What would corned beef and cabbage be without Irish soda bread?  You need something to soak up all those juices from the brisket.   The perfect dunking bread for Irish stew is, you guessed it, Irish soda bread!

There are quite a few recipes out there but basically they are pretty much the same.  The main differences will be between the ones that use a combination of wheat flour and white flour as opposed to the ones that just use one or the other.  Also I have found half the recipes include raisins, and the other half do not.  For me, it MUST have raisins!

I have also noticed that some versions use caraway, but I found it a bit conflicting to the rest of the tastes.  If you disagree, you can always add caraway to the following recipe.

• 2 cups each white and whole wheat flour (4 total).
• 1/2 cup sugar.
• 2 teaspoons baking powder.
• 1 teaspoon salt.
• 1/2 stick of cold butter (4 tablespoons) cut into pieces.
• 1 cup raisins.
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk.

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Mix together well.

Using your hands, add the butter and squeeze into dough until the butter is well incorporated.  It should be the size of small marbles in the dough.  DO NOT use a blender during any part of this recipe.

Stir in the buttermilk and raisins and mix well with a spoon or spatula.

Turn out on to a floured surface and knead for about 2 minutes.  Shape into a disk about 2-3 inches thick.  Score a large X across the entire top of the bread so it doesn’t burst.

Bake on a large greased baking sheet for 50-60 minutes.  You should be able to poke a toothpick in the center of the bread and pull it out cleanly.

Let cool on a wire rack for 45 minutes.

If serving at a party, break the bread into small two finger sized pieces and place in a bowl.