Tea With Lemon, Bread With Memories

Somehow I seem to have adopted an Ohio bug. Or it has adopted me....Probably sees me as a cheap trip to Florida! Scratchy throat, cough, general blahs. Lily has acquired another hat, to add to her varied collection: a nurse's hat. Not by choice, but because of my exuisite timing. Who wouldn't think that the best time to be playing host to unwelcome germs is when you are around young children...? Tea and lemon, humidifier in my room, cough drops, more tea, more lemon, and, not necessarily part of the nursing treatment, but so comforting when you're feeling under the weather---Irish Soda Bread!

I followed my nose into the kitchen to investigate the divine aroma emanating therefrom, and there it was, on the counter, a delicious, round loaf of soda bread! Transporting me back to my mother's kitchen. My mother though, would not let us have any until it was thoroughly cooled---some nonsense about it turning to stone in our stomachs!

Lily and I slathered it with butter and jam and dug right in. Yum! Even the little boys liked it. When I make it at home, my boys are less than enthusiastic, citing increased flatulence as their main objection. The devil can be fastidious when it suits him! The one son, who likes soda bread as much as his mother and sister, no longer lives at home. He it was who renamed one recipe for Oaten Farls [a variation on Irish soda bread,] Farten Oals.....Oh, the hilarity we had over that one. But I am not one to give up easily. I will try Liz's recipe on the fastidious ones when I get home.

In case you'd like to try it, here's the recipe. You can make it with all white flour, or half white, half whole wheat, as Lily does. The raisins are optional, but in my books, they only serve to increase the "Yum" factor!
I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Yield: Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2 cups all purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons butter, chilled, cut into cubes
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup raisins

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray 8-inch-diameter cake pan with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, 4 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in large bowl to blend. Add butter. Using fingertips, rub in until coarse meal forms. Make well in center of flour mixture. Add buttermilk. Gradually stir dry ingredients into milk to blend. Mix in raisins.

Using floured hands, shape dough into ball. Transfer to prepared pan and flatten slightly (dough will not come to edges of pan). Sprinkle dough with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake bread until brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool bread in pan 10 minutes. Transfer to rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Originally from the magazine "Bon Appetit." So, Bon appetit!