Go Back

Irish Soda Bread

Mix the dough, briefly knead the dough, bake the dough and schmear it with buttermilk and butter while it's baking, then eat the bread. It's best warm from the oven.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 2 minutes
Course Breakfast, Dessert

Ingredients
  

  • 4 - 41/2 c AP flour
  • 1/4 c sugar
  • 1 tsp Kosher salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 T baking powder
  • 6 T softened butter
  • 1 large egg beaten
  • 1 3/4 c buttermilk
  • 1/4 c melted butter for brushing on the loaf while it bakes
  • 1/4 c buttermilk mixed with the melted butter for brushing on the loaf while it bakes

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a cast iron skillet with butter or lay parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
  • Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
  • Work the softened butter into the flour with your fingers until the butter is dispersed through the flour.
  • Make a well in the middle of the mixture and add the beaten egg and the buttermilk. Mix well with a spoon until the dough is stiff and hard to stir.
  • Throw some flour on your counter, turn the sticky, shaggy dough from the bowl onto the counter and knead just until it comes together into a ball.
  • Don't over-knead because the final product will be dense. Shaggy is good. 
  • Form the dough into a ball and place on your desired cooking apparatus. Score the top with an "X". Don't go too deep or the bread will splay open while it cooks. The "X" helps the heat get into the bread while it cooks and tradition says it might be a nod to the Christain cross. 
    Unbaked Irish Soda Bread in a cast-iron skillet
  • Brush the dough with the buttermilk and butter mixture.
    Brushing Irish Soda Bread with Buttermilk and butter
  • Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes and brush with the buttermilk/butter mixture at 10 - 15-minute intervals until you have used all the buttermilk and butter.
  • Cool, 10 - 20 minutes. Best served warm. Store leftovers in a ziplock baggie.

Notes

Irish soda bread is a sweet, cake-like bread born in rural Ireland. The acid in the buttermilk reacts with the baking soda and produces carbon dioxide which makes the bread rise. Kefir can be substituted for the buttermilk. Since it is sweet (if you add sugar), it takes sweet add-ins like raisins or currants well. This is an easy recipe, you can make this bread!
For the last 2 minutes of cooking, I shifted the heat source to the top of the oven and turned it to 500 to get the dark brown crust on the loaf pictured. I like the buttermilk/butter coating to get crunchy.
Keyword Bread