Irish Soda Bread Recipe With Baking Powder

Quick and easy, this Irish soda bread recipe is a classic. Our version is made with flour, baking soda, buttermilk, raisins, egg, and a touch of sugar and salt. Don’t let the simplicity fool you — it’s a real keeper and takes less than 45 minutes.

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

It appears everyone has their favorite Irish soda bread recipe. Some with caraway seeds, some with raisins, some with both, some with neither.

Irish Soda Bread Muffins {whole Wheat Recipe!}

The essential ingredients in traditional Irish soda bread are flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. The acid in buttermilk reacts with the base of the baking soda to provide the bread's leavening. This leavening from buttermilk and baking soda is what gives the bread its name: soda bread.

This soda bread is a slightly fancied up Americanized version of the Irish classic, with a little butter, sugar, an egg, and some currants or raisins added to the base. You can bake it in a cast iron frying pan (now that's traditional!) or on a regular baking sheet.

You can also make a simpler version without eggs or currants, with some caraway seeds, or you could turn your soda bread dough into biscuits.

Irish American Soda Bread

Soda bread dries out quickly so it really is only good for a day or two. It is best eaten freshly baked and warm or toasted. Keep it wrapped in plastic wrap or foil.

That said, you can make it ahead and freeze it (let it cool to room temperature first). Wrap it tightly first in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil. It will last up to 2 months frozen.

Traditionally, bread in Ireland was made in a skillet because the wheat that grew there was what's called soft wheat, which contained less gluten than its counterparts in America. The domestic Irish wheat didn't interact well with yeast and did not rise very well.

Easy Irish Soda Bread (prepped In 10 Mins!)

Hence, the introduction of baking soda as a leavening agent, which reacts with the buttermilk to form small carbon dioxide bubbles, approximating the chemical reaction of yeast.

What we consider traditional Irish bread came about because of the Native Americans, who used a sort of wood ash as a leavening agent to make bread without yeast. This method of making bread was introduced to Ireland in the 1830s.

Different types of soda bread are popular throughout Ireland, but all of them are pretty simple, everyday breads. They were found in every household to mop up stews or to enjoy with a cup of tea. The Northern Irish divide their dough into 4 triangles, while the Southerners made theirs round with a cross shape on top. Here in America, we like to put in add-ins like caraway seeds, currants, raisins, or honey. Modern Irish soda breads might contain nuts, orange zest, or even Guinness.

Easy White Soda Bread

There are only a few ingredients in this soda bread recipe, so it's best if made with real buttermilk. However, there are a few buttermilk substitutions that work well and will still react with the baking soda to make the bread rise. Kefir works especially well, or you can thin yogurt to the consistency of buttermilk using plain milk.

You can also acidify milk with lemon juice or white vinegar. Add 2 scant tablespoons to a measuring cup and top with whole milk to make 1 3/4 cups total. Stir and let sit for a few minutes until the mixture curdles, then proceed with the recipe as written.

*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2, 000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Irish Soda Bread: Quick Bread Finish Temps

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.

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Easy and so delicious, Irish Soda Bread is something you should make! And with St Patrick’s Day coming up soon making a loaf is a great way to celebrate! This bread should not be saved for this time of the year only but be made often! Oh YUM! Let’s make classic Irish Soda Bread!

Dylan Dreyer's Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Traditional Irish Soda Bread is not a yeast bread but a quick bread that is made with buttermilk, and baking soda. This bread does not usually use eggs and it gets a little sweetness from a little sugar.

It’s not like what we would think of as regular bread. There is no kneading and resting. It’s called quick bread because it uses other leavenings that don’t need time to develop.

Irish Soda Bread has a nice golden crust and a tight dense crumb. It’s deliciously soft and tender inside. The crust is crunchy when it comes out of the oven

Amazingly Easy Irish Soda Bread Recipe

A couple of years ago I took an Ancestry DNA test. And to my surprise and delight, I found out that I am Irish! All three percent of me! The surname Lynch is peppered through one line of my ancestors from Ireland! So, to honor my Irish roots we will celebrate with this iconically Irish bread!

Necessity is the mother of invention in the case of this yummy bread. Two events that really had nothing to do with each other collided and Irish Soda Bread was born.

In 1840 Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) became easily available and in 1845-49 the Irish suffered the Great Potato Famine. Famine and poverty became a way of life for many Irish so they used the most inexpensiveingredientsthat were readily available and made Soda Bread.

Simple Spelt Irish Soda Bread

Originally, sour milk was used to make Irish Soda Bread. Later in the post, I’ll show you how to make sour milk by adding vinegar orlemon juice.

And this simple and tasty recipe has spanned centuries and continents and is a very popular bread here in the United States. Pretty cool, right?

So every time you and I make Irish Soda Bread it’s good to remember that we are making a tasty bit of history!

Irish Soda Bread Recipes , Folklore And Facts

There is no yeast in Soda Bread. Instead, the lactic acid inbuttermilkreacts with thebakingsoda and leavens the bread, or makes it rise! It’s a delicious chemical reaction!

My Nani said that she and her siblings would fight over who would get the leftover buttermilk. And that must have been quite a fight since she was one of eleven!

Use one TBSP of white vinegar or lemon juice and add enough milk to make one cup. Stir it together and let it sit for 5 minutes and it is ready to use!

Irish Soda Bread: Classic Irish Dessert For St. Patrick's Day

The cross in this round bread is iconic. Besides, the cross making this bread easily identifiable it also serves an important two-fold purpose.

First, it helps the oven heat get to the center of the bread promoting even baking, and it lets the steam out of the bread in a controlled way so it does not burst out of the bread breaking it open.

Irish soda bread is very straightforward and very easy to make! But to guarantee your bread comes out the best it can, here are some helpful tips.

Cake Flour Irish Soda Bread Recipe

I like to use my grandmother’s pastry cutter. But if you have cool hands you can use your hands. Or cut them with knives.

Nani’s pastry cutter was once painted red but from decades of use, the paint wore off. Every time I use it I think of my grandmother’s lovely well-worn hands I loved so much!

If desired, add the raisins, currant, or any other ingredients like orange zest (YUM) to the flour and butter mixture. Caraway seeds are also a traditional ingredient in Irish Soda Bread.

Freash Round Brown Soda Bread

I made my Irish Soda Bread with dried currants. Growing up in Scotland and England I became very fond of these little ruby gems. They are similar to raisins but are sweeter, smaller, and a little tangy.

Regular dark raisins and golden raisins are made from the same grape. Dark raisins are sun-dried and golden raisins are dried mechanically.

If you bake, parchment paper is a must! I like to bake bread on parchment because the bead comes out of a pan without burning my fingers!

Slow Cooker Soda Bread With Spring Herbs Recipe

One tip that really makes a difference is to crumple up the parchment paper and then straighten it out before you use it so it