Irish Soda Bread Recipe (Traditional Brown Bread) (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between Irish soda bread and Irish brown bread? ›

If you really want to get technical, brown bread is a form of soda bread since it uses baking soda as the leavening agent. However, the two loaves differ pretty significantly from there. Irish brown bread has a deep, nutty flavor because of its wheat flour and wheat bran while soda bread uses only white flour.

Our Odlums Extra Coarse Wholemeal Flour is wholegrain flour with nothing added or nothing taken out. It is principally used for traditional Irish Soda Bread recipes, and can also be added to other bakes for extra fibre. Also known as Brown Flour.

If your bread is not rising at all, there is usually a problem with the yeast. It might be out of date or, often, dead due to high temperature. Yeast begin to die at 120℉ (49℃). To see if the yeast you are using is active, add a little to warm water with a little sugar and look for bubbles after 5 - 10 minutes.

It's called Irish Soda Bread because it's made with baking soda instead of yeast. Because of this, it's more dense than your everyday white sandwich bread.

Unlike yeast breads, soda bread relies on the reaction between the bicarbonate of soda and the acid in the buttermilk to give it it's rise, as well as it's familiar flavour. In terms of texture, it is quite a dense bread and slightly chewy.

The Southern Irish regions bake their loaves in a classic round fashion and cut a cross on top of the bread. This was done for superstitious reasons, as families believed a cross on top of the bread would let the fairies out or ward off evil and protect the household.

If your Irish soda bread is too crumbly, it may be because you overmixed the dough. Another possibility is that your baking soda was expired and should be replaced. Make sure you are using the correct amount of baking soda in the recipe. Too much or too little can result in a crumbly loaf.

Your oven is too hot if it is uncooked in the center. Try lowering the temp on your oven by 25F and extending the bake time. Don't put anything on the top of the bread to aid in browning until the last few min. of cooking, and use an instant read thermometer (target temp to pull is 190F).

Most Irishmen and women eat Irish brown bread for breakfast or lunch. It's best served simple, with a pad of Kerrygold butter or used as a dunker with soup.

Each country has its “national” bread with recipes dating back to their forefathers. Ireland, for one, has embraced it's kind of bread – the soda bread. It is a basic staple among the Irish that they call it Irish Soda Bread.

What is Irish brown bread made of? ›

Traditional Irish brown bread is a simple combination of whole wheat and white flours, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk; this version adds a bit of enrichment in the form of sugar and butter (or oil) for a slightly sweeter, more tender loaf.

The oldest recipe for soda bread, widely syndicated from Ireland's Newry Times in 1836, says the dough was "as soft as could possibly be handled...the softer the better." Thirteen years and 180 miles down the road, the Waterford Times described it as "wetter than pie crust, too stiff to pour, but not stiff enough to ...

The most traditional doneness test calls for thumping the hot bread in the center to hear if it's hollow-sounding. A more foolproof indication is temperature; the loaf will register 200°F to 205°F when an instant-read thermometer is inserted in the center of the bread.

Irish soda bread has a couple of other names, too: When we attended a class at the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork, Ireland, they made this loaf and called it a Spotted Dog. It's also called white soda bread, American Irish soda bread, or fruit soda bread.

Most people believe brown bread, otherwise known as wholemeal or whole-wheat bread, is better for our health than white. And according to most nutritionists, you'd be correct. Wholegrain products contain more fibre and nutrients than their white counterparts.

Irish soda bread is a dense and tender quick bread with a subtle tangy buttermilk flavor. Some people think it tastes like beer bread, but I think it tastes more like a scone or a biscuit. It tastes fantastic on its own, slathered with a little butter and jam, or “fancied up” with additional ingredients.