the dim sum diary: IRISH SODA BREAD IN HONOR OF ST. PATRICK'S DAY

I did not see many people wearing green in Hong Kong this past Saturday to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. So we did a bit of celebrating on our own by making Irish Soda Bread. It's a friend's recipe from her grandmother who lived in Galway, Ireland.

This also marked the 2nd time we had used our oven since moving into our new apartment just a little over 2 weeks ago!

Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 lb. butter (room temperature)
2 1/2 cups raisins
1 egg yolk

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Mix buttermilk, egg and baking soda together very well.

I couldn't find buttermilk at my local grocery store. Instead, I made it by mixing just under 1.5 cups of milk with 1.5 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice.

3. In a separate big bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter and raisins. Once thoroughly mixed, add the buttermilk, egg and baking soda mixture and mix all together to get a dough like substance.

4. Dust some flour on your counter top and on your hands and knead the dough lightly. Be careful not to over knead. You don't want the bread to turn out tough. It will be sticky at first, so keep adding flour and kneading little by little. Do that until smooth (and not sticky).

5. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased, thick pan (cast iron or dutch oven if possible, but those are hard to come by). If you don't have a thick pan, a baking sheet should do the trick.

6. Cut a cross in the dough to ward off evil spirits (this is seriously in my friend's Grandmother's recipe). The scoring also helps the heat get to the center of the dough while it bakes.

7. Mix the egg yolk with a little bit of water and brush the mixture over the dough for a nice shine. Finally, sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar on top of the dough.