Happy St. Patrick’s Day! One of my favorite memories growing up was my mom making Irish Soda bread during March. It is a fairly straightforward bread and is really quite easy.
The bread uses baking soda instead of yeast as its leavening agent. Irish Soda Bread is also made with buttermilk that reacts with the baking soda to make it rise. Soda bread is a mostly savory bread, but it usually has some kind of dried fruit in it (raisins, currants, etc) that add a bit of sweetness.
My mom’s version has caraway seeds in it that add a little bit of an anise flavor to it (caraway seeds are typically found in rye bread) and I just love it. I wanted to make this with currants but couldn’t find any, so I used raisins. Feel free to substitute golden raisins or currants.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups coarse wholemeal flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 4 tablespoons butter, chilled
- 2 tablespoons caraway seeds
- 1 cup raisins or other dried fruit
- 2 cups buttermilk, or more if needed