Dry Ingredients:
3½ C unbleached flour
2/3 C sugar
1 C raisins (golden)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. caraway seeds

Wet Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 C of buttermilk
2 Tbsp. butter

Mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly.

Beat two eggs in a bowl. Add the two cups of buttermilk and mix. Melt and add the two tablespoons of butter and mix.

Add wet ingredients to dry all at once. Mix with stiff whisk until mixture is all wet but will not “pour”

Place in a lightly greased (Crisco) baking dish. A 2 qt., round, 9” diameter glass casserole dish, with a flat bottom, works well, for example an Anchor-Hocking.

Place the casserole dish in a preheated oven at 350°F.

Bake for 20 minutes and then cut a cross on top of bread ½ inch deep. Return to oven for another 40 to 55 minutes. After 40 minutes, check if done every five minutes by testing with a skewer or knife. If the implement comes out dry, the bread is done.

Bob Hickey introduced this recipe to our area. Sharon Kourtz uses a version of this recipe when she kindly bakes the soda bread for the monthly CCE ceilis. Sharon notes that you can replace the liquid buttermilk with ½ C of dried buttermilk powder added to the dry ingredients and 2 C of water to the wet. You can also replace the melted butter with oil. Sharon also adds more caraway seeds, up to 1 Tbsp. – yum! So feel free to experiment with this recipe – it is very robust.