Soda bread

  • Portion size: Serves 8-10
  • Hands on time 20 minutes, 25 minutes cooking time plus cooling
  • Difficulty: easy

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. Serve alongside lashings of butter, preserves or cheeses.

Check out our Guinness soda bread, too.

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Before you start

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.

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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
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Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 230°C/fan 210°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.
  2. 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.
  3. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 15 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 200°C/fan 180°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.
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  5. Leave to cool on a wire rack, then cut into 1cm-thick slices. Toast and serve with whatever condiments you fancy.

Nutrition

  • 88kcals Calories
  • 0.6g (0.1g saturated) Fat
  • 3.6g Protein
  • 18.2g (1.3g sugars) Carbs
  • 0.4g Salt

Quick wins & tips

Watch below for a handy video on how to make soda bread:

Make Ahead

All soda breads are best made and eaten on the same day.

Cook smarter

The acidity of the buttermilk works with the bicarbonate of soda to produce a gas that acts as the raising agent for the dough, instead of yeast.

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