Irish Soda Bread

Irish soda bread
recipe from simply recipes

• 4 to 4 1/2 cups flour
• 2 T sugar
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking soda
• 4 T butter
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 cups buttermilk (make your own buttermilk by adding 1 T vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup milk, let stand 5 minutes to curdle.)

Preheat oven to 425°. Stir together 4 cups of flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl. Using a pastry cutter; work butter into flour mixture until it resembles peas, stir in raisins. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add beaten egg and buttermilk to well and mix in with a wooden spoon until dough is stiff. Gently knead dough in the bowl just long enough to form a rough ball. If the dough is too sticky to work with, add in some more flour. (Do not over knead) Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and shape into a round loaf. Transfer dough to a parchment lined baking sheet. Using a serrated knife, score top of dough with an cross shape. Transfer to oven and bake until bread is golden and bottom sounds hollow when tapped with a knife, about 35-45 minutes.Transfer bread to a rack to let cool briefly. Serve bread warm, at room temperature, with butter.

Homemade English Muffins

Homemade English Muffins

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 1/4 t instant yeast
• 1 T butter (at room temperature)
• 3/4 cup milk (at room temperature)
• cornmeal for sprinkling

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, salt and yeast. mix in the butter and 3/4 cup of the milk. Add a little more milk if the dough is too dry. Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, place in lightly oiled bowl and roll to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for about an hour. Divide the dough into 6 or 8 pieces and shape into balls. Lay parchment paper on a baking sheet and lightly coat with oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. Move the dough balls to the baking sheet evenly spaced apart (giving them room to rise more). Cover pan loosely with plastic wrap and allow them to rise for another hour. Heat the oven to 350 F and heat up a skillet on medium heat on the stove. Brush the skillet with oil and gently transfer the dough balls to the skillet a few at a time. Allow them to cook on the skillet for 5-8 minutes, until the bottoms are nicely browned. Flip and cook the other side for about 5-8 minutes more. Next transfer quickly to a baking sheet. bake for about 5-8 minutes. Transfer the baked muffins to a cooling rack and let cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing or serving.

*I need to try this... haven't tried it yet.