Irish Tea Bread

With all those chocolaty desserts, I'm sure you are about ready for something, say a little less sweet? Well with St Patrick’s Day in about two weeks, I figured we should enjoy some of the Irish flavors. This bread has many different names: Irish Tea Bread, Spotted Dog to even an Americanized version of Irish Soda Bread. More authentically it's one of the first two. It reminds me of a cross between a moist scone and a muffin, definitely cuts best the second day. I spent some time researching for a recipe to try, and I must say I will definitely make this again. One of the best parts of course is that there is no yeast to rise! As you can see I added some raisins to mine, funny thing though how they seemed to gravitate to one side of the bread more than the other. I must not have mixed it very well, which isn't surprising since I had little feet scurrying around me while preparing this bread. Anyhow I hope you enjoy!

Original Recipe Yield 1 - 9x5 inch loaf

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. Blend egg and buttermilk together, and add all at once to the flour mixture. Mix just until moistened. Stir in butter.Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.  Pour into prepared pan and let rise 30 min before baking. Then preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. Bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Wrap in foil for several hours, or overnight, for best flavor.