Sweet Irish Soda Bread

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This is an amazing recipe for sweet Irish soda bread. Moist and aromatic, filled with raisins and caraway seeds. Bake a fantastic bread from start to finish in only 40 minutes.

I remember the first time I baked this sweet Irish soda bread recipe. I was so delighted by it; I couldn’t stop talking about it for days… I think I was pretty annoying; most people don’t get so enthusiastic about a good recipe as I tend to do…

It was love at first bite. Soft and not overly sweet, with those little juicy raisins, and the best of all, the slight caraway flavor, which is just amazing! Please, even if you think you are not much into caraway, don’t leave it out; it belongs here!  

And if you are looking for more Saint Patrick’s Day food ideas, check out the Dutch Oven Irish Stew, our delicious Colcannon, or make some fluffy Bailey’s Muffins.

What is soda bread?

A quick bread made without yeast. Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate is used as a leavening agent instead. The traditional version is only made with four simple ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk. But there are countless versions of this easy Irish soda bread, savory ones with cheese, herbs, garlic, or other sweet versions, including chocolate chips, nuts, or other dried fruit.

You can make it with whole wheat flour or white flour or with both. The wholemeal version is sometimes known as wheaten or brown bread, depending on the region. The shape of the bread seems to be region-specific as well. Depending on where you bake it, it could be a loaf; it could be round, it could be a flattened piece or a triangle.

Why make this sweet soda bread?

• It is delicious and easier to make than any other kind of bread.
• It’s 100 % made with pantry ingredients. You can even make the buttermilk yourself by mixing milk with lemon juice or vinegar.
• No yeast bread and that means no rising time either.
• No-knead bread.
• Stir, shape, and bake. 

Recipe ingredients

Buttermilk is very important as it reacts with the baking soda to provide the bread’s leavening.

What if I don’t have buttermilk?

• As buttermilk is not something you always have in the house and as you need such a small amount, you can make your own buttermilk by adding 1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar to 150 ml/ 45 fl. oz/ 2/3 cup milk.
• Leave to stand for 5-10 minutes and use as required.

Oranges: zest and some juice (especially the zest) add a wonderful flavor.

Dried fruit: I used a mixture of raisins and cranberries. I love the tarter cranberry taste, that is why I often combine them with very sweet raisins. However, the cranberries are optional, you can replace them with more raisins if you wish.

Other ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, caraway seeds, honey, and oil.

Seven simple steps for making soda bread

• Preheat the oven and prepare the pan. If using a cast-iron skillet, grease it with a bit of butter. If using a baking sheet, line it with parchment paper.
• Mix dry ingredients: first combine flour, salt, baking soda, then add raisins, cranberries, caraway seeds, and orange zest (1,2).

• Mix wet ingredients: orange juice, buttermilk, honey, and oil in a jug or small bowl and stir until the honey dissolves.
• Combine: pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and mix quickly until just combined. Do not overmix (3,4).

• Shape: Turn the rather sticky dough onto a floured surface and knead a few times to form a round loaf. Again, do not overwork the dough; just bring it into shape.
• Slash: Place the dough on the prepared baking tray and lightly dust with a little flour. Slash a cross on top of the bread with a sharp knife about halfway through the bread (5).
• Bake for about 30 minutes until deeply brown. Let cool on a wire rack (6).

Expert Tips and FAQ

• A digital kitchen scale will give you the most precise measure ensuring the best bake possible (Amazon affiliate link).
• Don’t knead the dough too much, just push it together to give the raisin bread its rough shape.
• Slash the shaped dough before putting it into the oven; the slash prevents cracking and helps the center of the bread bake through.

Recipe FAQ

Serving suggestions

• Freshly baked sweet Irish soda bread with a little butter is more than amazing.
• You can also spread some jam, honey, or nut butter on top for a super indulgent, delicious breakfast (or snack).
• I’ve read about serving it with corned beef and cabbage, but honestly, I am not very tempted to try it. To me, this is more like breakfast or dessert, not really something to serve with a savory meal. But I might be wrong, so do let me know if you try that!

Interested in a newspaper soda bread recipe from 1836?

“put a pound and a half of good wheaten meal into a large bowl, mix with it two teaspoonfuls of finely-powdered salt, then take a large teaspoonful of super-carbonate of soda, dissolve it in half a teacupful of cold water, and add it to the meal; rub up all intimately together, then pour into the bowl as much very sour buttermilk as will make the whole into soft dough (it should be as soft as could possibly be handled, and the softer the better,) form it into a cake of about an inch thickness, and put it into a flat Dutch oven or frying-pan, with some metallic cover, such as an oven-lid or griddle, apply a moderate heat underneath for twenty minutes, then lay some clear live coals upon the lid, and keep it so for half an hour longer (the under heat being allowed to fall off gradually for the last fifteen minutes,) taking off the cover occasionally to see that it does not burn.”

More sweet bread recipes?

• Beigli – Traditional Hungarian Nut Rolls – Hungarian pastry roll filled with walnuts, a real treat for Christmas or Easter.
• Yeast Cake – Soft and delicious pull-apart yeast cake with almonds. Also known as Hungarian coffee cake.
• Romanian Cozonac – This is the most traditional sweet thing you will find in every Romanian family at Easter and Christmas.
• Yeast Pastries with Honey – Soft and fluffy Moldavian Yeast Pastries soaked in syrup and topped with honey and walnuts.
• Polish Poppy Seed Roll – Filled with poppy seeds, nuts, and dried fruit, this roll is perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.