Soda Bread Recipe Easy Uk

Make delicious, crusty white bread in under 40 minutes – with no kneading, or proving! My Easy White Soda Bread is super simple to make and only uses 4 ingredients! Wonderful eaten just as it is or as an accompaniment to soups and stews.

I am hugely passionate about soda bread – not only does it taste amazing, but it’s also unbelievably quick and easy to make: no kneading, no proving and only 4 simple ingredients!

Easy

Regular bread is not hard to make, but it is time consuming… and as I’ve shared before, I’m really not a fan of kneading, or waiting around for bread to prove – I am an impatient soul.

Vegan Soda Bread

Soda bread, on the other hand, can be done and dusted in under 40 minutes – now that’s my kind of bread!

And I love how simple it is to make – just throw a few basic ingredients into a bowl, mix until you have a ball of dough, place on a baking tray, cut a cross and pop it in the oven.

Most soda bread recipes I’ve come across are for wholemeal soda bread, or contain a mix of wholemeal and white flours. And my previous recipes for soda bread have all been wholemeal.

Classic Irish Soda Bread Recipe

But there is absolutely no reason why you can’t make soda bread white! When I realised recently that I did not have a white soda bread recipe on my website, I knew I needed to create one!

I usually use plain flour when making soda bread, but for this recipe, I decided to experiment with using strong white bread flour. I made one loaf using strong white bread flour and one using plain (all purpose) white flour – the result really surprised me!

The loaf made with plain white flour was FAR BETTER than the one made using strong white bread flour. I would never have guessed that to be the case!

Vegan Soda Bread Recipe

So, if you make white soda bread, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND you use plain (all purpose) white flour rather than strong white bread flour.

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The first was you need to use more salt when making white soda bread (compared to making wholemeal soda bread) – this is because white flour has less flavour than wholemeal flour, so more salt is needed to stop white soda bread tasting bland.

Obviously, you can experiment with this to find the right level for your tastes, but I found I needed 1.5 tsp salt per loaf (350g flour) – this works out at less than ¼ of a teaspoon per (generous) portion, so it’s still not excessive (just don’t eat the whole loaf, OK?)

Traditional Irish Soda Bread Without Buttermilk

The other was that I needed to lower the oven temperature. I normally cook wholemeal soda bread at 220C (200C fan / gas mark 7 / 425F), but I found at this temperature the white soda bread got burnt on the outside before it was fully cooked in the middle, and the crust was far too crusty (this is coming from a girl who really likes crusty bread!). So I lowered the oven to 180C (160C fan/ gas mark 4 / 350F) and it came out just perfectly.

This is also a great temperature to cook stews, so you can have a stew cooking and just pop in a loaf of soda bread towards the end of the cooking time.

Spring

Absolutely! To make soda bread without buttermilk, simply use 200ml/7oz regular milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar also work) stirred into the milk to sour it…it will work just fine!

Courgette & Cheddar Soda Bread Recipe

No! It won’t work. You need to use baking soda (AKA bicarbonate of soda). It is the reaction between the acid in the buttermilk (or lemon juice/vinegar/yogurt) and the baking soda that helps the soda bread to rise.

Yes! Because soda bread cooks quickly, if you don’t cut the big cross, you are likely to find the outside of the soda bread is cooked before the middle of the soda bread. Cutting the deep cross on top helps the heat to penetrate right to the centre of the bread really fast.

Soda bread does not keep especially long (mostly because it is so delicious!) – it is best eaten on the day you make it. The day after it tastes OK, but is usually starting to go a little stale. If you do have some left over the next day, I suggest you toast it – toasted soda bread is delicious!

Soda

Treacle Soda Bread

Absolutely! Soda bread freezes really well. Just make sure you freeze it on the day you baked it and that it is completely cool and well wrapped (wrapping should be airtight – e.g. a freezer bag) before putting it in the freezer. You can freeze it as a whole loaf or cut it into slices first. It will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature and either eat it at room temperature or toast it.

Soda bread is delicious warm out of the oven, just as it is – or slathered with jam/honey/Nutella etc. It’s also wonderful with antipasti type foods, such as or cheese, olives and cold meats.

Alternatively, it is a brilliant accompaniment to soups and stews. I made this particular loaf especially to go with my Easy One Pot Irish Lamb Stew, but it would also go brilliantly with:

Easy Cheesy Jalapeno Soda Bread

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