Irish Soda Bread

This Irish soda bread is the perfect recipe for St. Patty's Day! It goes great with corned beef or with soup or stew.

This Irish soda bread recipe is the perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

It's easy to make, there is no waiting for the bread to rise, and it's flavorful. In a short amount of time you can have this yummy bread fresh out of the oven.

It's delicious with butter slathered over to the top. Or add some jam or honey.

What is Irish Soda Bread?

Irish soda bread uses baking soda instead of yeast for leavening. It has an 'x' or cross pattern on the top of the bread.

It traditionally only uses 3 (although there is some that say it has 4) ingredients. The traditional ingredients are flour, baking soda and buttermilk. The controversial ingredient is salt.

Many recipes (including ours below) include a few other ingredients including sugar, raisins, butter, and an egg.

Best Toppings

This bread is so delicious while it's still warm with a pat of butter spread over the top.

Some of our other favorites are with some some jam or a drizzle of honey.

Recipes to Pair With

We like to eat fresh, homemade bread while it's still warm by itself. But you can definitely pair Irish soda bread with other dishes.

Irish soda bread is such a great side for soups and stews.

It also pairs well with corned beef and cabbage for an Irish meal.

Tips

This recipe uses buttermilk in it and you'll want to make sure to use this. Not only for the flavor, but because of it's reaction with the baking soda. Since this bread doesn't use yeast, it has buttermilk and baking soda that react together.

If you don't have buttermilk, you can easily turn regular milk into something similar to buttermilk. Using a glass measuring cup add in 1 tablespoon of vinegar and then fill to the 1 cup line with milk. Let this sit for about 5 minutes and you can use this in place of buttermilk.

This recipe calls for 1 ¾ cups buttermilk, so you want to add about 1 and ¾ tablespoon vinegar to the measuring cup and fill with milk up to the 1 and ¾ cup line with milk.

Let the bread sit about 7-10 minutes before cutting into it. You'll find the crumb is better and it doesn't "gum" up if you let it sit for a few minutes before cutting the bread.

Ingredients

All-Purpose Flour

White Sugar

Salt

Baking Powder

Butter, cold and cut into cubes

Raisins - optional

Buttermilk

Egg

How to Make Irish Soda Bread

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375°F.

Step 2: We used a cast iron skillet when we made our Irish soda bread, but you can also use a cookie or baking sheet. Grease either a skillet or baking sheet and set aside.

Step 3: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, white sugar, salt and baking powder until well combined.

Step 4: Use a pastry cutter or large fork to cut the cold butter into the flour mixture until well-distributed and dry ingredients resemble clumpy sand.

Step 5: Stir in the raisins and set aside.

Step 6: In a small bowl or large measuring cup, beat together the buttermilk and egg until well-combined.

Step 7: Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk-egg mixture. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until you're unable to stir anymore, then use your hands to continue kneading the dough, at least 2 minutes until it's mostly no longer sticky and the dough forms a cohesive ball.

If you want, once the dough is mostly formed, turn the dough out and knead it on a flat and floured surface.

The dough will be sticky at first. Make sure to avoid the desire to add more flour to the dough for at least a minute - it will be sticky at first but should become less sticky with kneading.

Step 8: Place the ball of dough onto the prepared skillet or cookie sheet.

Use a sharp knife to cut a large X-shape in the center of the dough to allow steam to escape.

Step 9: Bake for 45-55 minutes, until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy your freshly baked bread!

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