In looking up the origins of this bread, I found out this version might also be called "Spotted Dog". No matter whatcha call it though – tasty!
I found the recipe here while browsing through Foodgawker. There must be about a zillion variations on this recipe, but I can vouch for this one and will definitely be making it again. Here's what you need:
{first, pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees}
4 cups flour
2 tbsps sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsps butter
1 cup raisins
1 large egg
1 3/4 cup buttermilk
Start by stiring all the dry ingredients together in a big bowl, then "cut" in the butter until you have kind of a crumbly dry mixture. I used butter that wasn't quite room temp, but it would work with cold butter too I imagine. Just use a mashing motion with a fork if you don't have a pastry cutter. Then stir in the raisins.
Next, whisk the egg and butter milk together a little. I didn't have buttermilk in the house, but you can make a subsitute by mixing 1 tbsp of lemon juice together with a cup of milk. Since this recipe called for almost 2 cups of milk, I put just a tad under 2 tbsps of lemon juice in the bottom of my 2 cup measure then filled it to the 1 3/4 mark with milk.
Make a little hole in your dry ingredients and pour in the egg & buttermilk mixture.
Stir the whole thing together with a large spoon until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. It will be a very sticky dough at this point. Then turn it out onto a floured surface and with flour-y hands, knead just a bit. It probably took less than a dozen "kneads" (if I can use the word that way!) to get it looking like this…
Flour your baking pan – I used a cookie sheet – transfer your dough over to the pan and cut an 'X' into it with a serrated knife like so…
Then into the oven it goes! The receipe said it should bake for 35 to 45 minutes. Mine took 35 exactly and when I checked on it at 25 minutes the top was already browned enough. I was out of aluminum foil so I covered it (to keep it from burning) by turning my stainless steel mixing bowl upside down over the top of it. The two ways to tell it's done for sure are:
1) to insert a long wooden skewer into the middle, which should come out clean w/ no dough on it if it's done and
2) to tap the bottom of the loaf, which should sound hollow when it's done.
So good! Really tasty all by itself, but also wonderful with a bit of butter and honey on a slice. Such an easy and quick recipe too. 🙂
~ k