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. 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.
This recipe was fantastic! I made it for Saint Patty’s day and it was pretty easy and delicious, thanks!!
Great to hear that you loved it!
I make Irish soda bread every St Patrick’s day and have always used a different blogger’s recipe but decided to try yours this year. Absolutely delicious. & If you haven’t tried toasting it, you must! Made the recipe as is with no changes and baked for 55 minutes. Might not be able to wait another year to make this!
That’s amazing, Sarah! Thank you so sharing.
Great recipe!! Although I’m a fairly big baker, this was my first time making Irish Soda Bread. I followed the directions exactly, without any changes; the dough was rather sticky and wet so I was a little concerned, but it baked up perfectly!! I baked it in a 3 1/2 quart Dutch oven lined with parchment paper and no lid. It was loved by everyone at our St. Patrick’s Day table yesterday. Thank you, Natasha for a delicious and easy recipe!!! It is definitely a keeper!!
It was honestly perfect. I used both raisins and cranberries and was very careful to not overmix. That made it incredibly soft. Highly recommend.
I’m so happy you enjoyed this bread!
This was easy and delicious as are many of your recipes! I didn’t have a cast iron skillet, So I use my dutch oven, it turned out wonderful! I had to add a little extra flour as I boiled my craisons first to pump them up and the extra liquid made it STICKY. My family really enjoyed it and WHEN I make it again I will dust the top with a little sanding sugar just to give it a hint more sweetness.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Catherine!
This recipe was very easy, and the results were fantastic! Thank you for sharing.
I added caraway seeds and chopped dried figs because I didn’t have raisins. I also accidentally forgot the egg, but it still turned out great! I love the crust, it was crunchy and browned beautifully. Scrumptious loaf that I might make throughout the year and not just for St. Paddy’s!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Leya! Thank you for your wonderful review.
Delicious! I followed the recipe, minus not having a cast-iron pan. Instead, an uncovered clay bread pan was used, and the results were the best Irish Soda Bread we’ve ever had!
So delicious!! This is a wonderful, easy to follow recipe! My family loved it so much, I ended up having to make 2 more! I used kefir bc I already had. I made first one with cranberries, and other two with golden raisins. Yummy! Thank you, Natasha!
That’s wonderful, Jeanine! Thank you for sharing.
This turned out awesome! Thank you. Everyone loved it. I will definitely make this again!
So glad to hear that, George!
Made Irish soda bread for the first time and so glad I selected this recipe. My husband and I both said it was a keeper!
Made your Irish Soda Bread recipe minus the raisins.
It was the best and my family thoroughly enjoyed with our corned beef, colcannon and roasted carrots.
Thank you, so glad you enjoyed it!
Daughter made this for us. Replaced 1/4 of the flour with whole wheat and upped the buttermilk to just under two cups. Dough was exceedingly sticky, just a warning, as you’ll want to liberally dust it with flour. Skipped the raisins out of preference. This is the BEST soda bread I have ever had. Tender and sweet. Going to make this again soon!
Hello Laura, that’s nice to know that youn were able to replace it with whole wheat flour and you enjoyed it!
Delicious bread! Very moist and full of flavour. I didn’t have buttermilk so I added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to 2% milk and let it sit for about ten minutes before making the bread. Turned out perfectly! Thank you for all of your fabulous recipes!!
Great to hear that the substitution worked well!
I made this today. I could not find currants anywhere, so used golden raisins. I didn’t have a 10″ cast iron skillet so used 2 smaller ones. Other than that followed the recipe exactly and everyone said it was the best Irish soda bread they ever had. Thanks!!
Thank you for sharing that with us, Patti and for the awesome feedback too!
Delicious! This recipe is a keeper. It works really well baked in a cast iron skillet.
Thank you for the feedback, Karen!
Hi Natasha, my bread tastes good but it came out pretty flat. The dough was really wet so I had to add some extra flour. I was afraid to add too much though and actually ending up almost pouring the dough into the iron skillet because it was too wet to form into a squishy ball. Did I handle the butter too much when I was trying to form crumbs? Or something else? I live in Florida but the humidity is relatively low today (as compared to our usual 105%🥵) if that makes a difference. Thanks!
Hi Debra, thank you for sharing this with me, I’m so glad the flavor was still on point. But it seems you are experiencing a common wet dough Irish bread issue. Humidity may be a contributing factor, but it is also so hard to say exactly what is causing that without being there. You may need to adjust liquid content by reducing it slightly, more gently & quickly handle incorporating the butter since that can affect the rise and outcome. Ensure your flour measurement is accurate. I hope these tips are helpful.
Best soda bread, ever !!!!
And so easy to make …
Thank you for sharing
Tastes GREAT! I served it with home made honey butter – perfection!
Tastes great! I derived it with homemade honey butter – perfection!
The bread came out great! Thank you for this easy recipe. Have you tried this recipe with a 1 for 1 gluten-free flour?
Great to hear that, Cathy! I haven’t tested that to advise but let’s see if others can share their experience.