Need to know what the recipe is to give you and analysis of the problem.
There are Irish freckle breads that are yeast leavened and those that are soda breads.
What recipe did you use?
Linda C

Perhaps you used less fat?

The Irish Freckle Bread I make is a yeasted bread. It happens to be my daughter's favorite. From your brief description three things come to mind. Is your flour old? Old flour doesn't make good bread. Secondly, mixing time. How long did you knead the dough? Sticky/glue-like dough is caused by under-mixing or over-mixing. If you didn't knead it enough, the gluten wasn't properly developed leaving the dough sticky. If the dough was over-mixed the gluten strands break down, letting the dough become sticky. And thirdly, the hydration may have been off a bit - and needed a little more flour.

Flour amounts in a yeast bread are just good guesses. You may actually need more or less flour than indicated in the recipe. If the recipe called for all-purpose flour and you used bread flour, you would need to alter the amount of flour because there is more gluten in bread flour; therefore it would need more hydration than all-purpose flour (or just use less flour). Gluten soaks up hydration like a sponge.

The recipe is just a guideline, you still need to go by the "feel" of the dough and you want a nice soft ball of dough.

If this recipe was a soda bread, then I'd suggest mixing by hand and not in a stand mixer. The perfect tool for mixing quick breads is a Danish Dough Whisk (available from King Arthur Flour). Soda breads are quick breads and you want to keep mixing to a minimum so you don't over-develop the gluten strands.

-Grainlady

WHOAaaaaaaa. I found my error. The recipe calls for 1-1/2 c water in which to boil a large potato. BUT! The recipe also calls for reserving only 1 c of the potato water, and I tossed in the entire 1-1/2 c. So, instead of the 5 c of flour the recipe calls for, I obviously needed more flour, didn't I? My apologies to all you bread experts, and please correct me if I am still wrong.

Also, can you tell me how much over the 1 c of raisins it calls for I can safely add? There are never enough raisins for me.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

pink warm mama 1 -

Large additions of dried fruit can rob the dough of moisture, so the more you add, you may have to adjust the dough to a semi-slack/well-hydrated dough to compensate for the moisture loss from the crumb to the fruit. You can also overcome this by soaking raisins first. I prefer an overnight soak for added fruit, but even 30-minutes will help. Plus, soaked raisins (or currants) have a lot more flavor.

The next time try an extra 1/4-1/2 cup and see how it goes.

Another thing to remember when adding a larger amount, wait to add the raisins towards the end of kneading AFTER the gluten has been well-developed. Sharp edges of dried raisins can cut the gluten strands when added early in the mix, and you'll end up with a shorter loaf.

-Grainlady

Freckle Bread recipe is posted over on Recipe Exchange. Certainly appreciate all of your helpful suggestions Grainlady. Interested in any more opinions after you scan the recipe. Thanks again.