Instructions: Preheat oven to 4250F. Lightly flour baking sheet. Mix flour, caraway seeds, if using, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Mix in enough buttermilk to form moist clumps.

Gather dough into ball. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead just until dough holds together, about 1 minute. Shape dough into 6-inch-diameter by 2-inch-high round. Place on prepared baking sheet. Cut l-nch-deep `X across top of bread, extending almost to edges. Bake until bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, about 35 minutes. Transfer bread to rack and cool completely.

NOTES : In her book, Land of Milk and Honey, Irish folklorist Brid Mahon quotes an English traveler in Ireland in 1600. "In cities they have such bread as ours... mingled with aniseeds and baked like cake, and that only in houses of the better sort. " The round cakes of soda bread still exist, but rarely now with seeds, a tradition that seems to have been maintained mostly by last centurys Irish immigrants to the United States. When soda bread is baked with caraway seeds, it is called a seedy cake. Those seeds are included as an option in this recipe.

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