How to make soda bread

delicious. team

Written by the expert and completely food-obsessed team behind this website, our social channels and our monthly magazine.

Find more

Never made bread before? Soda bread is a good place to start. This fantastically easy bread recipe doesn’t contain any yeast so there’s no kneading or proving involved – in fact, you can easily throw it together in a mere 10 minutes!

Find out how to make soda bread with our basic recipe and don’t forget to watch the video to see it in action.

What is soda bread?

Irish soda bread is one of the easiest bread recipes around. It doesn’t contain yeast so there’s no kneading or proving involved; simply combine all the ingredients in a bowl, mix to a rough dough, shape into a loaf and bake! That’s it.

Soda bread is typically made with wholemeal flour which gives it a fantastically dense and doughy texture, but you could easily use a mixture of white and wholemeal flour if you’re after a lighter texture. We love it served simply with lashings of butter and/or honey for breakfast, or with cheese and preserves for an easy lunchtime meal.

Check out our handy video:

How to make soda bread

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

400g stoneground wholemeal flour
200g plain white flour, plus a little extra for kneading and dusting
1 rounded tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
450ml buttermilk

Method:

Preheat the oven to 230°C/fan210°C/gas 8. Mix the wholemeal and plain flours, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre, pour in the buttermilk and mix into a soft, very slightly sticky dough.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until it comes together into a ball. Cut in half and knead each piece briefly into a smooth round. Do not over-knead, as this will make the bread heavy. Slightly flatten each round into 4cm-thick discs, then place them well apart on a baking sheet lightly dusted with flour. Using a large, sharp knife, cut a large cross into each loaf, to within about 1cm of the base.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 15 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 200°C/fan180°C/gas 4 and bake for another 10 minutes until well-risen with a golden-brown crust. The loaves should also sound hollow when you tap their bases.
Leave to cool on a wire rack, then cut into 1cm-thick slices. Toast and serve with whatever condiments you fancy.

Per serving: 88kcals, 0.6g fat (0.1g saturated), 3.6g protein, 18.2g carbohydrates (1.3g sugars), 0.4g salt

More soda bread recipes:

Beetroot and feta soda bread
Guinness and treacle soda bread
Guinness soda bread
Cheese and onion soda bread
Soda bread rolls