It took clever thinking to write a recipe for this Irish soda bread, a family favorite (2024)

FAQs

What is special about Irish soda bread? ›

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.

Irish soda bread is prepared without yeast. Traditionally it has just four ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. The baking soda and buttermilk react to cause the dough to rise.

When the acid of the buttermilk reacts to the baking soda, tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide leaven the bread. Using chemical reactions to make this tasty treat is a great way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day — soda bread has been made in Ireland since at least 1836!

Serving suggestions

Fruit: Eat it plain with a cup of your favorite sliced fruit. Cheese: Make a cheese board, and serve the bread alongside a variety of soft and hard cheeses. Soup: This bread makes a great dunking companion for your favorite hearty soup. Sandwiches: Use slices of Irish soda bread to make sandwiches.

In many ways it resembles a scone, another example of a baked good that doesn't use yeast. It has a similar flavor to a scone, thanks to the baking soda. Though it can be made plain, soda bread's flavor is usually defined by what is added to it. Caraway seeds are a very common soda bread ingredient.

Tightly wrap your leftover bread and place it in an airtight container. There's no need to refrigerate. As for how long soda bread lasts: Irish soda bread tends to dry out faster than other breads. The bread will be good for 3-4 days or up to three months if frozen.

The Irishmen learned to adapt to this climate by growing soft wheat that is lower in gluten. The type of flour from this wheat is not compatible with the yeast to make the dough rise; thus, they use baking soda instead to make the famed Irish Soda Bread.

Soda bread dries out quickly so it really is only good for a day or two. It is best eaten freshly baked and warm or toasted. Keep it wrapped in plastic wrap or foil. That said, you can make it ahead and freeze it (let it cool to room temperature first).

Irish brown bread has a deep, nutty flavor because of its wheat flour and wheat bran while soda bread uses only white flour. Soda bread is slightly sweet and more scone-like while Irish brown bread is more savory with a tender interior.

While soda bread is most famously attributed to Ireland, it was actually first created by Native Americans. They were the first to be documented using pearl ash, a natural form of soda formed from the ashes of wood, to leaven their bread without yeast.

Is Irish soda bread good for digestion? ›

By the late 1800's soda bread became hugely popular in Ireland, a popular journalist (Newry Telegraph) wrote a glowing article about the benefits of eating Irish soda bread, he wrote "there is no bread to be had equal to it for invigorating the body, promoting digestion, strengthening the stomach, and improving the ...

For buttermilk to taste sweet (i.e. not sour) its acidity would need to be fully neutralized by the baking soda. That tells us that its primary purpose was to leaven the dough, making soda bread particularly light, fluffy, and oh-so-slightly alkaline.

Although soda bread is ideal for serving at room temperature, it is better to serve it warm. The thick and cakey texture of the bread and warm temperature brings out its hearty flavors. If you can't have it fresh from the over at least have it toasted.

Just be sure to wrap it well and store in a freezer safe bag. When ready to eat, thaw and reheat in the oven. It's traditional to bake Irish soda bread in a cast iron pan, but if you don't have one you can just use a parchment lined baking sheet.

In the final analysis, soda bread is just a dense quick bread like banana bread, and dense quick breads should be cooked to 200–205°F (93–96°C), an internal temperature that assures that enough water has been absorbed or cooked out so that it is no longer soggy, but not so hot that the crumb dries out.

A traditional staple in Ireland and made simply from flour, buttermilk, baking powder and salt. Soda bread is quick to prepare and is a low-fat, yeast-free option. It may help alleviate symptoms of bloating and discomfort.

The main difference between sourdough bread and soda bread is in its leavening agent – sourdough bread rises due to the gasses released from yeast and bacteria fermentation, while soda bread rises from the gasses produced during the chemical interaction between baking soda and acids in the dough.

A soda bread defined in America

If you want to make an authentic Irish soda bread, the difference lies in what ingredients you should omit. According to Epicurious, Irish-American soda breads use caraway seeds and raisins in the recipe, while soda breads from Ireland lack both of these add-ins.