Irish Soda Bread . . . Dutchy Style!

I like to know the rules, and follow them, except when it comes to cooking and baking . . . Then I always leave room for my creative juices to flow! While there is probably a wee mite of Irish in me, I believe it's the Dutchy side that's the creative cook and baker! That said, "Let's talk Soda Bread"!

One of my favorite bloggers, Fiona at Inner Pickle, shared beautiful photos of their market gardens (with a view of the ocean), and an easy recipe for Irish Soda Bread. Her photos of two lovely loaves made me decide to try my hand at making some!

Will was getting a bit anxious because he needed me to make bread for his "morning ritual" ~ an egg sandwich with cheese and chipotle sauce so . . .

I googled Irish Soda Bread; visited allrecipes.com; read through several soda bread recipes, read the reviews, and . . . Decided to make one soda bread savory-sweet and the other one sugar and spice cranberry! They will both make wonderful toast. The savory for Will's egg sandwiches and the cranberry-cinnamon for my toast.

This bread, to me, was like making 2 ginormous scones, and the texture is somewhere between a scone and pound cake! Will and I are in love with this bread! Between all the "Mmmm's" and "WOW's", we polished off half of the Cinnamon-Cranberry Soda Bread without even blinking! Forget about toasting it, we couldn't wait that long!

Irish Soda Bread ~ Cinnamon-Cranberry

All the ingredients for this recipe are listed in bold type, so please read through the recipe to make sure you have all your ingredients at hand before beginning.

"DUTCHY" IRISH SODA BREAD ~ makes 2 loaves of bread

• Preheat oven to 375F.

4 cups of unbleached flour

5 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup sugar, scant

• Whisk the above ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

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1/2 cup salted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

• Cut butter into flour with a pastry blender, 2 knives or my favorite ~ clean fingers . . . Work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal.

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• At this point, you can divide the dry ingredients into two mixing bowls ~ equals approximately 3 cups per mixing bowl.
• For Savory-Sweet Soda Bread ~ Stir in 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds.
• For the Cinnamon-Cranberry Soda Bread ~ Stir in 1 teaspoon caraway seeds, 1/2 cup, heaping ~ sweetened cranberries, snipped, and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
• Mix up 2 cups of "buttermilk" (To a 2-cup measure add 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar; top off with milk to equal 2 cups of "buttermilk") stir well; allow to sit for 5-minutes to curdle.
• To each mixing bowl add: 1 egg, 1 cup "buttermilk", and 2 tablespoons sour cream.
• Stir ingredients in each bowl until all the dry ingredients are mixed; do not over mix.
• If ingredients are too wet add a tablespoon or 2 of extra flour; dough will be sticky.
• Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or grease well.
• Using a spatula, pour each bowl of dough onto the baking sheet forming a round mound of dough.
• Working from the bottom of each mound, pull the dough in upward sweeps with the spatula to form a higher mound.
• Brush with each bread lightly with heavy cream or half and half.
• Bake in 375F. oven for 40 minutes, or until golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted in the center of each bread.

Divide dry mixture between 2 mixing bowls ~ about 3 cups per bowl.

To the first bowl add snipped dried, sweetened cranberries; mix well.

To the second bowl add 1 tablespoon caraway seeds; mix well.

To cranberry bread mixture add cinnamon and stir.

Add 1 cup of "buttermilk", 1 egg and 2 tablespoons of sour cream to each mixing bowl.

Stir ingredients together just until there are no dry ingredients in the bottom of the bowl; don't overmix!

Savory-Sweet Soda Bread.

Place batter in rounded mounds on opposite, diagonal ends of the baking sheet.

Using your spatula, pull the dough up to the center from the bottom edge of the mounds in upward sweeps to make bread higher.

Breads brushed with half and half.

Heavenly texture and flavor ~ Cinnamon-Cranberry "Dutchy" Irish Soda Bread.

 

I cannot say enough about this wonderful bread! You have got to make this! If you choose the more traditional loaves of Irish Soda Bread, this recipe can be done using 2 cups of raisins, and 2 tablespoons of caraway seeds, with an X slashed in the top. However you choose, you won't be disappointed!

This bread will be showing up for breakfast . . . Over at Julie's . . . often!!!

Savory-Sweet Soda Bread . . . Delicate texture, studded with pungent caraway seeds.

 

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