If you’re not overly confident when it comes to baking your own homemade bread, soda bread is a great recipe to start with. It requires no yeast, is quick to make and bake, uses common household pantry and refrigerator items, and is the perfect complement to almost any meal. And, this particular soda bread, with its whiskey-soaked golden raisins, is sure to have you baking bread every single chance you get.
My aversion for baking all things yeast-related comes pretty gosh darn close to my hatred of lima beans, people who walk too slow, high-pitched screamy girl voices, lengthy red traffic lights, people who vape inside public buildings, phone system hold music, yappy little dogs incessantly barking for no apparent reason, and any and all cyclists that feel like they own the whole damn universe and refuse to obey traffic signs, signals, or common sense rules of the road. In short, I am not a fan, I will never be a fan, and I will continue to embrace my hatred with my very last dying breath.
Perhaps that’s why, when I do choose to bake a loaf of bread, I almost always, without a doubt, turn to soda bread. It’s simple, fast, and doesn’t force me to put up with yeast’s finicky properties in a way-too-cold house where rising bread is pretty much an impossibility. And, with this recipe, I don’t have to worry about a ton of leftovers, because it makes the perfect small 6-inch loaf. This means there are no hard-as-a-rock leftovers to toss out. Although to be quite honest, it might be kind of fun to throw the hard-as-a-rock bread leftovers at those annoying cyclists as they whiz by my house without any regard for human decency.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 Cup Golden Raisins
- 1/4 Cup Whiskey
- 1 Cup + 2 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/4 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 3 Tablespoons Cold Butter
- 1 Egg
- 1/4 Cup Milk
Directions:
- In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the whiskey for at least 4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
- Cut the butter into very small pieces and add it to the flour. Use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the butter into the flour for 2 minutes.
- Drain the raisins and then discard or drink any remaining whiskey. Toss the whiskey-soaked raisins into the flour mixture.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg and milk together until well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated.
- Liberally flour your hands and bring the dough together into a ball.
- Place the ball of dough onto a Silpat or parchment paper-lined baking sheet and pat it down into a 6-inch round loaf.
- Cut an X in the top of the bread and then bake it for 25 to 35 minutes.
Suggestions:
- If you don’t have golden raisins, you can use traditional raisins in this recipe.
- You can drink or discard the whiskey after you drain the raisins. I suggest drinking it. The whiskey helps to plump the raisins in this bread up a bit. It will not actually make the bread taste like whiskey. If you don’t want to use alcohol for this recipe, I suggest replacing it with water.
- You can use salted or unsalted butter in this recipe. I used Salted Irish Butter, which gives the loaf of bread a gorgeous pale yellow coloring.
- When done, the loaf will be golden brown and sound slightly hollow when tapped on the bottom.
- This recipe will yield approximately four servings.
- Soda bread always tastes best when it first comes out of the oven. I suggest baking this bread right before you plan on serving it.
Improvements:
- Brush the soda bread with a little bit of melted butter as soon as you remove it from the oven.
- Replace the whiskey in this recipe with bourbon or scotch.
- If you enjoy soda bread, make sure to check out our recipes for Buttery Apricot Buttermilk Soda Bread and Irish Cheddar & Dried Cherry Soda Bread.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 Cup Golden Raisins
- 1/4 Cup Whiskey
- 1 Cup + 2 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/4 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 3 Tablespoons Cold Butter
- 1 Egg
- 1/4 Cup Milk
Directions:
- In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the whiskey for at least 4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
- Cut the butter into very small pieces and add it to the flour. Use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the butter into the flour for 2 minutes.
- Drain the raisins and then discard or drink any remaining whiskey. Toss the whiskey-soaked raisins into the flour mixture.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg and milk together until well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated.
- Liberally flour your hands and bring the dough together into a ball.
- Place the ball of dough onto a Silpat or parchment paper-lined baking sheet and pat it down into a 6-inch round loaf.
- Cut an X in the top of the bread and then bake it for 25 to 35 minutes.
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Buttery Apricot Buttermilk Soda Bread
Irish Cheddar & Dried Cherry Soda Bread
St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect holiday to bake a warm crusty loaf of no-yeast bread. So, for those of you that suffer from a healthy fear of all things yeast, here are seven original recipes to accompany your traditional Irish fare that require absolutely no yeast. And, as a bonus to several recipes for delicious soda bread, you’ll also find a few mouth-watering recipes for crescent rolls, muffins, and scones to help you celebrate the special holiday. CLICK HERE for the recipes.
