Irish Soda Bread

Happy (almost) St. Patrick's Day! I wanted to make Irish soda bread for my students so they could taste it. In past years I have always bought a loaf from the local grocery store but I decided to give it a shot. I had a hard time selecting a recipe and spent a good bit of time searching for one. I wanted a recipe where I could easily replace the egg since one of my students can't have egg, I wanted a recipe with whole wheat flour to make it healthier for the kids, and I wanted a recipe that had some sugar in it but not a lot. I finally settled on this recipe. I did make a few changes. The recipe below reflects what I did, to see the original just click on the link above!

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 cup of cinnamon apple sauce (this was a substitute for 1 egg, so you can easily replace it with 1 egg)
2 cups low-fat buttermilk (see below for a way to make buttermilk if you don't have any)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Stir flours, sugar, baking soda and salt together in a mixing bowl.

Whisk applesauce (or egg) and buttermilk together in a small bowl. Add to the flour mixture, stirring until just blended. Stir in the raisins.

Turn out onto a lightly-floured surface and knead several times, then place the dough into a 9 inch round greased cake pan.

Cut an X on the top of the dough. Bake 30-50 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Mine took 30 minutes exactly, but the recipe says the bake time can greatly vary.

**My dough was very sticky and I thought it was not going to work. It did- so if your dough is really sticky don't worry.

*** How to make buttermilk:
Measure one tablespoon of lemon juice and pour it into a 1 cup measuring cup. Fill the cup with milk. Allow to stand for 5 minutes and then you have 1 cup of buttermilk! Just double it for this recipe.