A real family recipe, with an actual recipe breakdown because you just can't wing it with bread sometimes.
I'm feeling generous to all the non-Irish folk who may have never had a decent soda bread. This is my great-grandmother's recipe; we use golden raisins in later generations, she used currants. Either way, it's easy cheap and hits the spot... Slainte!
Irish Soda Bread (Two Loaves in two round pie pans)
7 cups flour Quart of buttermilk 1/2 cup (or more, to taste) Caraway seeds 1/2 cup (or more, to taste) golden raisins or currants 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 2 tsp sugar 2 tsp baking soda 2 TB butter to grease pans (2 9" cake rounds)
Soak golden raisins or dried currants in scalding hot water for 1/2 hour before using them. Sprouts has good moist bulk jumbo HUGE golden raisins, so I cut them up with scissors instead of the Sun Maid box (still good) and soaking makes them extra delicious as they are already pretty darn good. Mix dry ingredients and blend; add buttermilk, stirring well. Grease the pans VERY well with softened butter, thick! The batter will be thick and sticky and dry-like, like a hot mess, you will think yikes I need to add liquid, but NO!!! That is OK :) It's like flour cement basically or a kid paper mache project gone wrong :) I use my hands and just get messy, split the batter into the two pie pans, or whatever you have. It will puff up like crazy, double style, so be prepared. Cook at 350 degrees for 60-90 min, high altitude, probably less like 60 for sea level. It's best just to keep an eye on it, and grab it out when a toothpick/wood skewer comes out clean but color is white in the low cracks/tan on the curls, not toasted brown all over! My favorite is huge cake piece cuts at lukewarm hot with a big slab of softened butter all over it :) Freezable, lasts a decent amount of time, or microwave for 30 seconds and add smeared softened butter. *You can substitute heavy cream with a couple tsp of vinegar in it for buttermilk... buttermilk sells out early come St. Pat's LOL Two loaves of fresh bread for about $5-6, and tasty. Works for me.