Bread Recipe Cast Iron Skillet

This easy Irish soda bread requires only 5 minutes of hands-on time to stir together flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, one egg, buttermilk, and butter. It emerges from the oven with the perfect crumb. No yeast used! Ready in 1-hour. Video guidance below! ☘️☘️☘️☘️

I was all set to complicate Irish soda bread by making a yeasted version when I started looking into its history and discovered that the soda —

Easy

— is perhaps the most traditional part of the bread, much more so than butter, sugar, eggs and raisins, in fact, which likely entered the equation when the bread crossed the pond.

My First Cast Iron Skillet Bread Ended Up Being The Best Bread I've Made So Far! Whole Wheat & Honey Loaf With Fresh Rosemary And Thyme. [recipe In Comments]

Inspired by that article, I made a traditional loaf of soda bread with flour, salt, buttermilk, and baking soda, leaving out the yeast. And while it was perfectly edible, I found myself missing the richness of eggs and sugar —missing the scone-like texture created by the addition of butter…what can I say, I’m American!

And so here, I’ve added a bit of the riches back in: one egg, one tablespoon of sugar, and a couple of tablespoons of melted butter, which produces a loaf that resembles a giant biscuit, especially delicious toasted and slathered with softened butter and marmalade.

There are two recipes below, one that calls for 100% all-purpose flour and one that calls for a mix of whole wheat, all-purpose, and wheat germ, the latter of which produces a slightly denser but no less delicious, chewy, tangy loaf. Each dough takes about 5 minutes to mix together and each will be ready about an hour later.

Baked Skillet Banana Bread Recipe

Yes! To do so, replace 50 grams of the flour and 50 grams of the buttermilk with 100 grams of discarded sourdough starter. See notes in the recipe box for precise proportions. I made a video of how use sourdough discard in this Irish Soda Bread recipe here:

No. Any oven-safe, 8- to 9-inch baking dish (such as a pie plate) will work here. A shallow dish is best to allow air to circulate. You could even use a rimmed sheet pan.

In quick bread recipes (and others) that call for baking soda, some sort of acid is required to react with the baking soda to allow it to leaven the bread — this is why the buttermilk is essential. Can’t find buttermilk or don’t have it on hand? Make it yourself! Here’s how to make 1.75 cups of buttermilk for this recipe:

Bannock (scottish Skillet Bread) • Curious Cuisiniere

If you want to use sourdough discard in place of some of the flour/liquid, you can use 100 grams of sourdough discard, 460 grams of flour, 12 grams salt, 13 grams sugar, 5 grams baking soda, 1 egg, 360 grams buttermilk, 2 tablespoons melted butter.  Follow the same method outlined in the directions. Watch the video here for guidance.Most no knead bread recipes require a covered Dutch oven pan for baking. Not this one. You can make a delicious loaf of rustic bread baked in a cast iron skillet without any special tools, ingredients, or equipment.

A loaf of crusty bread is a masterpiece. Unfortunately, it’s also a difficult item to purchase when your family lives with food allergies. Local bakeries aren’t a safe option for our family due to cross

Contamination. I realized many years ago that any loaves of crusty bread invited to our farmhouse table would need to be of the homemade variety.

Cast

Fast And Easy No Knead Cast Iron Skillet Bread

Luckily, I love to bake bread. I find it relaxing to knead the dough and I always feel a sense of baker’s pride when I bring a beautiful loaf to our dinner table. This summer, I’ve moved my bread baking to the grill in Penny Lane’s back yard. The loaves have been delicious and the farmhouse is much cooler since the baking has moved outdoors.

I usually bake my loaves in a cast iron Dutch oven whether I am baking in the oven or on the grill.  I do this so often that I have a Dutch oven specifically for that purpose.  It gets a lot of use here at the farmhouse.

A few months ago, I was asked an interesting question by a reader. She wondered if a loaf of our Rustic Dutch Oven Bread could be baked in a cast iron skillet. She didn’t have a Dutch oven and was just beginning her journey to master a delicious loaf of bread for her family. She wanted to attempt to bake these loaves without investing in a Dutch oven.

Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Her question was an interesting one and I love a recipe experiment.  So, I set out to determine if a loaf could be baked successfully in an open cast iron skillet.  I couldn’t wait to adapt the recipe and see if we could make these loaves in a completely new manner.

I set out to use the same recipe for Rustic Dutch Oven Bread that I bake in the oven and on the grill in that vessel. I made a few small changes to the way I handled the kneaded dough and to the baking method in order to better suit baking it in an open skillet.

Super

Instead of using a sheet of parchment paper as I do when baking in a Dutch oven, I decided to omit the paper when using the skillet. I was afraid that the paper would ignite when baking in the hot oven or over the open flame of the grill. Instead, I chose to brush a thin coating of my Baking Pan Release Spread on the bottom and sides of a cold skillet before adding the kneaded dough to the pan for the 30 minute rest period.

Dutch Oven No Knead Bread (with Perfect Crusty Crust!)

I chose to use a cold skillet rather than preheating it as I often do with the Dutch oven when baking in the oven. I didn’t want to move the dough more than once and proceeding without a sheet of parchment to aid in the movement of the dough demanded the placement of the dough directly into the room temperature skillet.

Once the dough had rested in the prepared skillet for around 30 minutes, I transferred it to the oven or grill. In both cases, I baked the loaf for 30 minutes. The top surface was brown, firm, and crusty. I allowed the loaf to cool in the skillet for a few minutes and then moved it to a serving board when it was cool enough to handle.

The skillet baked loaf is just as delicious as those baked in a Dutch oven. The open skillet baked loaf was finished in 10 fewer minutes as the same loaf baked in a covered Dutch oven. It was slightly less chewy with regard to texture, but no less delicious. The crust is crisp and thin, just as I had hoped. The crumb (interior) is soft and airy, perfect for slathering with plenty of butter.

Skillet Monkey Bread

If you’ve wanted to bake delicious loaves for your family table, but have been hesitant due to the lack of a Dutch oven, I hope that you will give this version a try. This recipe can be made in a

-

This recipe is a simplified version of our original recipe and can be successfully created in very little time without expensive equipment or past bread baking knowledge. It’s the ideal bread recipe for someone who has never attempted to bake a loaf of bread. I hope that its simplicity and will entice you to bake these loaves right along with me!

I have included three size versions of this recipe. The extra-large loaf is ideal for 4-6 people. The large loaf is sized for 3-4 people, and the smaller half loaf is the perfect size for one or two people to share or for a meal that needs just a bit of bread to round it out. Those smaller loaves also freeze beautifully and can be allowed to thaw at room temperature and then warmed up in a hot oven or grill for a few minutes.

Cast Iron Skillet Corn Bread Recipe

Once you’ve mastered baking your homemade bread, you’ll need to learn all about the best way to store it.  Different types of bread benefit from different storage methods.  You can learn all about them by reading The Best Way to Store Fresh Bread. Don’t allow any leftovers from these loaves to go to waste.  I like to cut them into cubes and store them in a large freezer bag.  When I want to make French Toast, Panzanella, or bread crumbs, I simply lay the frozen cubes in a single layer on a sheet pan and allow it to thaw before proceeding with the recipe.

Visit our Amazon Page to find our favorites for the pantry, Farmhouse Kitchen, studio, garden, farmhouse, and Penny Lane. We hope that the links will help you to learn more about the products we use here at 1840 Farm. We only share the products we use and never suggest products we haven’t tried ourselves.

If you choose to make a purchase, we will receive a tiny commission at no extra cost to you. The pennies we earn help to cover the costs of running our blog and keep Penny Lane’s cookie jar full of treats. You can learn more about our

No

Deep Dish Pizza Bread