Irish Soda Bread is a rustic peasant bread requiring no yeast and no rising. It is amazingly easy to make, amazingly delicious to taste, and perfect for St. Patrick’s Day. The food processor does most of the work. The only real hands-on is a minimal working of the dough to form a cohesive and bumpy disc.
3cups(15 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1cup(5 ounces) cake flour
2Tablespoonsgranulated sugar
1-½teaspoonsbaking soda
1-½teaspoonscream of tartar
1-½teaspoonssalt
4Tablespoonsunsalted buttercut into small pieces, plus 1 Tablespoon melted
1-½cupsbuttermilk
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Add all purpose flour, cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Process until well combined, about 10 seconds. Add butter; process until mixture resembles coarse crumb, about 10 seconds.
Add buttermilk; pulse process just until dough begins to come together, 6 or 7 pulses.
Turn out onto flour-coated work surface; knead until dough just becomes cohesive and bumpy, 12 to 14 turns. Do not overwork dough.
Pat dough into a round about 6 inches in diameter and 2 inches high; place on greased or parchment-lined baking sheet or in a greased cast-iron skillet. Cut a cross shape into the top.
Bake until golden brown and a skewer inserted into center of loaf comes out clean or internal temperature reaches 180 degrees, 40 to 45 minutes.
Remove from oven and brush with 1 tablespoon of melted butter; cool to room temperature, 30 to 40 minutes.