Counting to St. Patrick’s Day, my new favorite way to the honor lengthening daylight and muddy days of early spring, I’ve been making Irish Soda Bread.

 

The only Irish Cookbook I own, by Malachi McCormick whose name alone gives the book credibility, firmly defends Irish Soda Bread as a minimal loaf of flour and sour milk - NOT buttermilk, McCormick wags a finger, but milk that has literally gone bad in your refrigerator - with a teaspoon of baking soda.  Put that in a dutch oven and place it in your hot coals.  Butter, eggs, raisins?  Only British sissies would stir those in.

I think the above is one of those recipes that belong in the Hard Knocks School of Cuisine -  born out of a crummy life, eaten with a perverse sense of nostalgia.   Sometimes it works, as in the case of polenta.  Sometimes it doesn’t, as in gruel.

Still, I agree with Malachi that butter and eggs makes Irish Soda bread too much like cake, but I think that a simple Irish Soda Bread dough is a fabulous vehicle for raisins and caraway. Why leave them out, except in the name of suffering?  The winey flavors of fruit and seed are great traveling partners with this soft, tender crumb, housed by an extra-satisfying crust crunch.   Butter would soften and fatten the dough too much, so, yes, lad, let’s leave them out.   But, I wasn’t going to serve anyone anything that had rotted in my refrigerator, so I used buttermilk

I think this is a good bow to Irish character minus the martyrdom.

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Kane’s Irish Soda Bread

makes one loaf

Ingredients

3 cups sifted flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons caraway seeds

1 cup raisins

1 1/3 cups buttermilk

Instructions

Combine first six ingredients.  Add raisins.  Pour milk into flour, stir gently into a ball with a rubber spatula.  Spill onto a floured surface and, again gently, knead it just until it forms a ball.  Don’t over-knead.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet or cake pan.  Cut a large cross on the bread with a sharp knife.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 35 to 40 minutes.  Test by tapping bread.  If it sounds hollow it’s done.