My boyfriend, John, is Irish. Sadly, he is not in touch with his Irish heritage at all. He doesn’t even celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! Armed with an old recipe I found at my Grandma’s house, I made my first attempt at trying to reconnect John with his roots.
This recipe yields 2 loaves and I am told they are very authentic tasting. The loaves had hard crusts, but fairly soft centers, and were pretty weighty. I would liken their flavor to that of a soft pretzel and personally found it very pleasant. Sadly, John did not feel the same. He is a very picky eater. Soda bread may be an acquired taste, but I enjoyed it, and think that this recipe is nice. If you know any REAL Irish people, or need ideas for St. Patrick’s Day next year, these loaves are super simple to make and gorgeous:] I am not giving up on John after one recipe though, so stay tuned!
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 cups buttermilk (or milk with a few drops of vinegar in it)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
Directions:
First, add all the dry ingredients together, making sure to break up all the brown sugar clumps. Add the buttermilk and stir until everything is combined. Then, knead the dough for a couple minutes. This dough should be ready fairly quickly. Divide the dough in half and spin each half, while patting them into round loaves. When you have 2 round loaves, lightly score an x on each loaf. If you score them too deeply your loaves will split and will not be as attractive. Preheat your oven to 400° and let your loaves set for 10 minutes. Bake your loaves on the center rack of your oven for 40 minutes. I baked my loaves directly on my pizza stone. If you do not have a pizza stone, a parchment lined sheet will do the trick. Serve immediately or store immediately, because these loaves tend to harden if you set them out.
Your bread looks absolutely fantastic! It’s an interesting thing about soda bread, people seem to either love it or hate it. Personally, I’m with you, I think it’s great, I like the dense texture and find it very satisfying. Your recipe looks nice and easy, I should try making it some time, I think I would love it.
Thank you so much! I hope you do, and tell me what you think about the recipe. I want to know if it is the “real deal.” :]]]
Your bread looks so yummy. How was the texture? The last time I tried to make this bread, we ended using my bread as a door stop- things were not going well. LOL
Haha! That is why I recommend eating or storing the bread immediately, the bread hardens within an hour or so otherwise. When it was fresh, I really liked it. It was dense, but moist. This is not a bread I would keep around very long though.
Maybe that was my problem, but the door stop worked well. My husband’s first hint that the baking episode did not go well as he is greeted by the bread holding the front door in place. Take care, BAM
I make a bread almost identical to this except the recipe calls for cutting butter into the flour. I love the earthy flavor, and buttermilk is IT in my opinion. These turned out beautifully! Perhaps you could persuade John to eat corned beef & cabbage?
Putting in butter would definitely make the recipe more moist and fluffy:] This recipe is supposed to be super authentic though. I thought it would be like feeding an elephant peanuts, that the Irish in him would jump with joy. Not so lol. I should try that next for sure…only issue is he is a brat and does not eat veggies:/
I’m not sure I’ve ever tried soda bread but your looks amazing 😉
Looks delicious!
Those a very good looking loaves – I really enjoy making (and of course, eating) soda bread!
Can you tell me if the recipe is truly authentic? My Grandma is Italian and not Irish, though she had this old recipe.
Lovely pictures and recipe. This is very similar to one me mum taught me. I’m rubbish with yeast so this is such an easy recipe to make. Thanks for sharing. Mr.CBB
Cool! So it is authentic then?
Fantastic! this looks identical to the bread featured on my recent mackerel post :D. Delicious!
I love finding new types of bread to make!
This one is super easy too! Just remember to serve asap:]
Your bread looks fabulous!!! Don’t you just love baking bread?! I have tried these and liked them but have not baked one. Very impressive!
Thanks! If you make it, remember to serve or store asap. These breads tend to get pretty hard. The less traditional ones use butter and that helps a lot, but I like the real deal:]
Did you serve it with Irish butter and a Guinness? Try that, next time. 😉
I’m definitely filing away this soda bread recipe for next March 17th. Thanks!
Thanks! John does not drink, so I served it with butter spread:[ and coke :] lol
I AM Irish and this looks just like Nana used to make…………ahhhhhh………warm loaf with butter: too wonderful for words and yours looks just as tasty!!