Irish Soda Bread is a quick bread that does not require any yeast. Instead, all of its leavening comes from baking soda and buttermilk. This Irish soda bread recipe is my grandmother’s and has been cherished in my family for years. It’s dense, yet soft and has the most incredible crusty exterior. Buttermilk and cold butter are the secret to its delicious success!
Welcome to my favorite Irish Soda Bread recipe. I shared this no yeast bread recipe on my blog a few years ago and decided to revisit with fresh new pictures and a video tutorial. This recipe is my grandmother’s. She passed away in 2011, 2 weeks before I started this food blog. I dedicated my 1st cookbook to her. Full of energy and the creator of the best homemade pie crust on earth, she would be in her 90s today. St. Patrick’s Day is her birthday.
Irish Soda Bread is a Quick Bread
Does the thought of homemade bread send you running for the hills? Sometimes homemade bread feels daunting, but you’re in luck today. Irish soda bread is a quick bread made with baking soda, not yeast. Like my easy no yeast bread, this is a shortcut bread that doesn’t skimp on flavor. (If you want a yeast bread, I recommend my sandwich bread recipe!)
- What’s the texture like? The best Irish soda bread, like this recipe, has a golden brown crust with a dense, tight crumb. The bread isn’t heavy, it’s actually quite tender and soft inside. The crust is nice and crisp when it comes out of the oven and becomes a little chewy on day 2 and 3. It’s so good.
My grandmother’s Irish soda bread contains some sugar, but it’s not overly sweet. It’s a wonderful companion for savory dinners like hearty stew or you can serve it with butter, jam, and/or cheese. The raisins are optional, but Grandma would never let you skip them.
Video Tutorial: Homemade Irish Soda Bread
Overview: How to Make Irish Soda Bread
The full printable recipe is below. Irish soda bread dough comes together in about 10 minutes. You need buttermilk, egg, flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and butter.
- Whisk buttermilk and 1 egg together. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in another bowl.
- Cut cold butter into the flour mixture. Like scones and pie crust, cutting cold butter into the flour is a key step. Coating the flour in cold butter guarantees a lovely flaky texture. You can use a fork, your hands, or a pastry cutter. Add the wet ingredients.
- Bring the dough together with your hands. Using a very sharp knife, score the dough. This allows the center to bake.
- Bake until golden brown.
Buttermilk is the Secret
Irish soda bread only requires a few ingredients, including buttermilk. Buttermilk reacts with the baking soda to provide the bread’s leavening. It also adds wonderful flavor! We use buttermilk for the same reasons in my regular no yeast bread, too.
Feel free to Skip the Egg
Irish soda bread can be made with or without an egg. 1 egg adds richness and density. Feel free to skip it to make a slightly lighter loaf. No other changes necessary, simply leave out the egg.
3 Success Tips
- Don’t over-work the dough. It’s supposed to look a little shaggy.
- Score the top of the dough with an “X” before baking. This helps the center bake through.
- You can bake Irish soda bread on a baking sheet, in a baking pan, or in a cast iron skillet. I recommend a cast iron skillet because it helps guarantee a super crispy crust. Here’s how to keep your cast iron cookware seasoned.
If you’re baking for St. Patrick’s Day, you’ll love my Guinness Brownies, Baileys and Coffee Cupcakes, Guinness Chocolate Cake, Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes, Lucky Charms Treats, and shamrock St. Patrick’s Day Cookies, too.
PrintGrandma’s Irish Soda Bread
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Irish
Description
Irish Soda Bread is a quick bread that does not require any yeast. Instead, all of its leavening comes from baking soda and buttermilk. This Irish Soda Bread recipe is my grandmother’s and has been cherished in my family for years. It’s dense, yet soft and has the most incredible crusty exterior.
Ingredients
- 1 and 3/4 cups (420ml) buttermilk*
- 1 large egg (optional, see note)
- 4 and 1/4 cups (531g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for your hands and counter
- 3 Tablespoons (38g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 Tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed*
- optional: 1 cup (150g) raisins
Instructions
- Preheat oven & pan options: Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). There are options for the baking pan. Use a regular baking sheet and line with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat (bread spreads a bit more on a baking sheet), or use a seasoned 10-12 inch cast iron skillet (no need to preheat the cast iron unless you want to), or grease a 9-10 inch cake pan or pie dish. You can also use a 5 quart (or higher) dutch oven. Grease or line with parchment paper. If using a dutch oven, bake the bread with the lid off.
- Whisk the buttermilk and egg together. Set aside. Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter, a fork, or your fingers. Mixture is very heavy on the flour, but do your best to cut in the butter until the butter is pea-sized crumbs. Stir in the raisins. Pour in the buttermilk/egg mixture. Gently fold the dough together until dough it is too stiff to stir. Pour crumbly dough onto a lightly floured work surface. With floured hands, work the dough into a ball as best you can, then knead for about 30 seconds or until all the flour is moistened. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour.
- Transfer the dough to the prepared skillet/pan. Using a very sharp knife or bread lame, score the dough with a slash or X about 1/2 inch deep. (“Score” = shallow cut.)
- Bake until the bread is golden brown and center appears cooked through, about 45-55 minutes. Loosely tent the bread with aluminum foil if you notice heavy browning on top. For a more accurate test, the bread is done when an instant-read thermometer reads the center of the loaf as 195°F (90°C).
- Remove from the oven and allow bread to cool for 10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm, at room temperature, or toasted with desired toppings/spreads.
- Cover and store leftover bread at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. We usually wrap it tightly in aluminum foil for storing.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Baked and cooled bread freezes well up to 3 months. Freeze the whole loaf or individual slices. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then reheat as desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Cast Iron Skillet, 9-inch Round Cake Pan, 9-inch Pie Dish, Dutch Oven, or Baking Sheet with Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Pastry Cutter | Bread Lame | Instant-Read Thermometer
- Baking Pan: There are options for the baking pan (see Special Tools Note above). You can use a lined large baking sheet (with or without a rim), a seasoned 10-12 inch cast iron skillet, or a greased or lined 9-10 inch cake pan or pie dish. I don’t recommend a loaf pan because the loaf may not bake evenly inside. This dough is best as a flatter loaf.
- Buttermilk: Using cold buttermilk is best. Buttermilk is key to the bread’s flavor, texture, and rise. The bread will not rise without it. If you don’t have any buttermilk on hand, you can make a homemade “DIY” version. Whole milk or 2% milk is best, though lower fat or nondairy milks work in a pinch. Add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup. Add enough cold milk to make 1 and 3/4 cups. Whisk together, then let sit for 5 minutes before using in the recipe.
- Egg: 1 egg adds richness and density. Feel free to skip it to make a slightly lighter loaf. No other changes necessary, simply leave out the egg.
- Cold Butter: The colder the butter, the less sticky the dough will be. Make sure it’s very cold, even frozen cubed butter is great.
- Smaller Loaves: You can divide this dough up to make smaller loaves. The bake time will be shorter, depending how large the loaves are. An instant read thermometer will be especially helpful. Bake the loaves until an instant-read thermometer reads the center of the loaf as 195°F (90°C).
First time I have ever baked pretty much anything, bread terrifies me. This worked awesome super yummy! Scone / biscuit like taste. Really good with honey & butter. I’m thinking stew tonight and with the left overs a biscuit and gravy type breakfast! Thanks so much for this!
I put a pint of blueberries in the dough instead of raisins and it turned out to be even better than my first batch where I used raisins…so delicious! (I also skip the sugar, both times) Thanks for the recipe, Sally! Love it!
made this recipe to go with my slow cooker guinness beef stew, the whole family loved it, the first 5 minutes of our meal consisted of nothing but mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm. It was easy to make simple ingredients, and quick.
I have just used your recipe. I believe your metric conversion for flour is incorrect. Using all the metric measures the dough is far too wet and unworkable. I had to add a lot of flour. 4.25 American cups equates to 637.5g. The final product is just cooling – smells good – fingers crossed!
my bread is totally watery! could not cross cut it! after 20 minutes in the oven, i cuttet it right now. so angry, i think it won’t be good and it’ll go in the trash. what a waste of time, money and FLOUR! really hard to find here during corona time…
Made this bread and fell in love with it! Has a very scone like taste. 5 adults finished almost the entire loaf with dinner! Nobody even had the dessert, just another piece of this great bread!
Made this with baking powder. It rose slightly as it was baked. Very nice.
Absolutely delicious! Great fasting bread!
Perfection! First time making Irish Soda Bread and followed your recipe exactly. I always greatly appreciate your helpful notes and video. My husband is thrilled that he no longer has to wait until St. Patrick’s Day for this treat.
Hi Sally, thanks for your recipe. I am horrible baker, and this came out super tasty! However, I have made it twice once using measuring cups and once by weighing the ingredients, and both times the dough was super super wet to the point where I had to add almost another cup of flour. What am I doing wrong? Thank you!
Hi Aila, The dough is supposed to be pretty sticky, but if it seems stickier than what you see in the photos and video tutorial, feel free to add a bit more flour as you have been doing. Flouring your hands helps also. If it’s turning out well then you aren’t doing anything wrong 🙂
This recipe is a keeper. I made it today while I was cooking a big lunch of octopodi stifado, pourgouri, and a salad. I had a lot to do and thought I might have bitten off more than I could chew by adding homemade bread when I had never made bread before. But no, it turned out amazing. I tented about 25 minutes into the baking and it was crisp and brown and perfect after 45 minutes just as you said. I did do the super easy DIY buttermilk and I forgot the egg altogether. Still awesome bread. Thank you so much for your wonderful blog. I have made a few things from your blog and they always turn out great.
I love this recipe..its much more moist and heartier than the normal soda bread recipe..the egg gives it more fullness or body..thankyou ..your gramma sure did know how to cook great!I like to add dried sweetened cranberries..yum!,so many variations so little time lol!
I love the flavor of this bread. I’ve made the no yeast bread successfully a couple of times, so I figured I would give this one a go. I had some dried fruits that I added, and I loved the taste! I’ll definitely include this in my bread making rotation!
I make this recipe all the time! I always add a little brown sugar and do an egg wash over it, and it comes out perfect!
Our first attempt at soda bread and it came out wonderfully.
We baked it on a pizza stone, which gave a nice even brown to the bottom.
Great recipe. Added Walnuts and used mashed banana as I did not have sour cream, and reduced the sugar to under 100g in total. Perfectly moist and wonderful at teatime.
I found the taste of this to be delightful, but personally think the egg made it too heavy. I used exact measurements, making sure to level off my measuring cups, and it came out doughy. Maybe I misinterpreted the recipe, but I think cutting all the way through made a huge difference rather than just making slits in the top. Might try again.
My thanks to your Granny for her recipe. Make the bread regularly, and just love it,especially in these difficult times, and can’t shop.
Very very good. I was a little afraid of missing the recipe but it was a success. thank you for sharing with us this beautiful bread recipe.
I loved your recipe! Thank you so much for sharing it! Warm regards!
Absolutely Love the bread! Is it possible to prepare everything up to putting the loaf in the oven, but freezing it instead, then thawing and baking later?
Hi George, so glad you enjoy this recipe! I can’t see why not. Thaw in the refrigerator then bake as directed (cold). The bread will take a little longer to bake since it’s cold and may taste even denser since it wasn’t baked right away.
Omigosh! I decided to try this tonight. Seemed like great comfort food during “stay-at-home” coronavirus times. It is delicious … and just what the doctor ordered. Seriously, I’m not the best baker ever and expected to royally mess this up. It turned out perfect. (It must be foolproof.) Give it a try!
Thank you for posting your Irish Soda Bread receipt. It was fun to make and turned out looking like the loaf I bought at the store. I can’t wait until tomorrow when I have a slice for breakfast. I wanted to add a picture cause it looks so good. Yum
Delicious! Mine needed a bit more time in the oven, about 50-55 mins, tented at 40. Flavour and texture were great, I used a tbsp of caraway seeds instead of raisins because I was pairing with corned beef and cabbage and it turned out great.
Followed the recipe exactly as written. I used my hands to blend in the butter and it worked amazingly well. I can’t believe how easy this was to make. Baked it in my cast iron pan and it browned perfectly in my oven. I didn’t need to cover it with foil. So delicious!!!! Thank you for this wonderfully easy and delicious recipe!
Great,and so easy to make . I didn’t have butter milk only skim milk so I attempted to make my own buttermilk using lemon juice from a fresh lemon .The bread turned out so much better than I could of ever hoped for.
Thank You
Awesome recipe! This is the first time I have ever made the bread and it was a hit! Thanks for sharing!
My son and I made this bread today for a school assignment. (Food/recipe linked to European ancestry)… It is so delicious, thank you! It’s like a big scone…Lovely. I think it would also be wonderful with anise seed.
Hi Sally:
I would love to make this soda bread. My other soda bread recipe, I make in a 8″ round pan and it comes out beautifully. Do you think that I can use the 8″ pan for this recipe?
Thank you,
Mary
It’s on the smaller side, but if you shape this dough to be a little smaller (and taller), it should be fine. Score it deep enough. The bake time will be longer since it will be taller.
I love all of your bread recipes and have already made a bunch quite successfully! So thank you!
But for some reason whenever I bake Irish soda bread, the loaf always splits down near the bottom and then it bakes like a raised mushroom. While it tastes great, it’s not so pretty and I hesitate to make it for others.
I make sure I have no weak seams when I shape it prior to baking and I score the top with an X. I bake mine on parchment lined cookie sheet.
What am I doing wrong? I even searched the internet and cannot find an answer. Thank you.
Hi Mary, The bread will crack open around the sides (happened to me once!) if the scoring isn’t deep enough. If you try the bread again, score a little deeper.
Ok I will take your advice…making another likely tomorrow with my leftover buttermilk! Will let you know if I am successful. Thanks so much. Oh and I ordered the malt barley syrup online – cannot wait till it arrives. Going to make your bagel recipe!
Made this bread and it is wonderful. When I get low in bread I know what recipe to use as I don’t like taking an hour to make bread. Next time I will make cinnamon raisin.
Love your website, use it often.
Rosie
Hi Sally, I don’t have a buttermilk. Can i use an Almond milk instead? Thanks
I made buttermilk with almond milk and it worked just fine! I put 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice in a measuring cup, added almond milk to measure 1-3/4 cups; stir and let rest for 5 minutes. Then I added the egg, whisked it all together. Then just followed the recipe. I also used white whole wheat flour because that’s all I have. Worked great and tasted delicious!