Making Irish soda bread for St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite traditions, although it’s a bread you can make all year round. You don’t need any yeast to make it – it’s basically a quick bread that’s easy to mix up in a few minutes.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This weekend I made some Irish soda bread to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
What is Irish Soda Bread?
Irish soda bread is a quick bread made with baking soda instead of yeast. It also contains buttermilk which reacts with the baking soda.
Irish soda bread is so easy to make. If I had buttermilk on hand all the time, I’d probably make it more often. One of the reasons I really love Irish soda bread is that it has a yeast bread texture without having to use any yeast. It’s simple to make like a quick bread. I’ve also made a version with raisins if you want to check it out.
All you have to do is dump a bunch of ingredients in a bowl, mix a few times, and it’s ready to go in the oven.
Normally Irish soda bread is made as one big round bread with a crisscross on top to ward off evil. I used a recipe that made it into a loaf form.
The bread comes out soft, moist and a little sweet. The taste of buttermilk is pretty strong as well. Yummy. Make a loaf along with some corned beef or shepherd’s pie for a fun St. Patrick’s Day dinner!
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- White sugar
- Salt
- Baking soda
- Egg
- Buttermilk
- Butter
How to Make the Bread
Before you get started, preheat your oven to 325°F and grease a 9×5” loaf pan.
- First, mix all of the dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs with the buttermilk and then add it to the dry ingredients.
- Mix just long enough to bring the batter together. It will be lumpy but will smooth out once you add the butter.
- Add the butter and stir until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into your prepared pan.
- Bake the bread for 65 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the bread on a wire rack.
I hope you love this bread like I do! It’s a fun tradition I enjoy every year.
More Easy Recipes
Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1/4 cup butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (165°C). Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
- Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and baking soda. Blend egg and buttermilk together, and add all at once to the flour mixture. Mix just until moistened. (The batter should be a bit lumpy and will come together and be more smooth after adding butter)
- Stir in butter. (The mixture should be smooth after blending the butter.) Pour into prepared pan.
- Bake for 65 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
This bread was phenomenal…perfect in every way. First baked I could taste the sweetness, but not since then. It is a keeper!
Thanks for sharing your talents and creativity!
I’m so glad you enjoyed!
I love this bread, it is so delicious and moist; the crumb is excellent! All the recipes I’ve tried have been SOOO successful! You’re very talented and have rekindled the creative juices in me with making “the unconventional”. Which I was always noted for. Thanks!
I’m so glad you enjoyed!
Hi,
I hope you are well and safe.
I tried the Irish Soda bread but I had no buttermilk.
So I replaced it with 1 tablespoon of vinegar into 2 cups of milk.
It was baked well but the bread was crumbly more like a cake.
What did I do to make it that way?
Thanks,
Elenita
it doesn’t sound like you did the buttermilk substitute correctly. for 1 cup of buttermilk, you should add 1 tbsp of vinegar into measuring cup and then add milk until you reach the 1 cup line. So you would need 2 tbsp of vinegar and a little less than 2 cups of milk to make the buttermilk needed for this recipe
This looks good! I don’t like the “traditional” irish soda bread… at least not the ones I’ve tasted thus far. A few days ago I made Barefoot Contessa’s Guinness Irish Soda Bread and it’s really good! Your receipe here reminds me of hers. And since you have said you like baking with Guinness beer, I’ll include a link to the recipe: https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/irish-guinness-brown-bread
thanks for sharing!
Happy St. Pats! My sister used to make this all the time. She used a circular pan so it was like a massive (heavy) loaf. Yumm.
Hmm, I’ll have to look into this circular pan.
Looks delicious, love the photos too! Have a fun St. Patrick’s Day 🙂
Thanks!