# Irish Soda Bread. You have to taste this one



## ChrisF (Feb 22, 2004)

I found this recipe last year on the Very Best Baker site.

It is wonderful, and with Saint Pat's Day coming up I thought I'd share a bit of the Irish with you all.   


Ingredients 

 4 cups flour                        
½ cup sugar 
4 teaspoons baking powder 
¼ teaspoon baking soda 
½ teaspoon salt 
1 pint sour cream 
½ cup buttermilk 
2 eggs  
2 cups raisins 

Directions:  Put dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add raisins and stir to coat. Beat eggs. Add eggs, sour cream and buttermilk. Mix well. Put dough in a greased 10” spring form pan, or mound on cookie sheet or pizza pan, or use two loaf pans. Mark a cross in the dough. Bake at 350 for 60 – 75 minutes. Test for doneness with a cake tester. Loaf pans will need less time to bake. Test at 45 minutes. Can halve recipe and make one loaf.


----------



## carnivore (Feb 22, 2004)

hi ChrisF,
i have a question for you:  i've had bad luck with 'quick breads' in the past--they rise and taste fine, but they always turn out quite mishapen--it's as though the baking powder is rocket fuel and as it rises so quickly while baking it tears the top of the bread.  Probably operator error, and of course it's strictly an aesthetic thing--once it's sliced it's unnoticable, but but do you have any suggestions?


----------



## northernMIcook (Feb 23, 2004)

This sounds like a nice recipe Chris. I have a Jewish Coffee Cake that sounds like a similar batter but you put a mixture of cinnamon, brown sugar and nuts in the center of 2 batter layers. I'm going to try yours. My daughter is home from college for winter break and looking for some home cooked food. The food I pay for her to eat at college is, in her opinion, "not meant for human consumption" :roll: Well, I'll fatten her up.


----------



## coquille (Feb 23, 2004)

Carnivor,
I don't know if this is an answer to your question but :
 If you let the dough raise at a to high temperature it will break .a solution is that if you use 100 % white flour, add just one tablespoon of a different kind of flour and you will see that it will not burst.I found it out by accident but it works really well !


----------



## ChrisF (Feb 23, 2004)

Carivor, Hi!  I have not noticed the cracking in my quick breads since I have my new oven which is electric, My old oven was gas and the temp was off by about 25 to 30 degrees and very hard to adjust even with an oven thermometer. So Coquille probably has the right idea about the high temp.

I quit making banana nut bread in the oven, I like to steam it in the  crock pot, that always cracked in the middle when baked in the oven for me.


----------



## ChrisF (Feb 23, 2004)

Hi. MIcook, Hope your daughter likes the bread. 

I like to mound the dough on a big cookie sheet, I think it looks more authentic that way  I can just picture the green hill sides with white sheep grazing, as I look out the window as the bread cools. 

My gosh, this winter is really getting to me.   

Could you post that Jewish bread with the cimmamon and nuts, please.


----------



## carnivore (Feb 23, 2004)

hi Coquille and ChrisF,
thanks for the help--this recipe looks pretty good and i want to try it, i just don't want a repeat of last time


----------



## northernMIcook (Feb 24, 2004)

Here's the recipe, Chris. I think my recipe is alot sweeter (more of a cake) but it's really a good afternoon snack.  

Jewish Coffee Cake

BATTER:
1 1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream
FILLING:
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla in mixer on medium speed, scraping occasionally, 2 minutes. Beat in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt alternately with sour cream on low speed. 
In a separate bowl, combine filling ingredients. Set aside.
Grease and flour bundt pan or 2 9x5x3 loaf pans. 
Spread 1/2 the batter in pan (pans) then sprinkle the filling then spread on  the rest of batter.
Bake 1 hour (test with toothpick). Cool 10 minutes then remove from pans. Cool.
Also good with a glaze poured over.


----------



## billhoo (Feb 27, 2004)

*Drunkened?  Now there's an idea!*

The recipe sounds great.  I'm going to give it a try with a twist.

I'm going to soak the raisins a few days before with Bushmill's Irish Whiskey!

I originally thought of rum, but hey!?  What Irishman would want rum in their soda bread?  Nothing but good Irish Whiskey!  Thank you Homer Simpson!

NOTE:  You saw it posted here first.  If this Whiskey Raisin Soda Bread gets trendy and shows up in a gourmet cooking show, you know who invented it!

-Bill


----------

