Grandma Dolores' Irish Soda Bread
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons sweet unsalted butter or 3 tablespoons margarine, cut into small pieces
- 1/4 cup golden raisins or 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup dried currant
- 2 teaspoons caraway seeds (optional)
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice or 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
- 1 cup milk (scant)
- Place lemon juice into the bottom of a glass measuring cup and pour in enough milk to fill to the 1 cup mark-Do not stir!
- Leave milk on your counter for 1 hour- during this time, measure out all of your other ingredients, but wait to set out the butter until the last 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350F and grease a round cake pan or pie plate.
- Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
- Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the butter chunks until evenly mixed in and mixture looks grainy.
- Stir in dried fruits and caraway seeds.
- Pour the milk mixture into the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are moistened- don't overmix.
- Dough will still be tacky at this point but will pick up more flour while kneading.
- Sprinkle some flour onto a flat surface and scape dough onto the floured surface; flour your hands and knead the dough gently until it forms a ball- no more than 2 minutes or you will toughen the dough, and it may be less than that depending upon the humidity of the day.
- (As long as it forms a ball, it can still be little sticky- this is different from yeast bread.) Place dough ball into prepared pan and flatten slightly into a thick disk.
- Using a serrated knife, make a deep cross in the surface of the bread.
- Bake until golden brown and until bread sounds hollow on the bottom when rapped, about 35-45 minutes.
flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, salt, sweet unsalted butter, golden raisins, currant, caraway seeds, lemon juice, milk
Taken from www.food.com/recipe/grandma-dolores-irish-soda-bread-87060 (may not work)