Fantastic. Put some strawberries jam on top!

This bread was delicious! I had needed to make something for a St. Patty's Day potluck, and an attempt at cookies failed so I needed something quick and easy. This was perfect! Couldn't have been simpler, and the end result was tasty. It was best toasted with butter, but was still good on it's own. The only difference I made was to omit the raisins, since I kept hearing that real soda bread doesn't have them, and I also omitted the caraway seeds, since I read that a lot of people don't like them. I split the batter between two 7x3 inch pans since that's all I had. End result was delicious... it disappeared! >>>>> UPDATE: This was so good I had to make more, and kept it around as a snack bread. It was so tasty toasted with butter! I had promised the second loaf to my mom, and was so sad to let it go! lol

fabulous, what a wonderful surprise, next time i may add walnuts and sanding sugar on the top and call it my irish pannetone, just as delicious and much less work! loved it - you've got to try it! thanks !

Absolutely the best Irish Soda bread! I did use 2 cups of raisins and thought that was plenty. Only down side... no leftovers! My family ate it up!

Great recipe for Celiacs! I used Gluten Free Flour to make and it worked great! Very easy recipe to follow and it was awesome! Thanks for sharing.

I made the bread almost as the recipe says - I did NOT reserve the flour or sprinkle any on top. Even then the dough was too wet to cut the "cross" into the top. This is more a sweet bread dough - not a yeast bread dough (obviously, since there is no yeast). I did have to cover the top of my bread with foil because it was getting pretty dark yet the inside was still doughy. I think it baked the amount of time stated in the recipe. The taste is wonderful!! We slathered warm wedges of it with butter and enjoyed it as dessert with our Irish Boiled Dinner (from this site). It was a very happy St. Patty's Day!

very very good! I deleted the caraway seeds & raisins and it was yummy!

great recipie

The best irish soda bread recipe I've tried. I substituted 1/2 the flour as pastry whole wheat, used 2 cups of raisins, used margarine on crust when hot instead of dusting with flour, and no caraway seeds. I believe 3 cups of raisins would be too much to serve it along with corned beef. This is a fine crumb cake like bread versus recipes with cut-in fat that have a more biscuit type texture. Recommend not adding more flour than recipe calls for. It will be too sticky to knead but just stir with spatula 10 to 12 times. I split the bread into two round loafs so that the bread would cook throughly before becoming too brown. I recommend cooking until a toothpick is clean or an internal temperature of 180 .

A hit!! It was a little more moist than traditional Irish bread, but totally tastey - everyone asked for seconds. Serves WAY more than the recipe indicates.

Very good, texture is wonderful-almost cake like. Keeps well, great in the toaster. Will make again. Did not use raisins or caraway, only because I didn't have on hand.

i have made irish soda bread for many years and this is the best recipe i've ever tried! make sure you have a hole in the center of the dough or the middle won't cook through. yummy! nancy b

I made this without the raisins or caraway seeds (husband detests both), and it was still a huge hit. I also replaced half the AP flour with whole wheat pastry flour for a finer crumb and more flavor. Served it with the Guinness Corned Beef recipe on this site, which as also a HUGE hit. Everyone was oohing and ahhing, my husband couldn't stop smiling and asked me why I hadn't made this dinner before. I will definitely make both again!

I love baking breads of all kinds, and this is one of the best ever! I tried this bread yesterday (St. Pat's Day) to accompany my traditional boiled dinner - fare that we grew up on in Massachusetts. Followed the recipe exactly as written, except that I used a couple extra tablespoons of flour, since my eggs were extra large and made the batter too sticky. Used those lovely, extra plump raisins that Trader Joe's carries. I can't imagine making this bread without ALL of the raisins -- and ALL of the caraway! A delightful combination of flavors. Next time, I will try a springform pan, because the cooled bread didn't want to wiggle out of the cast-iron skillet. My husband is still raving about this bread, after polishing off 4 big pieces for dinner and a bed-time snack.

I loved this bread. But whats more important my husband was crazy about it. I changed the rasins to 2 cups and boiled them in OJ until they plummed up good and I left out the caraway seeds. I also added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar. I will make this bread again and often.

This recipe is FANTASTIC!!! Five stars, absolutely! I made it for St. Patrick's Day and it came out perfectly. I would highly recommend it to anyone!!! Be prepared for super-sticky dough -- I was laughing because I couldn't get it off my hands :) I'm going to keep this Irish Soda Bread recipe in my permanent files -- AWESOME!!!

I haven’t made Irish Soda bread in at least 30 years. I just didn’t have the desire to, since the last recipe I used wasn’t very appealing. I tried your recipe, Penguin Lady, because of the beautiful picture you took of your bread. I put mine in an 8” cake pan because I don’t have a 9” pan. Wow! It was big! Really beautiful too, just like yours! I made the bread exactly per your recipe. I think next time I’ll reduce the raisins to 2 cups, just to save on the cost of ingredients. I can hardly wait to try this in the toaster for breakfast! Thanks so much for taking the time to submit this, it’s to die for.

This is the first time I have made Irish Soda Bread. It was a hit with my Corned Beef boiled dinner. My 18 year old son, who works at Panera Bread, said I should go be a baker there since it was so good.

Well, this was great. I nearly didn't pay the megabucks needed for caraway, but I gave in; then I nearly didn't go back to the store for forgotten sour cream, but I did. I used half white whole wheat flour, skimped a bit on the sugar, and for the 3 c. raisins I used a mixture of raisins, currants, and some citron. Easy and delicious.