Brown Irish Soda Bread

This brown Irish soda bread recipe is simple because you don’t need to knead the dough. The bread is soft and tender with a hint of sweetness that makes it a great addition to any dish. Or you can eat it as dessert with jam or prune spread smeared on it.

This Irish brown bread is such a staple in Ireland. Big surprise, huh? Did the name give it away? Hehe.

When Christopher and I took our Ireland trip, we came across this Irish brown soda bread often. The texture is soft and tender, but the taste is pleasing because of its simplicity.

I love to slather butter on it, and Christopher just has to have prune spread on his slices.

This bread was popular in Ireland for three reasons:

1. It was cheap and easy to make.
2. Most families lived in farmhouses with open hearths, not ovens, so they had to put the batter in a pan and place it in their hearth to bake.
3. The bread is hearty and doesn’t spoil quickly.

I think it’s wonderful because the flavors are so delicious, but also, you don’t need yeast, it doesn’t require a lot of kneading and the texture is divine.

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Helpful tips

• When cutting the butter into the flour mixture, you can either use room temperature butter or cold butter. I can’t taste the difference. So, whichever you prefer to use, just know it tastes great both ways. I used cold butter in this recipe.
• If you can’t find sprouted spelt flour, use regular spelt or whole wheat flour or, if you prefer the white version, use all purpose flour.
• Make your own buttermilk if you don’t have any on hand. I use a powdered mix for this recipe, but I will also make buttermilk using this method if you use almond milk: Recipe: 1 cup of buttermilk = 1 cup of the milk mixed with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice for the same effect.
• If you prefer real milk, mix 1 cup of milk with ONE tablespoon apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to yield 1 cup of buttermilk.

How to make brown Irish soda bread

Pre-Step

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and liberally grease either a loaf pan or a medium sized skillet as I did.

Step one

Gather the dry ingredients – almond flour, sprouted spelt flour, baking soda and salt. (A)

Step two

Place dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and use a pastry cutter to mix them together.  I find this easier than using a sifter.

Step three

Gather the wet ingredients – butter, an egg, buttermilk and maple syrup. (B) Place the egg, buttermilk and maple syrup in another mixing bowl and whisk them together.

Step four

Cut butter in chunks and add it to the dry ingredients. (C)

Step five

Take your pastry cutter and cut the butter into the flour until you get pea sized pieces of butter. (D)

Step six

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. (E)

Step seven

Use a spatula to mix the ingredients together. The dough will be a little wet but do not stress; it’s supposed to be that way.

Step eight

Place the dough in the greased pan and with a sharp knife, cut a deep cross in the loaf.

Here’s the reason for the cross: In a practice that goes back to the 1800s, you cut a cross to ward off the devil and to protect the household. I cut the cross in there because I like how it looks in the finished loaf and, well, who couldn’t use a little more protection?

Step nine

Place in the oven and bake for 35 – 40 minutes. Mine took 38 minutes. (G)

Step ten

Once it’s done, let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before you transfer it to a wire rack. (H)

I waited for it to cool totally before I cut it in quarters.  Of course, I couldn’t help but have a piece or two before I took this next photo.

Let us look at the texture of this delicious brown Irish soda bread.

And here’s a photo of how Christopher and I eat this delicious bread. As I said, C likes prune spread on his and I like butter on mine.

I hope you liked this brown Irish soda bread recipe.

Other bread recipes

• Pumpkin bread
• Lemon blueberry bread
• Date nut bread
• Lemon raspberry bread

And as always, may all your dishes be delish!

If you’ve tried this recipe, I’d love the know what you thought about it in the comments below.  I love hearing from you!  You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more of my delicious food and delightful cocktails!

First published November of 2015