American Irish Soda Bread!

This March, as a final "tip o' the hat" to St. Pat, I thought I would list one more recipe dedicated to the Irish. In doing a search of my previous posts, I realized that I have never shared a recipe for Irish soda bread. Now this is due, in part, to the fact that traditional soda bread has no yeast. It is a wonderful "quick bread" that depends on baking soda as leaven. It is WELL worth trying! However, there are yeasted versions of soda bread that use baking soda AND yeast to raise the bread, giving it a slightly different texture. The true Irish would probably scoff at this creation, so, to that point, I have named this recipe "American" soda bread. But, once you taste this bread, there will certainly be NO scoffing - it is tender and absolutely delightful! I took this creation to card club this month to accompany the hostess' main dish of shepherd's pie.....there were many requests for both recipes! Try it, warm out of the oven,  with a heavy dollop of Irish butter - absolutely YUMMY!!! 

American Irish Soda Bread !

1 pkg/Tbsp Red Star Platinum yeast

½ Cup warm water

1 Cup buttermilk, warmed ( you may substitute ¾ Cup milk + ¼ Cup yogurt or sour cream )

3 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. softened butter

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

4 Cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

¾ Cup dried cranberries or raisins (a friend suggested adding walnuts, too!)

1 ½ tsp. orange zest

Place warm water and yeast in EZ DOH bucket and stir to dissolve yeast. Let rest 1 minute. Add one cup of flour, then additional dough ingredients. EZ DOH-it for 2-3 minutes, or until dough is smooth and soft and all ingredients are incorporated. Remove dough from bucket, spray bucket with cooking spray, “smooth” dough and replace in bucket. Cover and let rise until doubled.

Remove dough from bucket and form into a round loaf. Place on a greased baking sheet. Depress the loaf slightly with your palm to create a flatter round loaf. Cover and let rise about 30 minutes. With a sharp knife, slash the top of the loaf. Sprinkle lightly with flour. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown. Place on a wire rack to cool. 

American Irish Soda Bread!