Soda bread is, by definition, a quick bread, because baking soda rather than yeast makes it rise. That’s where it gets its name, of course: from the baking soda. That also means that the bread is an easy addition to a weeknight dinner.

The Culinary Institute of America and Epicurious.com have teamed up to provide this soda bread recipe and the video I’ve posted below. The soda bread is made with cake flour, which results in a finer crumb than all-purpose. I frequently am asked how to substitute all-purpose flour for cake flour. According to substitutions charts, for every 1 cup of cake flour, you can use 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose. In this recipe, that means you would need 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour. However, the results won’t be as good because cake flour has a different protein content than all-purpose.

You’ll also notice that the bread should be wrapped in a tea towel (a thin kitchen towel) as it cools. The towel will absorb moisture, giving the bread a better texture.

Perhaps this is a bit off-topic, but the tea-towel trick also works with microwave-baked potatoes. If you wrap your potatoes immediately after cooking and let them sit for 5 minutes or so, the texture will be much fluffier and closer to an oven-baked potato. (And maybe this isn’t off-topic after all, given the prevalence of potatoes in Irish cuisine.)

SODA BREAD
Yield: 2 loaves or 16 rolls

4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable shortening (such as Crisco)
1 cup dark raisins
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 cup cold milk

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet by spraying it lightly with cooking spray or lining it with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking soda, sugar and salt together into a large bowl. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut the shortening into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse meal.

Add the raisins, caraway seeds and milk. Mix the dough until just combined. (Overmixing will cause the dough to toughen.)

Turn the dough into a lightly floured surface. Press the dough into a ball. Form the dough into two equal loaves or cut into 16 equal pieces to make rolls. Dust each with flour and lightly score an “X” across the top of each roll or loaf with a sharp knife.

Bake the soda bread until it is lightly browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, about 8 to 10 minutes for rolls and 24 minutes for loaves. As soon as the bread comes out of the oven, wrap in a tea towel.

Cool the soda bread in the tea towel on a wire rack before serving. It can be held at room temperature for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 4 weeks.

Per 2.5-ounce serving: 210 calories, 4g protein, 41g carbohydrate, 4g fat, 520mg sodium, 0mg cholesterol, 1g fiber.