Tis the season, after all.
Not to be confused with my Aunt Buzz’s Banana Bread, our friend Barb’s Aunt Beezy’s Soda Bread is simply the best of the soda bread genre, and, if you aren’t going Aunt Beezy, you may as well just stay home.
It isn’t even as if Aunt Beezy’s bread is hard to toss together; there simply isn’t another version of soda bread that can match hers.
Sorry, ancestors, but you been bested.
INGREDIENTS
•3 cups flour
•2/3 cup sugar
•1 tsp baking powder
•1 tsp baking soda
•1 tsp salt
•1-1/2 cup raisins or dried cherries
•2 tsp melted butter
•2 eggs, beaten
•1-3/4 cup + 2 tbsp buttermilk*
*No buttermilk? No problem! For this recipe, simply add two tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice into a measuring cup, then add milk to make two cups. Stir to mix and let sit for five or ten minutes, You now have buttermilk.
Heat your oven to 350º and apply cooking spray to a loaf pan.
Whisk the flour together with the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the large mixing bowl, then add the raisins or dried cherries.
Whisk the eggs together with the buttermilk and melted butter in another bowl, then stir into the flour mixture until just mixed. Don’t worry about having a smooth batter.
Transfer to your prepared loaf pan and bake for one hour, until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick or wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool completely, then remove from the pan and enjoy.
Note: this makes excellent French toast.