Irish Soda Bread

5 from 1 vote

Irish soda bread is a delicious, no yeast bread that's ready for the oven in about 5 minutes. Its dense yet soft, biscuit like texture and golden brown crust gives this bread a rustic flavor that just can't be beat.

Prep Time5

Cook Time50

Total Time55

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American, Irish

Keyword: Irish soda bread

Servings:

Calories: 216kcal

Author: Viana Boenzli

Ingredients

1-¾ cups buttermilk
1 large egg
4-¾ cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1-½ teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 cup raisins or dried currants (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400℉.
Whisk together the buttermilk and egg.
In a separate bowl, stir together the dry ingredients.
In the bowl with the flour mixture, cut in the cold, cubed butter using either your fingers, a fork, or a pastry cutter until it starts to resemble a coarse meal.
Stir in raisins or dried currants, if using, until they're well coated in the flour mixture.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together with a wooden spoon until it's so stiff you can't stir anymore.
Tip: It should be a sticky, shaggy dough. But if it's still a bit too wet, add a little more flour.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead just enough to make sure all ingredients are wet, and form into a round shape.
Tip: Do not over-knead this bread or it will get tough. The only purpose of slight kneading for a minute is to make sure all the ingredients are evenly dispersed throughout the dough and get it into a round shape.
Place the dough onto your cast iron pan, dutch oven, baking sheet, or whatever you're going to use to bake it.
Cut a deep X into the top of the bread dough, about 1" to 1-½" deep. This will allow the heat of the oven reach the center of the bread, as well as help the bread expand as it rises.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool and then enjoy!

Notes

Equipment
There are lots of different ways to bake Irish soda bread:
- Cast iron skillet - Soda bread was originally made on griddles, so this was as close as I could get to making it the real old fashioned way.
- Dutch oven - This would also work well, just leave the lid off.
- Cake pan or pie dish - A cake pan or pie dish would also work well in the oven.
- Baking sheet - You can also use a regular baking sheet.

Ingredient substitutions
- Buttermilk: This is one of those ingredients that can be tricky to find in the grocery store, but is necessary for the leavening process. The acid in the buttermilk reacts with the baking soda to make the bread rise. But no worries if you can't find it. There's a quick and easy trick to make your own version in just a few minutes. For every 1 cup of milk, stir in 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice. Wait about 10 minutes and it will just start to curdle. Voila, homemade buttermilk!
- Butter: I used unsalted butter in this recipe so that I could better control the amount of salt in this recipe. If you prefer to use salted butter instead, just reduce the amount of additional salt by about ¼ teaspooon.

Cutting in the butter: There is a lot of flour used in making a soda bread, so you won't really get the texture of a coarse meal, but you will see it just a little bit. When that starts to happen and you can't find any more chunks of butter, it's ready for the next step.

Storage and freezing: Irish soda bread will stay delicious, covered on the counter, for several days. You can also wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and then foil, and freeze for up to 2 months.

Suggestion: If you enjoy this bread, you're gonna love our no knead dutch oven bread!

Nutrition