Chocolate Raspberry Soda Bread (without Buttermilk)

Chocolate Raspberry Soda Bread (without Buttermilk) is a tender and sweet bread bursting with chocolatey chunks.

My husband’s food weakness is bread. Mine? Chocolate. {And cheese. And wine. And French fries, if I’m being honest.} Since he doesn’t care for chocolate at all, I almost never make anything using chocolate as an ingredient because I’ll be the only one who eats it.

But, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I decided to try out a recipe that’s a representation of both of our food loves coming together. A food baby of sorts. {No, that’s not weird or anything.}

Bread and chocolate lovers, rejoice!  Dark Chocolate Raspberry Soda Bread.

Similar in preparation to Irish Soda Bread {but not at all falling into that category since traditional ISB fans get quite offended when you call un-authentic ISB by that name}, this quick bread comes together without the inconvenience of rise time that’s necessary in making a yeast bread. I guess that’s why they call it “quick.”

When I was trying out Whole Foods’ version of this recipe, I accidentally misread the directions and doubled {!!!} the amount of butter it called for. Whoops!

Luckily, the result was still a tender, biscuit-like bread that is ready in under an hour. The addition of Stonyfield  whole milk yogurt gives the bread a similar tang to buttermilk, and the Divine Dark Chocolate with Raspberries? — well, that just brings it home for those of us who are chocolate lovers.

{P.S. I originally purchased two Divine Chocolate Bars since I wasn’t entirely certain which flavor I’d use. When I devoured the Milk Chocolate Hazelnut within the first 48 hours of buying the bars, my decision was made for me. If you prefer a different flavor of chocolate, by all means, use that instead! But I thought the Dark Chocolate Raspberry worked perfectly to keep this bread on the cusp of breakfast and dessert appropriate.}

 So there you have it. Our food love child. Too bad Steve won’t accept it since there’s chocolate involved.

Darn… guess I’ll have to finish this off all by myself!