Irish Soda Bread with Chef Frank

This is my Mother-in-laws soda bread recipe. It is tender and lightly sweet. Make sure you serve it with some good Irish butter and a cup of tea.

Film, Editing & Production:Karen & Frank Proto

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Make one large loaf

3 cups/408 g ap flour
3 tsp/14.38 g baking powder
1/2 tsp/2.84 g baking soda
1/2 tsp/2.84 g salt
1 cup/191 g vegetable shortening
1/2 cup/100 g sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup/120 ml buttermilk
1 cup/159 g raisins (soaked in hot water then drained)

[ProtoCookswithChefFrank]

Update both my Mother & Father in law gave it a thumbs up. My wife thought it was great too.

[cherylnorman]

Anyone else now thinking “I REALLY need a slice of Irish soda bread

[decorummortis]

Frank: I don't have a farm... *cuts*

I think you hide the word "yet" there frank. You don't have one yet.

[annahdawson]

Me: I think I'll try making soda bread for the first time.
*goes to YouTube
Chef Frank: I got you covered.

[mccorama]

There's magic in Irish Women's hands Frank!

[canebro]

Of course he doesn't have A farm in his backyard, he has multiple farms!

[guillaumecorbin]

You have such a positive vibe when you cook, it's amazing seeing your work. Thank you for these videos Chef Frank!

[YasBars]

So interesting how you discussed the story behind the bread. :)
And how the cooking evolved.

[tristanmurphy]

I'm from Ireland and my grandmother always makes this bread. It's so nice. It's really good with butter and strawberry jam

[jennyprorock]

Flour, soda, buttermilk and salt. That's all my gran put in it. She was from Ireland. She would have smacked me if I tried to put a raisin in it. Or make corned beef and cabbage on st Patrick's day. We had "bacon", cabbage, colcannon or champ and soda bread. I can eat colcannon every day on it's own.

[andyleighton]

Raisins: Water? This is IRISH soda bread. Black tea surely!

[hlynnkeith]

Yes! Yes! Yes! Frank, you know the difference between churned butter milk and cultured buttermilk. I unsubscribed to Epicurious when their "food scientist" said that the butter milk in stores was the milk leftover from churning butter. Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.

[Sokairu]

All the people complaining about Crisco - there's nothing wrong with changing/improving a recipe... If he has tested it (as a chef) and found it works then why not try it yourself?

[jack_batterson]

Good job. Soda bread never really does much for me. I've made it a few times, but it never seems worth the trouble or the callories. Southern biscuits (essentially tiny soda breads) get my vote every time. I have a fishing buddy who always shows up, before dawn, with fresh muffins. Fantastic. His philosophy...maybe superstition...is that if the fishing trip doesn't start with muffins, the day won't be a success. It's good to have superstitious friends.

[nycbklynrmp]

i made today good. DH said it tasted like Ireland, my DH grandmother lived in Ireland by the cliff of moher, and. neighbor on farm made. this he go. there for. lunch as a. kid when he spent summer there THANKS

[mousiebrown]

Happy St Patrick’s Day to Frank, his family, and all the Irish.

[talideon]

Note, once you add anything other than flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk, it ceases to be soda bread. What you're baking with fruit and sugar added is actually "aran breac", literally "speckled bread", but also gets referred to as "spotted dog" in English. There are variants of this that also include a small amount of treacle for colour and flavour.

[jordandevlin]

Glad you have knowledge of recipes from here, very popular here in Northern Ireland. One thing I’ll say is raisins isn’t typically in the soda you buy because it’s usually ate as a breakfast in a fry up. However, it would be interesting to try.

[bruce]

I think Chef Frank mentioned this in a previous video. For non-yeast breads and cakes, the rising comes from the chemical reaction between the baking powder or baking soda in the dry ingredients, combining with the buttermilk (or vinegar with regular milk) in the wet ingredients. As mixing all these starts to release the CO2 gas bubbles, you want to make sure everything else is ready to go before you mix these. Then get the loaf formed and in to the preheated oven without wasting time, or you will be throwing away some of the rising effect of your leavening agents. By the way, I also agree with Chef Frank that KerryGold butter from Ireland is the best. In part, I think this is due to the fact that the cows there in Ireland are raised and live on grass, unlike the grain diet of too many American dairy cows. So you get a better amount of the healthy omega-3 material from the grass-fed cow butter from KerryGold. Of course, some people may have an organic dairy near them who can also supply local grass-fed cow butter, but if not, it's good to know that KerryGold has good aspects in more than one category.

[christinka]

I made this Tuesday night to bring to work on Wednesday, with a stick of Kerrygold to spread. It came out so great! Everyone loved it and I loved the background of the recipe and your MIL. Thank you!