In response to a request I developed this one....since then i have made it many times always to great acclaim.
Since I wrote this down I have added a little less buttermilk and baked it in free form rounds on a baking stone.
Don't forget to cut an X in the top to let out the bad spirits!!

Well....I made a composite recipe.
My son had a preconceived notion of the ideal soda bread, so I winged it.
I used 2 1/2 cups of AP flour and 1/2 cup of whole wheat, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tsps of baking powder and 1 tsp of baking soda.
I mixed the dry ingredients with 1/2 cup of golden raisins....wish I had added more...
And added 1/2 stick of butter melted and about 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk...not sure just how much....since I started with 1 cup and added a little more as needed.
I baked it i9n a 10 round cake pan and baked it at 375 for about 45 minutes....wish I had used a smaller pan, as it didn't jump up like yeast bread does....and it was wonderful!...I can't seem to keep my knife away from the end of that loaf!!
He doesn't like caraway seeds so I left them out....and I am glad I did.
I may have to make another loaf on Wednesday....or perhaps several small loaves and give a couple away!
Linda C

I made this one up by tinkering with a bunch of others.

Irish Soda Bread

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 egg
3/4 to 1 cup of currants

Whisk dry ingredients together. Cut in butter. Beat egg lightly and mix with no more than 3/4 cup of buttermilk. Stir buttermilk-egg mixture and currants into flour. Add more buttermilk as needed, to make a moist but not a wet dough. Form into a round loaf. Put the loaf on a buttered baking sheet. Cut a cross in the top with a very sharp knife.

Bake in a 375 oven about 40 - 45 minutes.

I've never been a big fan of Soda Bread, because it usually has raisins or currants.

This one was a little different and went well with the Corned Beef and Cabbage.

Herbed White Soda Bread
Recipe by Darina Allen

Ingredients
3 1/4 cups unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons freshly chopped herbs, such as rosemary, sage, thyme, chives, and parsley
12 to 14 ounces buttermilk

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a
large bowl, make a well in the center and pour all of the buttermilk in at once. Using 1 hand, stir
in a full circle starting in the center of the bowl working towards the outside of the bowl until
all the flour is incorporated. The dough should be soft but not too wet and sticky. When it all
comes together, a matter of seconds, turn it out onto a well-floured board. WASH AND DRY YOUR HANDS.
Roll dough around gently with floured hands for a second, just enough to tidy it up, flip the dough
over. Pat the dough into a round about 1 1/2-inches deep. Sprinkle a little flour onto the center of
a baking sheet and place the loaf on top of the flour. Cut a deep cross on it with a sharp knife,
prick the four sections to let the fairies out. Let the cuts go over the sides of the bread to make
sure of this. (This is important...you must let the fairies out!)

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until
just cooked. If you are in doubt, tap the bottom of the bread: if it is cooked it will sound hollow.
Cool on a wire rack.

Here is a link that might be useful: Irish Soda Bread

I found this one several years ago and it is the best I have ever had or made.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Sunday Best Irish Soda Bread by Martha Stewart

1 loaf
By adding egg, sugar, caraway seeds, and butter to a traditional Irish soda bread recipe, you create a loaf that is fit for a Sunday breakfast or brunch. Wrapped well with plastic wrap, it can be stored at room temperature until the last crumb is eaten. Like all Irish soda breads, this freezes well.

4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
2 cups golden or dark raisins
1 1/2 scant cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream

1. Heat oven to 350ð. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and caraway seeds until well combined.
   
2. Using a pastry cutter or two knives in scissor fashion, cut in butter until the mixture feels like coarse meal. Stir in raisins until evenly distributed.
   
3. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, and baking soda until well combined. Pour buttermilk mixture into the flour-and-butter mixture all at once, and stir with a fork until all the liquid is absorbed and the mixture begins to hold together. It should resemble a rough biscuit dough. Using your hands, press the dough into a round, dome-shaped loaf about 8 inches in diameter. Lift the loaf from the bowl, and transfer it to the prepared baking sheet.
   
4. In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk and cream together. With a pastry brush, brush the egg wash over the loaf. With a sharp knife or razor, incise a cross, about 1/2 inch deep, into the top of the loaf. Transfer to the oven. Bake, rotating halfway through, until it is deep golden brown and a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center, about 70 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer bread from the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool.

This is the recipe for the Irish Soda Bread made famous at the Lowell Folk Festival in Lowell MA.
Every year it is sold at the Irish food booth along with other Irish dishes.
It's a little different from most and makes more of a cake like bread and uses sour cream as the acid, but it still goes perfectly with corned beef and cabbage on St Patricks Day. it also makes a wonderful bread to serve with tea, especially if it's warm. My family prefers to eat the bread warm with dinner or with tea, coffee or hot cocoa. It warms up well in a microwave.

The recipe was printed in the Lowell Sun newspaper 10 years ago, coutesy of the creator of the recipe, Mary Noon.

I've been making it since 1997, serve it with dinner, as a desert warm with butter and some Jam, and a friend's daughter has served it with ice cream on top.

A very adaptable Irish Soda Bread, sweet, but not really sweet, very moist, not dry. How sweet it tastes seems to be how and what it is served with.

MARY NOON'S IRISH SODA BREAD

2 1/2 cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking powder (not level)
1 teaspoon salt (not level)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (not level)
1/4 cup margarine or shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg beaten
1 pint sour cream
1/2 cup raisins
caraway seeds if you like. original recipe does not call for them because her family doesn't like them, nor does mine.

Preheat oven to 375. butter an 8 inch round cake pan or use cooking spray to coat.

Sift flour, baking poweder, salt and baking soda together and set aside.

Cream shortening or margarine and sugar. Add egg and sour cream and mix well.

Stir in flour mixture until well blended. Fold in raisins.

dough will be very sticky.

Put dough into 8 inch pan, make a cross in the dough and bake for 50 minutes. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake another 10 minutes.

Let cool some in pan before removing. Serve warm or cold.

My changes. I use mazola unsalted stick margarine instead of shortening and leave out the salt. I find it tastes better without any added salt. I always serve the bread warm, fresh out of the oven and cooled a bit before serving.

wrap leftovers if any in aluminum foil and then slip into a ziploc bag to store. Reheat sliced in microwave on a plate with a cover vented just a little until it is as warm as you want it.

Here is the Irish Soda Bread recipe I have used for many years. We all love it.

IRISH SODA BREAD

8 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups raisins
3 eggs, well beaten
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 quart buttermilk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl. Add raisins. Stir in eggs and melted butter; add buttermilk. Mix with your hands until well combined. Dough should be moist. Put dough into 3 lightly greased (I use baking spray) 9X5 loaf pans. Bake 40-50 minutes. Check after 40 minutes with a knife inserted near the center; if it comes out clean the bread is done. If not done, check again in 5 minutes.

Makes great toast.

From the Cookbook: Irish cooking; Classic and Modern Recipes by Ethel Minogue. (c. 1988)
Clare

Irish Soda Bread
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp lard ( I use butter)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat over 425.

Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar into a bowl. Rub in shortening and add enough buttermilk to make a soft dough. Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured board and knead for a minute. Shape into a round (loaf) and place on the baking sheet. Mark with a cross, cutting deep into the dough.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until lightly browned and firm when tapped on the base. Cool the bread on a wire rack.

Note: You can use plain milk instead of buttermilk, but if you do double the quantity of cream of tartar.

Brown Soda Bread
6 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups hard white flour
1 heaped tsp baking soda
13 heaped tsp baking power
2 eggs
Approx 2 1/2 cups plain yogurt mixed with water to the consistency of buttermilk
Good pinch of salt

Preheat over 375 reduced to 350.

Place all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Combine well with the fingers.

In another bowl mix the eggs with the yogurt and water.

Make a well in the dry mixture and slowly pour on the yogurt and water mixture. Mix with you hands until you get a nice soft dough - not too wet. A dough that is too wet or too stiff will result in a hard and heavy bread.

Lightly flour a worktop or pastry board. Divide the dough in half. Make 2 flat rounds of bread on the board.

Cut a deep cross in the middle of each loaf. Place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat. Bake until the bottom of the bread sounds hollow when knocked. This takes about 30 minutes.

Oh, Clare, that cream of tartar is interesting. I find soda bread, well, a bit gassy, and I've tried to fine-tune the amount so as to use just barely enough soda (figuring that excess soda is the source of the problem. In Ireland the soda bread never affected me that way. I've been thinking that their buttermilk may be a lot more acidic than ours.
Adding cream of tartar increases the acidity, of course.

cloudy-christine - The only way to know if this recipe works is to give it a try. Hope it works for you. Also notice that there is no sugar or raisins or caraway seeds in this one. I make this one if we are having it with a meal and the one with sugar, raisins and cardamon (another recipe I could post) if we are having it for breakfast.
Clare

My DS and DDIL spent a terrific week in Ireland last month. My DDIL met cousins and saw the old homestead (falling down).

They brought me a 2 kg bag of flour. It's VERY coarse.

I made the Irish soda bread recipe on the back of the bag, using sunflower oil - I'm still afraid of fat, after my recent adventures in heart disease.

The bread surprised me, it's very good, especially with cheese. It has a wonderful taste, not sure what it is, but I like it. I'll have to use some of this flour in my wheat bread.

My son said they bought a loaf of soda bread and some cheese their first morning, they were hungry and tired and on the road. They loved it and kept a loaf and some cheese with them for snacking the whole trip.

Thank You all for the wonderful recipes.

I ended up making three different ones using some of each of the recipes posted. A sweet soda bread, a herb soda bread and one with caraway but no raisins.

I used Alexa's recipe but offered it to the hostess as a bread for her breakfast the next morning rather than to serve with dinner. Raisins and sugar just didn't work for me as an accompaniment with corned beef and stew.

I made the exact same recipe but omitted the raisins and sugar for a wonderful caraway soda bread. Also omitted the egg wash for a more rustic looking loaf.

I also made Ann's recipe but added melted butter, just didn't seem right without some fat. It was delicious and absolutely perfect for sopping up the gravy from the Irish Stew.

All in all the breads were a big hit.

I made MARY NOON'S IRISH SODA BREAD. Lacking raisins I used diced and plumped (in apple juice) dried apricots. I took it to my friends' house and everyone thought it was very tasty. Neither they nor I are stauch traditionalists. :)

Thank you!

Eileen

Thanks Ann T. I never really cared for soda bread with the raisins in it. Your picture motivated me to make one. I used chives and thyme. It was great dunked in the meat juice or slathered in garlic butter but other than that it was still soda bread? I think I like it once a year, just like corned beef. ;-)

On a more positive note. I make the corned beef, potato and cabbage for my Mom once a year. I have tried it a few years in a row now and this year she actually had a foodgasam. She said that I finally perfected it.Yay!