I've been making this recipe for many years, originally received the recipe from my DH Irish grandmother, & comes out great each & every time. I bake mine on cookie sheets & score a cross the top to control any cracking/splinting that may occur. In fact will be making a couple of them tonight.

I'm saving this one to try. When you say the spoons shouldn't be level do you mean they should be heaping or not really full? Thanks for sharing it.

Littleone, your recipe seemed exactly the same but now that I was able to check, they're very similar. Correction needed, don't go by my comments regarding baking it off on cookie sheets. My recipe has no eggs in it, similar but not the same recipe you've listed.

Ive made this one before I was not too impressed no offense

Sorry mine was Mary O'Rielly's...my mistake!

Ginger,
The ingredients list "not level" and nothing more. I usually make the measures "sort of heaping" but not a real heaping measure.

I also forgot to add in the directions to "put a cross in the top of the bread before you bake". It's a little difficult to do this because the dough is really sticky. The best knife to use is a steak knife that has been run under hot water from the tap.

My daughter wanted me to mention that a friend of hers, from an Irish family "always hated irish bread as did the rest of the 5 kids in the family, until they tasted this recipe". Now, they want this recipe made all the time.

Gotcha! Thanks for the info. Will definitely be making it this week.

WAIT! How much shortening or margarine???

OK, left out amount of shortening so reposting the entire recipe with the correction.

This is the recipe for the Irish Soda Bread made famous at the Lowell Folk Festival.
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.

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.

Enjoy everyone. I'm off to make mine now.

Thanks for the recipe - it looks good! I'm going to definitely make it for Saturday. (shhh -don't tell my aunts but their soda bread is a wee bit dry!lol). The only thing I'll do different is bake in a cast iron skillet (just because mom did).

littleone---I made your Irish Soda Bread today and WOW is it good!!! Or should i say Mary Noon's bread? Anyway, I served it to my husband with Potato Leek soup and he Loved it all, even though he has always claimed he doesn't like raisins.
he just lapped it up and said---Are these raisins? This bread it delicious! LOL I puzzled about the salt and finally decided to use half the amount called for---perfect. And, I used full strength sour cream---so yummy---but have you ever tried the lower in fat sour cream in this recipe? Oh, Well---just wondering.
Beebonnet

Beebonnet,
Isn't that funny, my hubby always said he would "die" before he ate raisins, cinnamon, and walnuts. Yet he loves this bread, raisins and all, also loves a German beer coffee cake loaded with cinnamon and walnuts, and I sware if he doesn't know the ingredients are in the recipe to start with, it tastes great.
Men can be so funny when it comes to food. The first thanksgiving we had together, he "hated" my mother's apple pie because of the cinnamon in it. He ate it anyways and told me later. I told my mother about it later and she just laughed and said, "easy problem to solve, trust me, he'll love the pie." the following thanksgiving she made her apple pie and proudly announced that "just because of my son-in-law, I made this pie differently, left out the cinnamon.". We looked at her like she sprouted 10 heads, but she just winked and smiled. Dessert came and served the pie. I almost choked, couldn't stop laughing, my sister and brother just sat there with their mouths open and a piece of pie in their mouth. You guessed it, hubby declared it "the best apple pie he ever had", and Mom hadn't changed a thing except for telling hubby she left out the cinnamon.
To this day, he doesn't know the truth. My Mom passed away and we kept her secret. Only thing is now I have to be sure I make the pie when he isn't around to see the cinnamon go in.

Anyways, back to the Irish soda bread. I omit the salt and use an unsalted margarine. Actually I use mazolla unsalted stick margarine.
I haven't tried using the low fat sour cream though. I've thought of it thought, but was afraid that there wouldn't be enough acid in it or something and the bread wouldn't come out right.
Maybe some day I will give it a try and see if it makes any difference. If it came out roughly the same, that would be good and a bit healthier too.

Glad you liked the bread.