This Traditional Irish soda bread is made with just a few simple ingredients but bakes up into a beautiful, bakery quality loaf.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
I’ve tried several recipes for Irish soda bread, and this Traditional Irish Soda Bread is by far my favorite. It bakes up into such a beautiful loaf that I can hardly believe it isn’t a yeast bread.
I was totally shocked at how good this was. Made this yesterday for St. Patrick’s day and was a little nervous by the short ingredient list. No butter? But it was amazing & everyone had more than one piece!
Lindsay
Even better, it’s so incredibly easy to make, especially if you’re impatient like me and don’t want to wait around for the dough to rise.
Seriously, you can have a gorgeous loaf of homemade bread on the table in about an hour, from start to finish.
The trick (or at least I’m assuming it’s the trick) is baking the bread with an inverted cake pan on top. I don’t know what kind of scientific baking magic that inverted pan creates.
I just know this recipe never fails me and I get a beautiful, bakery quality loaf of Irish soda bread every time.
My family loves this bread as much as I do. And nobody needs to know that you didn’t spend hours in the kitchen!
Like so many delicious breads, Irish Soda Bread is the product of a time when fancy ingredients weren’t available or affordable, so it’s made with only the most basic ingredients.
Legend has it that the cross was cut on the top before baking to ward off the devil and protect the household.
Irish soda bread often has raisins or dried currants in it, so feel free to add that if you’d like.
For some reason, I tend to only make this bread around St. Patrick’s Day, but it’s so simple and delicious I really ought to make it more often.
I have made this recipe three times. I have made it for our card group for a St. Patrick’s Day potluck with and without raisins. It was a big hit. Love the crispy crust.
Olivia
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Ingredients
- Flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Buttermilk
Traditional Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 3/4 cups buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually stir in the buttermilk until the dough comes together in a slightly sticky ball.
- Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead gently a few times. Form the dough into a ball and then press into the prepared pan so that the dough resembles a large disk. The dough should reach the edges of the pan, but may spring back slightly.
- Cut an X into the dough with a sharp knife, about 1/4 of an inch deep. Cover the pan of dough with another round cake pan turned upside down.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, covered, then remove the top pan and bake uncovered for about 10 minutes more or until the crust is dark golden brown.
Nutrition
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131 comments
Andrea
It was just ok…was much darker than in the picture, was pretty dense and salty. I didn’t really care for it much.
Kitty
Andrea did you substitute the kosher salt for regular? If so you may want to cut back by half next time.
Andrea
I am not sure what I did wrong, but my dough was a sticky wet mess! I wonder where I went wrong? I added almost a whole extra cup of flour and I still couldn’t get it to form into a ball…it is in the over right now, I’m afraid to see how it turns out!
Paula
How did it turn out?
lisa
Just wondering what size round pan did you use?
Paula
When I made this a few days ago I used a cake pan. Actually, I used two. One was the pan I put the dough in, and then I laid the other over that pan like a domed cover for the part of baking that needed a cover. It worked!
Violet
So it doesn’t have to be two cake pans? I’m wondering if I could bake this in a covered round Pyrex baking dish.
Paula
It shouldn’t matter. The important thing is to cover the dough without being tight against the dough. That is why the 2 cake pans worked. It was easy for me to use 2 cake pans because I keep them all stacked together. If I had my cast iron handy, I would have probably used a skillet and a pot lid. The vessel is not as important as the idea of keeping the moisture in until you are ready to brown the top.
Violet
Perfect, thanks! I will be making the bread on Monday as part of a St. Patrick’s Day meal for friends – I can’t wait to try it!
Cathy franklin
I need to make soda bread for dinner on st paddys day for 25 people how many soda breads do you think I’ll need