 cups Buttermilk

Preheat your Oven, 375 Degrees while you mix your ingredients.





I once again used my Vintage measuring cups that are more or less 80 years young now.  I love these beauties, they are amazing. The larger one measures up to 2 cups. The smaller one is a 1 cup measure.  I use these for both Dry and wet ingredients. I only like using these for Dry ingredient measurements when it's an even Cup or TWO. It's hard to get it packed flat and measured when 1 3/4 cup of dry flour. No THANK YOU.  My amazing Great Grandmother Helen Neale Anderson used these for as long as I can remember and it's a fantastic feeling knowing she may have used these YEARS ago to make the same bread I am today.


I would say take this moment to get your baking sheet ready, Line it with Parchment paper or aluminum foil, grease lightly to avoid sticking.


Back to the task at hand, I used a stand mixer, A paddle attachment is your best bet, less mess. It also blends the butter a lot better. I have used the old school 2 knives cross cut the butter into the dry before, I'm just not feeling old school habits today.

Flour, sugar, salt, Baking Soda go into the bowl, slowly mixing them together.

I cubed my 4 tablespoons of butter to integrate it a little easier. Once the butter looks blended and slightly the size of small peas, add your 1 cup of raisins. You can do all the great traditional flavors like coriander seeds, but Larry doesn't like it, so we skip them.

Now that you have your "dry" mix together, take your Egg or (applesauce like we use) and your buttermilk and pour it slowly into the mixer. I put my mixer on "Stir" because I really didn't want to get my hands dirty yet. I had pictures to take!  You can lift the paddle at this point and use a spoon to incorporate the wet ingredients. Make a little well and fold the dry into the center.

Now comes the Fun part.

Take this mixture out of the bowl, Flour the hell out of your hands. Like obnoxious amounts of flour, Scoop the beautiful irish mix and plop it onto a floured surface, I use my cutting board, I know there's no allergens on it, so it's quickest and easiest way for me.








Knead the dough together until it no longer sticks to you, but not until it's a ball of cookie dough.















Once it's beautiful, and still a little rustic looking. Transfer onto the prepped cookie sheet.


Oh look there's my Cheese knife. Perfect for the next step.












Cut a 1" deep X into the top of this delicious creation.













So this will take between 45 minutes to 55 minutes. I cut straight to the chase, and did it for 50 off the bat.













I'm waiting for it now. I'm so anxious. I have never made this before without Eggs, so it's a trial and error thing today. I will however eat it regardless of how it looks. I need it.


The Irish Soda Bread sign in most of my pictures was created on My Cricut mini that I talked about in my previous post. I made up the design last night before I went to bed. I wanted something simple and bold. I used traditional Irish colors. We aren't allowed to wear any orange on St. Patricks Day due to us being "Black Irish" We always got a big old arm pinch, so no orange here.

If you wanted to take this a step further, you can add Green Food Coloring into your Buttermilk to create a green Irish Soda Bread. I didn't have any green or yellow food coloring on hand, so I stuck with traditional ways.

Please remember to enjoy this holiday safely, even if you are not drinking other people may be, and we want all our family members home to enjoy this bread, our boiled dinners and our GREEN beverages, I have Green Tea today!

Today marks a big anniversary in our house, it was the first date for my Meme and Papa. They were both recently divorced from their first spouses, and they went out and had a few pints. They were married for over 20 years before my Papa passed in 1987. We remember this day fondly and sadly. Meme goes out for her Boiled Dinner with her friend Harriet, who's 95 this year! Still works and DRIVES! Watch out! They go to Kennedy's Pub in Marlboro where they get to listen to authentic Irish music, eat their meat and potatoes, and drink their booze.

Thank you so much everyone for reading my posts, it really is something special when you share recipes and stories.