Traditional Irish Soda Bread Recipe Buttermilk Caraway Seeds

Sweet Irish soda bread is the perfect treat to make for Saint Patrick's day. Forget the green desserts, your guests will LOVE this authentic sweet bread served warm and slathered with lots of butter!

Sweet Irish soda bread is a little different than Authentic Irish soda bread which is made with only four ingredients. Soft pastry or cake flour, buttermilk, salt, and baking soda. This simple bread is made to be served as part of a meal like a hearty Irish stew.

Sweet Irish soda bread has more ingredients like eggs, butter, sugar, dried fruits and seeds added so it's more of a dessert served on its own.

Mostly Traditional Irish Soda Bread

This sweet Irish soda bread recipe is straight from Grandma's recipe tin. Not my Grandma, my producer, Emily's Grandma! Cool huh! Nothing like recipes handed down through the generations. I feel like they always just taste better!

My mom has made this Irish soda bread every St. Patrick’s Day since I can remember. We love eating it with corned beef and cabbage or Irish stew. This recipe has been passed down from my great grandmother, whose family lived in Ireland and immigrated to America.

But when Emily brought this sweet Irish soda bread over that she and her mom made, I was sold! SO GOOD! Soft and tender, a little sweet and a great crunchy crust. Toasted with a little butter and I was in heaven.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread — Hungry Enough To Eat Six

Sweet Irish soda bread has a few more ingredients in it than traditional Irish soda bread. Eggs, butter, sugar, buttermilk, salt, flour, baking soda, and baking powder make this bread so light, it's almost like a scone.

The only other thing you really need to make sweet Irish soda bread is a cast iron pan or dutch oven. The heavy metal really gives the bread that beautiful crusty crust that makes it so delicious!

This is not 100% necessary but a cheese grater is going to really be helpful. Use a cheese grater to work your cold butter into the flour mixture so it doesn't get warm. Cold butter is very important for tender Irish soda bread.

Irish Soda Bread With Caraway

Sweet Irish soda bread is meant to be enjoyed the day it is baked but it will keep at room temperature for up to two days. After that, it starts to dry out.

There are a lot of versions of Irish soda bread out there that stem from the original four-ingredient recipe. This sweet version would not be considered healthy but there is whole wheat Irish soda bread that is considered very healthy because it doesn't have any butter, eggs, or sugar and has whole wheat flour which is great for digestion.

Use a scale to weigh your ingredients (including liquids) unless otherwise instructed (Tablespoons, teaspoons, pinch etc). Metric measurements are available in the recipe card. Scaled ingredients are much more accurate than using cups and help ensure the success of your recipe. 

Irish Soda Bread Recipe From Ireland: Easy & So Authentic! Baking A Moment

Practice Mise en Place (everything in it's place). Measure out your ingredients ahead of time and have them ready before you start mixing to reduce the chances of accidentally leaving something out.

Try to use the same ingredients as the recipe calls for. If you must make a substitution, be aware that the recipe may not come out the same. I try to list substitutions where possible.

Serving: 1 serving | Calories: 304 kcal | Carbohydrates: 47 g | Protein: 6 g | Fat: 11 g | Saturated Fat: 6 g | Cholesterol: 60 mg | Sodium: 156 mg | Potassium: 180 mg | Fiber: 1 g | Sugar: 18 g | Vitamin A: 348 IU | Calcium: 78 mg | Iron: 2 mgTRADITIONAL IRISH SODA BREAD — This Traditional Irish soda bread is made with just a few simple ingredients but bakes up into a beautiful, bakery quality loaf.

Caraway And Cheddar Irish Soda Bread Recipe

I’ve tried several recipes for Irish soda bread, and this Traditional Irish Soda Bread is by far my favorite. It bakes up into such a beautiful loaf that I can hardly believe it isn’t a yeast bread.

Even better, it’s so incredibly easy to make, especially if you’re impatient like me and don’t want to wait around forthe dough to rise.

I was totally shocked at how good this was. Made this yesterday for St. Patrick’s day and was a little nervous by the short ingredient list. No butter? But it was amazing & everyone had more than one piece! ~ Lindsey

Grandma's Sweet Irish Soda Bread Recipe

The trick (or at least I’m assuming it’s the trick) is baking the bread with an inverted cake pan on top. I don’t know what kind of scientific baking magic that inverted pan creates.

I just know this recipe never fails me and I get a beautiful, bakery quality loaf of Irish soda bread every time.

Like so many delicious breads, Irish Soda Bread is theproduct of a time when fancy ingredients weren’t available or affordable, so it’s made with only the most basic ingredients.

Easy No Yeast Irish Soda Bread

I have made this recipe three times. I have made it for our card group for a St. Patrick’s Day potluck with and without raisins. It was a big hit. Love the crispy crust. ~ Olivia

For some reason, I tend to only make this breadaround St. Patrick’s Day, but it’s so simple and deliciousI reallyought to make it more often.

I made this bread this evening and it did not disappoint!! It makes a beautiful bread and tastes great!! I will be making this quite a bit! ~ Lori

Caraway Soda Bread Recipe

Gorgeous bread – delicious! This is the second time I’ve made it and sent the recipe to a friend who is going to make it this weekend. ~ Tera

I just finished baking this bread. I toasted some dry rosemary and put that with the dry ingredients. Smells amazing and it turned out so pretty. Thank you for the recipe. It was super easy. ~ Jaime

I added about 1/3 cup sugar because I like it with a bit of sweetness. This came out PERFECT. Thank you!!! I will be using this every time!! ~ Amber

Irish Soda Bread With Currants And Apricots

This traditional Middle Eastern yeast bread is grilled then slathered with butter and sprinkled with garlic salt for a savory side dish that is hard to resist.

These soft, tender biscuits are loaded with cheddar cheese, chives and a hint of garlic. So easy to make, they're a perfect addition to almost any meal.

This easy yeast bread is sweetened with honey and loaded with oats. Which makes this no-knead honey oat bread perfect for toast, sandwiches and snacking.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.

Irish Soda Bread With Raisins (no Yeast, No Knead)

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.

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.

Irish Soda Bread — Savvy Italian

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.

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.

Irish Soda Bread: 3 Variations

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.

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.

Irish Soda Bread With Raisins And Caraway Seeds Recipe

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