Soda Quick Bread Recipes

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!

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.

Irish Soda Bread With Rosemary & Lemon

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.

Amazingly Easy 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!

Easy Irish 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.

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?)

Original Irish Soda Bread Recipe From Ireland

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.

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!

Simple Irish Soda Bread Recipe {maker's Mix Up}

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!

Quick 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:

Irish Soda Bread Recipe (quick Bread With Raisins)

Have you got your hands on a copy of my meal plan yet? If not CLICK HERE to download a copy of my FREE 4 Week Easy Dinners Meal Plan today!The world’s best No Yeast Bread – Irish Soda Bread! Irish bread is unique because it’s a 4 ingredient, 5 minute recipemade without yeast but still has a proper crumb just like “real” bread.

You don’t need to be Irish to make this.😉 You just need to be a fellow Carb Monster! Rustic flavour, great crust, keeps well for days. Slather with butter, mop your plate clean, dunk into soups – or Irish Beef and Guinness Stew!

Forget the smell. What about the moment when you cut yourself a thick slice of warm homemade bread, slather it with butter then take a big fat, satisfying bite of it??

Skillet Soda Bread Recipe

It’s called Irish Soda Bread because it’s made with baking soda instead of yeast. Because of this, it’smore dense than your everyday white sandwich bread.

That’s right! This is a traditional Irish Soda Bread we’re making here. For one thing, this bread isbetter without egg and butter. Egg makes the bread less moist, and the butter made the crumb less tender (I made side by side versions just to be sure).

And this bread has enough flavour to eat plain with just lashings of butter so you don’t need extra flavourings like sugar and spices – though you can if you want.

Irish Soda Bread: Quick Bread Finish Temps

Irish Soda bread is a mix / 10 second knead / shape / bake job. It’s very simple and quite forgiving but I do have a few tips to ensure yours is a success even if you’re a bread first timer.

As with every dough recipe, even simple No Yeast flatbreads, the exact amount of flour required will differ for everyone, even from day to day.Different flour brands, humidity, warmth, coldness of your work surface – all these impact the exact amount of flour required.

It’s better to have a stickier dough and add more flour as required, rather than a dry dough which is hard to salvage. SoI start with 1.75 cups, then measure out another 1/4 cup for dusting/kneading and just use what’s required.

Easy Soda Bread Recipe

This version I’m sharing today is a plain traditional Irish bread. I say it’s “plain” but it’s certainly not flavourless.You’ll find yourself devouring it with nothing more than butter!But it’s also a terrific to add flavourings, some common variations include:

This is such a greatlast minute emergency bread.It’s so quick to make, but you won’t feel like you’re “just making do” just because it’s a no yeast bread. It is a great bread as it is.

OR use it for toast in the morning. Make Cheesy Garlic Bread, or big Jewish deli-stylePastrami sandwiches.Just use this as you would any other bread – except you have the added bonus of smug satisfaction knowing you made it yourself!!

Simple & Delicious 5 Minute Club Soda Bread

RECIPE VIDEO ABOVE.The world's best bread made without yeast! Rustic, hearty bread made using baking soda for rise instead of yeast but still has an aerated, chewy crumb like normal bread. No rise time! Traditional Irish recipe – no egg or butter, it's better without (read in post). use a combination of white and whole wheat flour for best flavour.

1. Flour – wholemeal flour gives this bread a slightly nutty flavour which is lovely. Coarse or fine ground. Can be made with just plain/all purpose flour but flavour is more plain. Don’t bother using bread flour – it’s wasted on this no yeast bread.

2. Baking soda – also known as bicarbonate soda (bi-carb), 3x more powerful than baking powder. Stronger rise power required for this no-yeast bread.

Cheese And Herb Irish Soda Bread

4. Dough stickiness – use more flour as required. The trick is to use just enough flour to make the dough manageable because stickier dough = more moist bread.

5.