Easy Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Channel your Irish love and make your Saint Patrick’s Day special with this insanely easy Irish Soda Bread Recipe that also freezes very well. Using only 4 ingredients, 5 minutes to mix together, you can have fresh Irish Soda Bread with any family dinner! Including authentic Irish Soda Bread recipe plus sweet & savory add-in ideas.

With Saint Patrick’s day on the horizon, it has me thinking of our Irish ancestry. After spending the last month on bedrest with a lung inflammation, it has left me limited in my activities. Which led me to binge-watching Netflix. Needless to say, I’ve become obsessed with The Great British Baking Show.

Now, British isn’t completely Irish, but a lot of the baking is similar. And I actually learned a lot of baking tricks that spurred me to try some Authentic European baking. Since I’m still technically supposed to be on bedrest, I decided to try a really easy recipe firsrt. That’s why I was inspired to make this easy Irish Soda Bread.

Make the best Easy Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Authentic Irish Soda bread is very basic. And I do mean VERY basic. It is simply flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk.

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To be authentic, you only need those four basic ingredients. There is even a website dedicated to the purity of the traditional Irish Soda Bread. Go ahead and pop over there to learn the history of Irish Soda Bread. It was quite a fascinating read.

But over the years and through various cultures, traditional Irish Soda Bread has morphed into quite a versatile experience. It is pretty common to find all kinds of add-ins when you come across soda bread recipes ranging from sweet to savory.

For a Sweet Easy Irish Soda bread recipe, you will find several people adding

• White sugar
• Brown sugar
• Molasses
• Raisins
• Cherries
• Dried cranberries
• Chocolate chips
• Red currants
• Rhubarb

For a savory easy Irish soda bread recipe, you may see people adding

• Caraway seeds
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Walnuts
• Chopped herbs
• Olives
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Even caramelized onions.

You can also change the flavor and texture of the Irish Soda bread by changing up the flour that you use. You can use white all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour. Or you can even mix half white flour and half wheat flour.

Now one way that I have found that really makes a difference in baking is by using a kitchen food scale. This way allows you to measure out ingredients in grams. You can get more accurate measurements versus using the American standard of using cups.

And it really isn’t any more difficult. In fact, I find using a food scale to measure out my ingredients is actually easier! Plus I don’t have to hunt for that allusive measuring cup that always ends up lost. And my recipes turn out so much better!

I also use measurements in milliliters instead of oz or cups for more accuracy. You often can find milliliters measurements on most liquid measuring cups.

Not to mention when you use a kitchen food scale, it opens up the vast opportunities to use European Cookbooks!

Some of my favorite European cookbooks include Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry cookbooks.

 Authentic Irish Soda bread Recipe

 

To get started you need to Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 C). Then prepare the baking sheet. Traditionally Easy Irish Soda Bread was baked in a castiron pan. But you can also use a basic cooking sheet with parchment paper. I prefer to use my stoneware baking sheet. You can also use Polish Pottery Stoneware.

Using a food scale, weight out 500 g white flour. Then add the baking soda and salt. If you are going to include any add-ins like caraway seeds, this is the time to add them in.

Sift dry ingredients together and make a well in the center.

Slowly add half of the buttermilk to the dry mixture. With a spoon or your hands, mix it together until the buttermilk is absorbed. Add the remaining buttermilk and mix just until a sticky dough forms.

You don’t want to overwork the dough. And definitely, don’t knead it. It will make the texture of the bread tough if you mix too much. You want a sticky dough that is just barely mixed together so there are no dry ingredient patches.

Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface. With your hands, shape the dough into a ball and slightly flatten on top.

Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour.

Transfer the dough to a baking sheet or skillet.

With a sharp knife cut deeply into quarters but not cutting all the way to the base.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the soda bread is cooked through. The bread should be a golden color and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Cool the Irish soda bread on a wire rack for 1-2 hours. Serve it with your favorite jam spreads, cheese or Kerrygold Irish Butter.

Serve Easy Irish Soda Bread

My first loaf I served with Cooked Perfect Chicken from the freezer in a fun Saint Patrick’s themed dinner for the family. (Coming Soon).

The second loaf I made, I used Caraway seeds and I served it with our simple Italian Baked Chicken. It was the perfect pairing for an extremely easy family dinner.

It literally only takes about 5 minutes to mix the dough together. And then 30-40 minutes of baking. Very little effort or work on my part. Which is especially good since I’m still on bed rest until my lung inflammation heals.

You can even enlist the help of your kids. This is a perfect bread to start teaching your kids to bake. You don’t have to worry about them not being strong enough to knead the bread because there is no kneading involved!

And you can easily have this fresh Irish Soda Bread ready for family dinner because you don’t have to raise (prove) the dough. Just mix it up and bake!

Curious about my serving board? Check out the easy DIY Woodland Rustic Cupcake Stand tutorial. You can easily make your own, in just a few minutes!

Want more fun Saint Patrick’s Day crafts and recipes? 

Check out our easy Leprechaun Trap Tutorial. 

Or whip up an easy dessert to enjoy after eating your Easy Irish Soda bread with this fun Rainbow Cake! 

Or for the more Fashionable – try this simple Pot of Gold crochet cup cozy

And to make sure you don’t get pinched, make these Shabby Chic fabric flower hair accessories! 

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