Irish Soda Bread is a quick bread to make and a wonderful side to have topped with butter and all of your hearty St. Patrick’s Day meals!
Why We Love Irish Soda Bread
- There’s no yeast in this recipe so there’s no need to wait for the dough to rise. The buttermilk and the baking soda do all the hard work so you don’t have to!
- Soda bread is so easy to make that you can pop it in the oven while you make dinner, and have it ready in time to enjoy with your meal.
- This is a sweeter soda bread instead of a big rustic loaf. You can decide how sweet you want this bread though by adjusting the amount of sugar in the recipe. Make it how you like it best.
- Just like everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, everyone’s Irish when they’re eating this bread, so sláinte!
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Soda Bread
DRY INGREDIENTS: This bread is so simple to make, all you need are pantry staples like all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, and baking powder.
DAIRY: You will need buttermilk, melted salted butter, and an egg. Check out the tips section if you don’t have buttermilk, there’s an easy swap!
How to Make Irish Soda Bread
Jump to RecipeSTEP 1 Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and grease a 9×5 loaf pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder.
STEP 2 In a medium bowl, whisk the egg and the buttermilk together. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir. Add the melted butter and mix until just combined.
STEP 3 Place the dough into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 60-65 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Enjoy the bread with butter, honey, or jam.
Tips & Tricks
- This is a sweeter, less rustic-style soda bread recipe. If you wish, you can cut the sugar to 1/4 cup for bread that isn’t as sweet.
- Soda bread is denser than yeast bread in general, so don’t make it even denser by overmixing. Once you stop seeing dry mix ingredients then stop mixing and you will end up with a great texture.
- If you’re making this for a festive occasion, say St. Patrick’s Day, you can add a few drops of green food coloring for extra fun!
- If you need or want to substitute the buttermilk with sour milk, you can. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to a measuring cup and fill it with milk to make 2 cups. Stir and let it sit for 5 minutes. You can then add it to the recipe as written.
Irish Soda Bread Recipe FAQ
What is soda bread?
Irish soda bread is a type of bread called “quick bread,” a term that describes any bread that does not use yeast and requires no time for the bread to rise. This bread gets its name from one of the chief ingredients, baking soda. When the baking soda and the buttermilk interact it begins the leavening process, where carbon dioxide bubbles create small pockets of air and the result is moist and crumbly bread.
Using baking soda as a leavening agent is what makes soda bread different from yeast bread. Bread that contains yeast is typically light, airy, and smooth, whereas soda bread is hearty and crumbly. Beer bread is very similar to soda bread in these respects as well, but instead of buttermilk, beer is used to activate the baking soda.
What does Irish soda bread taste like?
Soda bread is a recipe steeped in tradition and is still a staple bread in Ireland today. People all over the world also make this bread, which means that everyone has their own preferences for what ingredients to include.
The core recipe of flour, baking soda, buttermilk, and salt, produces a light and tangy-tasting bread, but there are many variations of this bread as well.
Popular additions include caraway seeds, raisins or currants, honey, golden syrups, Guinness, and herbs. However you make it, just know that no matter what you put in your bread, the most popular way to eat it is slathered in creamy butter!
Other Recipes You May like
- Irish Potato Bites
- Mini Baileys Cheesecakes
- Corned Beef and Cabbage
- Colcannon
- Guinness Gingerbread
- No Knead Dutch Oven Bread
Irish Soda Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar (see note)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 egg slightly beaten
- 2 cups buttermilk
- ¼ cup salted butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Grease the isnide of a 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan. Set aside.
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and buttermilk until well combined.
- Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until it just comes together. Then add in the melted butter and mix just until combined. The dough will be very wet. (Overmixing will make the bread dense and tough. Only mix as much as you have to.)
- Pour the dough into the bread pan. Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove the pan from the oven, and let it cool to room temperature on a wire rack before removing the loaf from the pan. Top with butter, honey, jam, or jelly, if desired.
Notes
- If you don’t like your bread very sweet, cut back the sugar to ¼ cup.
- This is not a traditional rustic, round loaf. It’s more of a batter than a dough and makes a very moist, sweet bread.
Nutrition
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.
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