For Saint Patrick's Day: Nanny's soda bread recipe, tweaked

[jawnbc]

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I'm sharing my Nanny's (grandmother's) straight-from-Portuma-Galway recipe for Oirish soda bread. Like many such recipes, it's easy to make...and easy to stuff up!

Ingredients

• 4 cups of all-purpose flou
• 1.5 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 palm fulls of caraway seeds
• 1.5-2 cups of raisins
• approximately 2 cups of buttermilk

Directions

• Cover the bottom oven rack with aluminium foil
• Pre-heat oven to 375F/190C, with the top rack in the middle (nothing above it)

Mixing

• Sift the flour into a large bowl
• Mix the dry ingredients above, in order. Start perhaps with a whisk, but a large wooden spoon works fine
• gradually add buttermilk, mixing into the bowl using the handle of a large wooden spoon
• Dough should be evenly mixed and very moist--it should still stick to your hands, the spoon, etc--but not with any liquid run-off

• Leave dough to stand for 1 hour with a cover (celo wrap or tea towel)

Baking

• Lightly flour 2 bake sheets

• Take half the dough and shape into a round "flying saucer" about 1" high on the centre of each pan
• Gently carve an X across the top of the dough, so you can see about halfway in
• Very important: Gently sprinkle enough flour onto the top of the loaf so it's fully covered: top and sides
• Put both pans into the oven: bake for approximately 25 minutes. one
• When you can slide a spatula under the entire loaf without it sticking it's time for the trick!

The Trick

• Turn the oven down to 275F/135C.
• Remove loaves from pans and place directly on upper oven rack
• Bake for additional 20 minutes
• Cut into loaves to see that dough is cooked in the middle (leave in for additional 5 minutes until no more gooey dough)
• Gently tap loaves while upside down to get rid of excess flour
• Serve with butter and a nice cup of tea!

• Give a toast to my Nanny, Anna Kathleen Gibbons Egan!

Faile Phadraic!