Oh my goodness Kathleen, I finally had a chance to be at home long enough to make this bread today. WOW!! It is deeeelish!! DH walked in from work about 3 minutes after I took it out of the oven and we sat down with butter and this bread and ate almost one whole loaf!!!! Anyone who hasn't made it yet needs to get busy!! You don't know what you are missing. The only thing I changed was the sugar. DH is a borderline diabetic and I used not quite 1 cup of Splenda instead of the sugar. Yum oh! Thanks for sharing this recipe with us. Betty

This one is hubby's favorite because of the sugar on the top and the lyrical name. -Grainlady Milo O'Sullivan's Currant-Nutmeg Soda Bread 3 c. all-purpose flour 1/4 c. granulated sugar 1 t. baking soda 1/4 t. each salt and nutmeg 1/4 c. unsalted butter 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 c. buttermilk 1/2 c. currants Additional sugar for sprinkling 1. Place rack in bottom third of oven. Heat oven to 425-degrees F. Have an ungreased cookie sheet ready. (Grainlady note: I cover it with a sheet of parchment paper.) 2. Put flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and nutmeg into a large bowl. Add butter and cut in with pastry blender or mix with fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in currants. Stir in buttermilk until a stiff dough forms. 3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead just enough to shape into a ball. Put smooth side up on cookie sheet. Pat into 7-inch round, slightly mounded. 4. Sprinkle with 2 t. sugar. With sharp knife, cut a deep cross in dough, slightly more than halfway through. 5. Bake 35-40 minutes until loaf is deep golden brown. Line a cooling rack with a linen or cotton dish towel (NOT a terrycloth towel). Place bread on towel. Cool 5-10 minutes, then fold towel loosely over loaf and cool completely. If you have some currants and buttermilk left, try this King Arthur recipe. Someone from the Garden Web posted it in 2009, sorry, I don't remember who, and I've made it many times since. Irish Soda Bread Muffins 1\-1/2 c. King Arthur Unbleached All\-Purpose Flour 3/4 c. King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat Flour 2 t. baking powder 1/4 t. baking soda 1/2 t. salt 1/3 c. granulated sugar 1\-1/2 c. currants 1/2 to 2 t. caraway seeds (to taste \- optional) 1 large egg 1 c. buttermilk, yogurt, or sour cream 6 T. butter, melted; or 1/3 c. vegetable oil sparkling white sugar, for topping 1\. Preheat the oven to 400\-degrees F. Lightly grease a standard muffin pan; or line with papers, and grease the papers. 2\. In a medium\-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, currants and caraway seeds. 3\. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk and melted butter (or oil). 4\. Quickly and gently combine the dry and wet ingredients; honestly, this won't take more than a few stirs with a bowl scraper or large spoon. As soon as everything is evenly moistened, quit; further stirring will cause the muffins to be tough. 5\. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, filling the cups about 3/4 full; the stiff batter will look mounded in the cups. 6\. Bake the muffins for 20\-minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Tip the muffins in the pan, so their bottoms don't get soggy. Remove them from the oven, wait 5 minutes, then transfer the muffins to a rack to cool. Serve them plain, or with butter and/or jam.

Thanks for the recipe Kathleen. I've made irish soda bread a couple of times and it hasn't turned out very good. Nice to have a T&T recipe. It may be a while before I make this though, since I'm into the yeast thing right now. Seems like most of my boyfriends have been Irish, so I always wanted to be able to cook good Irish food, but it's been a while since then, so some of my inspiration is lost. Seems like this bread would be awesome with good irish breakfast tea, which I love. Maybe with a nice pot of soup too!

I love Irish soda bread and my recipe comes from a long ago KC restaurant (it was the bread that they put on the table when you sat down) and is the only recipe I use -- no currants or raisins. This year, however, I tried the Irish /Guinness Brown bread and am in love with it. I made my THIRD loaf yesterday for a chamber coffee this morning (Using an orange marmalade butter for a spread). Now I'm torn between traditional Irish soda and this newer recipe for brown bread!