How to Make Irish Soda Bread

We’re going to make for St. Patrick’s day every year, we make Nanny Carrie’s, authentic Irish soda bread recipe. Nanny Carrie came from—that’s your great grandma, came from County Meath, Ireland. What we do is we blend together the dry ingredients. We put the flour which is in here. Four cups of flour, right? Okay, put in the sugar. Okay, put it right in, sprinkle it in there. Okay, you want to put in the baking powder? Here you go buddy. Go ahead, put in the baking powder. Okay, Ashley, put in the salt. Right in there Ry, good job. Okay, Ash, you want to mix that up together for me? Okay, then we have to cut in the five tablespoons of margarine. Okay. Okay, let me just show you how that is done. You just got to cut it in. It’s not really mixing; it’s more like breaking up the margarine. Oh! Easy does it. Okay, let’s just—and when it gets grainy looking, not soft and smooth but see we still have chunks of butter in here. We have to get it all blended in. Yeah but like this, see? That a girl, press it, press that. Here Ry, I’ll take that. All right that is pretty good honey. So, it gets a little coarser looking and it’s not so soft and velvety. Right, a little bit bumpier, great. Add the raisins. Yeah, you put the raisins? All of them. Pour them in there, that a boy. Ashley, you can add the buttermilk. Okay, go ahead. All of it. That’s it and Ry the egg, okay. Yup, you put that in the sink sweetie. Add the egg. That’s it, good boy. That a boy. There you go, good job. That’s okay. Go wash your hands if you don’t like the way it feels, okay? Okay and then you just got to mix it all together. You’re going to combine everything. You got to blend it until it’s smooth and it resembles dough and then once it resembles the dough, then we have to take it out and knead it. Now, I am going to blend it. Now Ash, get—oh that’s flour, I don’t need flour, sprinkle it on the board. And then get—that a girl, floury. Okay. No, no, that’s enough, that’s enough, not too much and grandma is going to empty this out, all right now. Yeah, but I am going to—let me put it together first and then you guys can play with it. I am just going to finish the—get it all kneaded, get all these ingredients combined in here. No don’t eat flours. Once it’s very smooth and it’s well combined. Okay. Okay and it has the consistency of what you think dough would feel, like play dough. Okay guys, I am going to put it together now. Okay, at that point, you roll it into a bowl. You’re going to grease the pan. I use the like you know the—what is it? The oil sprays to grease the pan but you could use margarine or anything. You place it in the center. Go ahead and flatten it out, right flatten it out. Okay, okay wait, there you go. All right not too hard Bobby and then you cut it. You put a cross in the top. All right, here you want to put the other one? I am going to let you do it, okay. Not too deep. Go ahead, all the way across. Put in the oven at 375 for an hour. Okay. Open the—okay Ash, open it up. Oh that looks pretty good. Let’s check it out. One second, all right; come on Ash, we’re going to check it to make sure it’s done. We stick a tooth pick in and if it comes out dry, it’s ready. If it comes out all wet then it’s not. So, it’s ready, time to take it out. We’re just going to take it out of the pan. Ashley, right, turn it over. Okay here you go. And there, put that in the sink and that’s it. Ash be careful. That is hot. And we’ll get a knife and we’ll cut it and there you go; Irish soda bread. It’s hot. It tastes good when it’s not hot. Not bad at all. It’s pretty good.