Irish Soda Bread

Sift all dry ingre­di­ents together. Cre­ate a lit­tle cir­cle in the cen­ter of them (in your bowl), add soft­ened butter and the buttermilk.

Mix together quickly. It won’t look like white bread with yeast. Instead, it will look more like bis­cuit dough. In fact, the fin­ished product, if you ask my hubby, is like a per­fect Irish bis­cuit bread, show­ing how our own Amer­i­can her­itage has been so deeply infused with all that is Irish, even though one has never thought of the rolling hills and lush land of Ireland.

Knead it for no more than a minute. It does not need to be worked to death.

Then shape into a round cake (you could even bake it in a cake pan if you like). Put it onto a floured sheet pan (or in a cake pan) and carve a cross into the top of it.

Bake in a pre­heated over at 425 degrees for 40 minutes.