Makes 8 Individual Breads
3 Cups All Purpose Flour
? Cup Sugar
2½ Teaspoons Baking Powder
½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Fine Sea Salt
3 Teaspoons Caraway Seeds
1½ Sticks (6 oz) Cold Unsalted Butter, Cut into Small Pieces
1 Cup Golden Raisins
1¼ Cup Buttermilk
1 Egg Yolk
1 Tablespoon Heavy Cream
Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in the middle. Line two half sheet pans with parchment or silpat sheets.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and caraway seeds. Add the cold butter and with a pastry cutter or your fingertips (I prefer using my fingertips) and work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. (Some large lumps of butter are ok. This helps make the soda breads flaky.) Add the raisins and distribute evenly in the flour mixture.
Pour in the buttermilk, and mix with the fork only until the ingredients are just moistened. The dough will be soft and a bit sticky.
Bring dough together with your hands and very gently knead on a lightly floured surface for a couple of minutes.
Divide dough into two pieces and, with your hands, gently flatten each piece out into 1-inch squares. Cut square into 4 even squares and gently make a ball with each square. Place onto parchment lined half sheet pans or cookie sheets.
Beat the egg yolk and cream together and brush each round with the mixture. Cut a small cross onto each individual bread.
Bake each pan separately for 20 to 25 minutes or until they just begin to get turn a golden color. Rotate the pan half way through the baking. Be careful. You don’t want the bottoms to burn.
Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
