Two things to love about Irish Soda Bread: First, it’s super easy to make. Second, it keeps quite well … in fact, I’d argue that it’s better toasted and buttered on Day 3 than it is the same day you make it.
This classic Irish Soda Bread recipe includes a ton of raisins and the spice and crunch of caraway seed. It would be a fun way to introduce your kids to bread-making: They’ll enjoy digging their mitts into this crumbly, shaggy dough and kneading it together.
If you’d like, you can portion generous half-cup scoops of this dough onto the lined baking sheet to make scones; you’ll want to reduce the baking time significantly, to about 20–25 minutes. Drizzle a simple powdered sugar glaze of the baked scones if you’d like.
Irish soda bread with raisins and caraway
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. caraway seed
4 Tbsp. (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
2 cups raisins (dark and golden, or either)
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tsp. baking soda
Preheat oven to 375 degrees; line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. In a very large bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Add sugar and caraway seed and stir with a fork to combine. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the raisins.
In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, egg and baking soda and stir with a fork to combine well. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir well with a fork. Here’s the fun part: Dig your hands into the bowl and work the dough to incorporate everything as much as you can. The dough will feel dry and floury; once you have it fairly combined, turn the dough and any loose flour and raisins out onto a clean work surface and continue to knead until the flour and raisins are fully combined. This will take a few minutes. Shape the dough into a round loaf that's 8 or 9 inches in diameter. Using a sharp knife, make an X in the top, going about 1 inch deep (this helps the center of this dense bread to cook through). Bake for 1 hour; test for doneness by inserting a skewer into the middle of the bread (it should come out clean). If the bread needs more time, bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Is it possible to use something other than white flour?
Do you ever include nuts in this recipe? I just bought some on Sunday and it appeared tom have either pecans or walnuts
Hi, Sonny — I haven’t encountered Irish Soda Bread with nuts, but a quick online search tells me it’s not unheard of to add pecans or walnuts.
Bryn
I will check the second loaf I bought yesterday. It was very good to hear back
Can I use part wheat flour, or some other kind besides white?
Hi, Jeanne — you could substitute white whole wheat flour for the all-purpose, or use 1 or 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour and the rest all-purpose. Know that using whole wheat flour will create a denser texture and require a bit more baking time. Thanks for the question!
Thanks, Bryn!