Irish Soda Bread is the easiest bread you’ll make – no proofing or kneading required and the dough comes together in 5 minutes. Soda bread has a soft and tender crumb with a Biscuit-like texture.
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We love freshly baked bread, from Banana Bread to Homemade Focaccia and Cornbread. If you are a fan of easy bread recipes, this Irish Soda Bread is a must-try!
You’ll Love this Soda Bread!
I fell in love with Soda Bread the first time I tried it. Its lightly sweet crumb reminded me of our Paska Easter Bread and Hot Cross Buns, but it’s amazing how fast and easy it was to make a traditional Soda Bread.
What is Irish Soda Bread?
This Irish-American Soda Bread is traditionally baked for St. Patrick’s Day. It is a quick bread that uses Baking Soda (a.k.a. Sodium Bicarbonate) as the leavening to make it rise. Unlike traditional yeast bread, there is no proofing or rising time. Once the dough comes together, you score the top and bake right away.
Ingredients
We love adding raisins for the holidays, but the raisins are optional. If you want to make it without buttermilk, then kefir works just as well to activate the baking soda.
- Flour – all-purpose flour works best
- Sugar – 1/4 cup makes it a lightly sweet bread
- Salt – every good bread needs a fair amount
- Baking soda – leavening which makes the bread rise
- Butter – gives the bread a scone-like texture (use cold, unsalted)
- Buttermilk – activates the soda (use cold, low-fat)
- Egg – for a finer, richer crumb
- Raisins – optional and can be substituted for dried cranberries
Tips for the Best Soda Bread
- Do not over-mix – as with scones, the dough really just has to come together before baking.
- Sticky dough – the dough will feel sticky. Dust your work surface and hands with just enough flour to handle the dough.
- Cold ingredients – there’s no reason to bring ingredients to room temperature. Keep buttermilk, egg, and butter chilled.
- Generously grease the pan – buttering your cast-iron skillet before baking allows the bread to rise without sticking to the pan.
- Cool on a rack – Once out of the oven, transfer the soda bread to a rack to cool so it doesn’t steam and soften on the bottom.
How to Make Soda Bread
You’ll be amazed how fast and easy it is to form a loaf of this Irish-American Soda Bread.
- Prep – Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 10″ cast-iron pan with butter.
- Whisk dry ingredients – in a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda.
- Add butter and raisins – cut butter into dice then work it into the flour mixture with clean dry fingertips until crumbs form. Stir in raisins.
- Buttermilk – In a large measuring cup, beat together buttermilk and 1 egg and pour into dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until moistened and the dough starts to come together.
- Form the loaf – transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, dust hands with flour, and form dough into a round loaf. If too sticky to handle, dust with flour.
- Bake – transfer dough to the buttered pan and score the top with a deep “X”. Bake at 375˚F for 50-55 minutes.
How to know when Soda Bread is done baking? We bake for 50-55 minutes. When you tap the loaf it should sound hollow inside.
Common Questions:
You can omit the raisins, or even substitute them for dried cranberries or other bits of dried fruit like chopped apricots.
The buttermilk activates the baking soda, making the bread rise. You can substitute the buttermilk with a low fat plain Kefir.
It tastes similar to scones or biscuits but is very lightly sweet.
We love to serve soda bread is delicious served as a side with Irish butter and honey, or jam. It’s a lightly sweet bread so it pairs well with coffee or tea.
Scoring the top gives it extra surface area to brown and crisp.
Over-mixing or over-kneading the dough can make it tough. The less you handle it, the softer the bread will be.
Soda bread freezes really well. If you freeze it the day it’s baked (be sure it’s cooled to room temperature first), it will taste great thawed and toasted.
This Irish Soda Bread recipe is sure to become a holiday favorite for you. It’s so easy and you’ll impress everyone.
More St Patrick’s Day Recipes
If you love this Soda Bread, then you won’t want to miss these St. Patrick’s Day-inspired recipes.
- Green Smoothie Bowl – perfect for a St. Patty’s breakfast
- Zeppole – a special treat loved by all
- Spinach Artichoke Dip – your new favorite dip
- Guacamole Stuffed Deviled Eggs – you’ll love the green
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts – crispy with bacon
- Broccoli Apple Salad – with creamy dressing
Irish Soda Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1/4 cup more for dusting
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, plus 1/2 Tbsp to grease pan
- 1 3/4 cups cold lowfat buttermilk or kefir
- 1 large egg, cold
- 1 cup raisins or dried cranberries, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 375˚F. Generously grease a 10” cast-iron skillet with 1/2 Tbsp butter.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Cut butter into small pieces and use your fingers to work the butter into the flour until crumbs form stir in the raisins, breaking up any clumps of raisins. Make a well in the center.
- In a large measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and egg then add this mixture into the flour mixture. Use a wooden spoon and mix just until lightly moistened and dough barely starts to come together.
- Transfer to a floured surface and use floured hands to shape the dough just until it forms into a round loaf. It should be shaggy. If it’s too sticky to handle, dust lightly with flour. Do not over-mix or bread will be tough.
- Transfer to the buttered pan, use a knife to score the top with a large and deep “X”. Bake in the center of your preheated oven at 375 for 50-55min. When you tap on the bread, it should sound hollow inside. Transfer bread to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy within 2 days of making it and refrigerate leftovers up to a week.
Nutrition Per Serving
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Absolutely scrumptious. The only thing I did differently was that I soaked the raisins & I used a pyrex pie plate to bake it because I don’t have a cast iron skillet. I brought 2 to a club coffee hour and they both disappeared. I like the basic recipe so much that I’m looking forward to experimenting with it – maybe adding cheeses, veggies, etc.
That’s wonderful! I’m so happy you enjoy this recipe. Thank you for the review and I would love it if you come back and share your experiments!
Hi Natasha, this recipe is almost identical to the one I make. I got the recipe from an Irish friend many years ago. Everyone loves it and remarks on how moist it is. I soak the raisins in warm water for 30 minutes and drain well. Mine has 1 tsp soda, salt, and baking powder, slightly more flour and sugar. Those are the only differences. I cannot use cast iron due to arthritis. Any replacement suggestions?
Kathy
Hi Kathy! I can’t say for sure without testing it myself, but you can also bake it on a baking sheet without a cast iron pan, and it will work, but it will be slightly more flat.
I would like to make individual breads. I have a 6″ cast iron pan. Would I cut the recipe in 1/4 ‘s.
HI Jo, I honestly haven’t tested that so I’m not sure how it would bake up or how long it would take to bake as 1/4 of the recipe. If you experiment, please let me know how it goes.
Your Irish Soda Bread is 100% right on and delicious! I’ve been trying to find a good recipe for years, and yours is it. I’ve been to Ireland over a dozen times and could never get it right! Everything you do is amazing!
Thank you very much!
Hello Marie, that is so inspiring for me. Thank you so much for your kind words and good feedback, glad to hear that you found your new go-to recipe!
The reason you score the bread with a cross is to let the nasty little spirits out! Like most things Irish, soda bread has it’s own fables.
Needs Caraway seeds. Those are in traditional Irish Soda Bread!
Hello Natasha,
I was wondering which brand of kefir do you use?
Hi Lina, the one that is usually available in my local grocery stores is Lifeway. I love when I can find a Lifeway organic kefir.
I made the entire recipe and it was delicious, but a bit too large for just two of us. Can this recipe be halved?
Hi Kathy, I haven’t tried that yet but I imagine that will work. If you click on the serving size in the recipe card, you can slide it up or down to scale the recipe ingredient lists. I hope that helps!
Wonderful recipe, however could you print ingredients then directions at beginning instead of after comments? Took too long to scroll down!
Hi Ann, We have a Jump to Recipe button at the top of the post to take you straight to the printable recipe card. I hope that helps.
Just have to tell you how much I enjoy watching your videos and I have made a lot of your recipes, most recent Strawberry Cake, delicious! I do have one slight problem, when watching the videos I’m trying to watch and write the amounts and ingredients and wind up replaying the video 10 times. LOL. Would be helpful to have a list of ingredients and quantities at the end of the video. Keep up the good work, and your upbeat personality, so enlightening at this time of COVID.
Thanks for your good feedback, Gail. You can see every recipe on my website, you can also click Jump to recipe and click print to save it as pdf. I hope that helps!
Hi, Love Irish Soda Bread and look forward to trying your recipe. Going to try it in my cast iron Dutch oven, minus the lid of course. It is a bit smaller in diameter but hoping it will work out. Thanks for all the many hours of enjoyment making your wonderful recipes.
Have a great Day!
Ruth
You’re welcome! I hope you love this recipe!
I made mine in a 3 1/2 quart Dutch oven and it came out perfect. No lid.
Can this recipe be made by putting the loaf shaped dough on parchment paper, place in a heavy covered pot in the oven?
Hi Judy, I haven’t tried baking this in a dutch oven, although it may work like our dutch oven bread. I can’t say for sure without testing it through. You can also just bake it on a baking sheet without a cast iron pan and it will work, but it will be slightly more flat.
Thank you for this recipe!
I can’t wait to try it!!
I hope you enjoy it soon!
True Irish soda bread does
NOT have any sugar or indeed raisins in it.
You can of course add things that you want but it is not actually then real Irish soda bread. Try it without the sugar please so much nicer (and healthier)
I have added onions and chorizo for a different and absolutely yummy taste but NO SUGAR😁)
Hi Bron, this can definitely be a savory bread, but we enjoy it as a lightly sweet bread. This is the Irish American version of soda bread.
I made this yesterday (St. Patrick’s day) ..it was delicious. It did taste like a biscuit or a scone, but it was amazing warm with jam and butter! Next time, I’ll add cheddar or maybe jalapenos chopped up and cheddar. The variables on this bread are endless!
Sounds like a great plan and that is so true. That’s what makes this recipe amazing!
Does it have to be made in a cast iron? Can I bake in a regular cake pan?
Hi Smitha, you can use a baking sheet or baking pan if you don’t have a cast-iron skillet.
Hi, I made this using a Pyrex pie dish and it came out perfectly!
Hi, Natasha.
I’m so excited to make this bread:) I’m almost 9 months pregnant and craving raisins so bad! I saw your new recipe and it made my day. I have two quick questions before I bake it – can I use whole milk buttermilk? Also, can I bake it in Dutch oven with no lead? Thank you in advance 🙂
Hi Julia, congratulations! I hope the last stretch of pregnancy is blessed and beautiful for you. Whole buttermilk should work great for Irish soda bread.
Thank you so much, Natasha 🙂
I appreciate your quick response. What about baking it in the Dutch oven with no lead? Do you think it should work ok?
I haven’t tried it in a dutch oven like that to advise, if it’s oven-safe and has a thick bottom, I don’t see why not.
Thank you, Natasha 🙂
Mine came out great in a Dutch Oven with no lid. I lined it with parchment paper or you can grease the pan.
Outstanding Soda bread.
1st time making this style bread. My Irish husband couldn’t stop eating, says it the best he’s ever had!
Thank You for sharing!
I’m a hugh fan!
Awesome! I’m very happy to have read your comments and feedback. Thanks, Annie, for giving this recipe a great review.
Sooo good! I actually used it for strawberry shortcake! Perfect sweetness and texture. I didn’t add raisins. So it was yummy as a biscuit with dinner also. Then I made one with raisins. Made a delicious toast with butter and cinnamon sugar! I’ll do it again!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
Delicious! I used dried cranberries instead of raisins and added in some orange rind and a bit of freshly squeezed orange juice to the mixture. Yum!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Andrea!
Hi Natasha, can I use almond milk (mixed with vinegar) for buttermilk instead of the real buttermilk? I don’t want to get a whole quart and not use it all but I do have vinegar and almond milk always. Thanks!
Hi Andrea, I have not tested this but if you do try it please share and let me know how it turns out.