Traditional Irish Soda Bread Recipe (2024)

Loved this recipe! Was easy to make and turned out great! And I'm only 15. Lol. Will definitely make this again. ❤️

Most of us are celebrating our Irish American heritage, and caraway seeds are important. Much like corned beef, a tablespoon in reminds us of the Jewish-Irish mix on the Lower East Side.

During the second world war in Northern Ireland we had very little butter and few eggs. We made soda bread this way, but used half white and half whole meal flour. No raisins and no caraway seeds. I still make it the same way.

I think Nan's right. My grandmother's recipe is for a rich sweet version but I think that's the lace-curtain version, made for tea and for company, not the daily bread. The whole idea of traditional soda bread is it's made from only four ingredients that every Irish household, even the poorest, would always have and the poor could rarely afford sugar and butter and eggs for baking.

I have been using a 120 year old Irish soda bread recipe from my Kerry born great gma for many years-- I became accustomed to a bread so painful to eat that it was penitential, unless toasted and heavily buttered. Been longing for an edible soda bread, so I used this recipe as a base, but added: 1/4 c buttermilk and sugar; 1c raisins; 3T butter; one egg yolk; 1/4 t of baking soda and salt. The results were perfect.

My husband is Irish. The trick to making authentic Irish soda bread is to use Irish flour. We order Odlums Wholemeal flour from Ireland online.

I've been to Ireland several times, and this recipe tastes like the soda bread you get there, but they usually make their soda bread with half white flour and half wheat flour. I was surprised that some of the comments referred to the taste of soda in the bread. Hello, it's called soda bread, it's supposed to have a taste of soda, which is actually quite flavorful.

For the 'purists' in this discussion of authenticity, might I say, corned beef and cabbage is NOT an Irish tradition. RAP hit on it 'Irish Jewish Lower East Side'. The real tradition is Ham. In the immigrant East Side ham was 'expensive'. To the rescue came their also immigrant, Jewish neighbors, who led the way to the cheaper brine cured 'brisket'. Next up for discussion as a traditional recipe, Green BEER...lol! Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Hi Jane! We lived in Ireland for a few years and that always happened to me until I asked a friend about it. You wrap the hot loaf in a tea towel, or dish towel. Maybe a couple of them. The steam from the cooling bread softens the bottom and top. Hope that helps.

You can use the normal buttermilk sub (1T lemon juice to 1c milk) and just use whatever non-dairy milk you prefer. Let it sit for 10 minutes then proceed with the recipe. Don't skip the lemon juice, you need the acid to react with the soda for leavening.

Try wrapping in a teatowel as it cools. This helps soften the crust.

The supermarkets seem to prefer raisins or currants in their soda bread. My grandmothers was plain like this recipe. And, she said that they would never make corned beef in the Ireland. Cows were too precious for their milk, cheese and butter to slaughter. If any meat was used it was bacon or pork. Pigs are prolific and a pig slaughtered would provide meat for the family for the winter. The beef was used only after they came to America with its huge herds of cattle.

It may have been delicious, but it was more properly called Spotted Dick or Tea Bread. Soda bread has none of those ingredients.

My Irish father came over to the UK from Donegal in 1950 & made great soda bread but he made two loaves. One like this - the classic - and one with sultanas or raisins.Both deliciousSo both versions are totally authentic

added dried currents

Tough, hard crust even after wrapping in a clean tea towel after baking as others suggested. The best thing I can say is that it was easy to make. I’ll find something else just as easy to make next time I want a quick bread.

Followed the directions to the letter all turned out ok served with the traditional corned beef and cabbage. Was great.

This is a great recipe. I made it for the first time as a bread for St Pat's day with corned beef cabbage etc. Everybody loved it. I made it with half all purpose white flour and half whole wheat. Also used low-fat buttermilk because that's what the store carried. I also baked it about 1 hour before serving it. Still warm from the oven was a big hit. Baking time was right on. I also used a sheet of parchment paper but it probably wasn't necessary

I did the first 15 minutes at 450 then put it on the top shelf and lowered the temp to 350 for about 10 minutes longer. It was so good to dip the bread into the juices of the Irish Stew.

I did have to cut down the bake time. It was done after 20 minutes at 400. The full 30 minutes would have been too long. Keep a close eye on the bake.

Followed the recipe with the exception of using low fat buttermilk (I picked up the wrong one accidentally). Very easy, very tasty. Will absolutely make this again.... and I don’t think the low fat milk made any difference.

Sort of tasty, but really, really dense. I'm not sure what to do to make it rise more. More kneading? More rest time before baking? More baking soda? 3/4 teaspoons of baking soda was more like one gram, instead of four. I opted to go with 1 tsp, but maybe I should have gone with the weight and put in like four tsp of baking soda.

Gave it a try , followed instructions. Bread did not rise much and crust was very hard. Tried the tea towel trick but didn't help.. This is my second attempt at soda bread . I'll try 1 more recipe, then go to the bakery.

I tried to make this today and it was a soggy mess. It ended up on my hands and fingers. I thought adding more flour would just fill the bowel with flour and adding more liquid would just make soup. I've made it before with plain yogurt because I couldn't find buttermilk and it turned out much better. Any ideas?

I have been using a 120 year old Irish soda bread recipe from my Kerry born great gma for many years-- I became accustomed to a bread so painful to eat that it was penitential, unless toasted and heavily buttered. Been longing for an edible soda bread, so I used this recipe as a base, but added: 1/4 c buttermilk and sugar; 1c raisins; 3T butter; one egg yolk; 1/4 t of baking soda and salt. The results were perfect.

Won raves ... which I am unused to. Made as per recipe but added currents and put the dough on a pizza stone which pre-heated with the oven.

I followed everything in this recipe and the loaf looked great, however when I tried to slice it, the crust, top and bottom was so hard that it was impossible to cut through. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

To introduce a whole wheat version, I exchange up to 1/2 of the white flour with a combination of whole wheat flour a couple of tablespoons of each wheat germ and wheat bran. This combination makes a loaf more the loaves made in Ireland. Add a couple of tablespoons of butter if you want the loaf to keep fresh for longer.

Loved this recipe! Was easy to make and turned out great! And I'm only 15. Lol. Will definitely make this again. ❤️

am no baker, and while this is about the simplest bread recipe - till i wasn't sure I'd combined parts correctly - but even w/my ignorance the 1st attempt turned out well, i thought (as did my wife and son). ate it fresh from oven with apple slices on the side and lots of butter on the bread slices. very good. would be perfect with a greasy and/or salty broth. Will make this again. Thanks. Oh, and you can't score it too deeply - i scored to the pan (then pushed together quarters & it worked.