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
Elizabeth Mulgrew
For once, a bread recipe that comes out looking like the picture – yay! I do wonder, however, if a little more leaven would make it rise just a bit more? Also, my “cross” didn’t spread out either, even though I made sure to cut at least 1/4″ deep. Whenever there is an ethnic recipe posted called “traditional”, there are always people who say that it’s not – that their family has the “real” one. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that these recipes, by definition, have been around for generations and that in that time everyone has made their own version of it. Therefore, one version is as authentic as another. You can take your choice. In this case. even though I’m not Irish, I think this is the original baseline recipe simply because of it’s few ingredients. The Irish historically, whether home in Ireland or here in the US, were often poor people who could not afford a lot of ingredients. Gussie it up all you want but please stop the carping. This an excellent chewy bread – the kind I like!
Mary
I love this recipe! Great for a wee snack with jam. I also have a recipe for Christmas Irish Soda bread. I add some mixed peel and a few currents. Yummy and so easy for breakfast.
Darren k
Been making soda bread for years!! Thus recipe is in the mark. Remember to knead a few times 1st. Make a difference with warm water. Italian seasoning (i use fresh fennel and caraway as well but not much). Add a few cloves mucked garlic. Hell use whatever herbs you like!! Always comes out incredible. Use the toothpick trick if its cooked. If not? Keep it in the oven lol