Grandma Dolores' Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients

• 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 margarine, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup golden raisin or raisins
• 1/4 cup dried currant
• 2 teaspoons caraway seeds (optional)
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice or cider vinegar
• 1 cup milk (scant)

Directions

1. 1

   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!

2. 2

   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.

3. 3

   Preheat oven to 350F and grease a round cake pan or pie plate.

4. 4

   Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

5. 5

   Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the butter chunks until evenly mixed in and mixture looks grainy.

6. 6

   Stir in dried fruits and caraway seeds.

7. 7

   Pour the milk mixture into the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are moistened- don't overmix.

8. 8

   Dough will still be tacky at this point but will pick up more flour while kneading.

9. 9

   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.

10. 10

    (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.

11. 11

    Using a serrated knife, make a deep cross in the surface of the bread.

12. 12

    Bake until golden brown and until bread sounds hollow on the bottom when rapped, about 35-45 minutes.