Irish Soda Bread with Golden Raisins
March 11, 2018 | By Jeremy Scheck | Leave a Comment
This tender quick bread made with orange zest and buttermilk has just the suggestion of sweetness and the texture of a scone…what more could you want on this St. Patrick’s Day? The recipe makes two loaves, so I recommend IMMEDIATELY giving one away or else you will eat both in one sitting. While I like the nuttiness from the bit whole wheat flour, if you find it especially annoying to buy a whole bag just for this recipe, it’s fine to use just all purpose flour.
Adapted from Food Wishes
Irish Soda Bread with Golden Raisins
Ingredients
- 3 and 1/4 cups (407g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (63g) whole wheat flour
- 4 tablespoons oats (rolled are preferred; quick are fine)
- 1 and 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 stick (57g) unsalted butter, cold and chopped in small pieces
- 1 and 3/4 full fat buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 2 or 3 tablespoons honey
- Grated zest of 1 orange
- 1 and 1/3 cups dried fruit, a combination of golden raisins, currants, and cranberries is good.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375° F, convection if you have it. Line a half–sheet pan with a silpat or parchment baking paper.
- Whisk together the flours, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Add in the butter, and use your fingers to rub it with the flour mixture into thin strips.
- In a large jug whisk together the buttermilk, egg, honey, and orange zest.
- Add the wet mixture and the dried fruit to the flour mixture and mix with clean hands just until no flour streaks are visible. The dough should be quite sticky.
- Scrape the dough onto a well–floured work surface. Divide in two, and form each half into a round, between 1.5" and 2" tall. Transfer both to the prepared baking sheet, let rest for 15 mins.
- Brush the tops with a dash of leftover buttermilk, and slash the tops with of both loaves with a sharp knife in the shape of a cross.
- Bake 40–45 minutes, until the loaves are deeply golden brown and sound hollow when tapped lightly on the underside.
- Let cool completely before enjoying slathered in Irish butter.
Jeremy is a student at Cornell University double majoring in Spanish and Italian with significant coursework in classes such as nutrition, food science and culinary science. He has years of experience as a home cook, working at a local bakery, and teaching cooking classes at Williams-Sonoma. After starting a TikTok account in March 2020 while quarantined in his childhood home, Jeremy’s presence grew to over 1.5 million followers in the first 6 months. During that time, he was featured in People Magazine, Fox News, BBC Radio, BuzzFeed, Tasty, Spoon University, and USA Today, among other media outlets.