Growing up, my mom made this Irish soda bread all the time. We had it for breakfast, for snacks, and for dessert. To this day, I would be happy to eat it nonstop. Some links in this post are affiliate links that earn me a commission if you purchase through them.
This week, I had a plan for what I was going to put up on Tasty Tuesday. It’s my week to bring in lunch for everyone at the bi-weekly PTO president meeting in my district. And hey, it’s St. Patrick’s Day on Wednesday, so making something Irish was an easy choice.
Not so easy? Figuring out what to bring for 25 or so people that’s Irish but isn’t something that half the people won’t like.
Thus, corned beef was out. And lamb stew. I was going to do baked potatoes with a variety of toppings, including chili, until that was done last meeting.
Ugh.
Then I found inspiration (literally). While cleaning off my book shelf to make more room for the wee ones’ books, I discovered that I have a traditional Irish recipes cookbook.
I eagerly leafed through it. And then I decided that I was bringing in the cookbook just to show everyone how lucky they are that I didn’t bring in any of those items.
I was back to the drawing board and drawing a blank. I finally decided to make a potato soup, fresh bread, scones, and Irish soda bread. Wa-la. Hopefully that’s enough food to make everyone happy.
The Irish soda bread I make is the same one that my mom makes that her mom made that she got from her husband’s family who came from Ireland. There are two kinds of Irish soda bread, and this one is the sweet non yeast version.
You’ll notice in the picture that the bread has butter on it. Odd, I know, but this is something my family does.
While I rarely put butter on regular bread, my family taught me to put butter on other bread – like products that definitely don’t need any additional fat or calories – coffee cakes, muffins, cinnamon rolls, and the like.
Go fig. It’s what we do. And the butter on the Irish soda bread is pretty yummy.
How to Make Irish Soda Bread
Grease two large loaf pans. Make sure to preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the butter until pea sized chunks appear. Add the raisins and stir to distribute.
In a liquid measuring cup, add the egg to the buttermilk and whisk gently until the egg is lightly beaten and no goopy strands remain. Why do it in the measuring cup? Because that’s one less dish to clean!
Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients, and stir gently until just combined.
This makes a very thick batter. Don’t be like my daughter’s home ec class that didn’t trust a recipe and added flour because it looked too runny. They ended up with dry cupcakes. It’s supposed to be this thick!
Turn into the two loaf pans, and cut across the top lengthwise. This allows your bread to rise and bake properly as it is such a thick batter.
Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Remove from the oven once your cake tester comes out with just a few crumbs.
Butter the top when it comes out of the oven. Lay your loaf pan on one side for a few minutes, then the opposite side for a few minutes. After both sides, remove from the pan and continue cooling on a wire rack.
Enjoy warm or room temperature. This will keep for a few days but is best within the first two days. Store unsliced in an airtight container.
And yes, butter makes it better!
Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 5 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 1/2 cups seedless raisins
- 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Grease two large loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large mixing bowl. Cut in butter until pea sized chunks appear. Add raisins and stir to distribute.5 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup unsalted butter, 2 1/2 cups seedless raisins
- In a liquid measuring cup, add egg to buttermilk and whisk gently until the egg is lightly beaten. Add mixture to dry ingredients, and stir gently until just combined.1 egg, 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
- Turn into loaf pans, and cut across the top lengthwise. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50-60 minutes until tester comes out with crumbs.
- Butter loaf top when it comes out of the oven. Lay on pan its side for a few minutes, then lay on the opposite side for a few minutes to loosen edges. After both sides, remove from the pan and continue cooling on a wire rack.
Video
Notes
- Enjoy warm or room temperature. This will keep for a few days but is best within the first two days. And yes, butter makes it better!
- For more tips and tricks, be sure to read the full article above.
Nutrition
This site uses an online source to provide nutrition estimates as a courtesy. If you need exact values, please calculate yourself.
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I'll have to try this. I've seen recipes, but I haven't ever had it or made it for that matter. 😀
Butter makes *everything* better. Especially popcorn. {*grin*}
The bread looks very tasty – I'll have to give it a try.
(I think you should have served the PTA group that old Irish standby – boiled cabbage, potato, and tripe soup. I bet no one would have eaten once the ingredients were listed.)
We love Irish Soda Bread and yours looks especially yummy!
Blessings!
Gail
Yeah, be sure to show them what they are lucky to be missing!
Great choice and good recipe for Irish soda bread. It's very much like the one my parents always make.
This sounds much yummier than traditional Irish soda bread, which has only flour, salt, soda and buttermilk. I lived with an Irish family in a suburb of Dublin during my junior year of college, and my Irish “mum” was a fantastic cook. She baked soda bread and whole wheat soda bread every Saturday and all kinds of other delicious things. Oh, the memories of Ireland!
I hopped over to Tempt My Tummy and intended to post Irish Soda bread (which I have never made) and saw your link. Thought if her recipe is different than mine I'll post, BUT almost exactly the same. Only differences are mine has caraway seeds and the ingredients are 1/3 the amounts of yours!!! So… point to all this…maybe it is traditional Irish bread as my recipe is from a traditional bread book and they state this is a traditional bread enjoyed with tea!
Now think I will post Vegetable Barley Soup instead!
April
I've never made this before. Sounds good!