Anyone Can Make Soda Bread—Especially With a Few Pro Tips

Traditional Irish soda bread comes together with only three ingredients. (Jennifer McGruther)

Like corned beef, cabbage, and stout beer, Irish soda bread is bound to grace many American tables this St. Patrick’s Day. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a dense but tender bread with a texture like a cross between a Southern biscuit and a scone.

Soda bread is a simple, no-frills sort of food, and that’s part of its charm. It is plainly made with flour, buttermilk, baking soda, salt, and not much else.

A Quicker Bake

Soda bread first appeared in Irish kitchens about 200 years ago—as a treat for the wealthy. They could afford the luxury of wheat, while poorer people lived on oat cakes (when anything could be had at all).

An early form of baking soda had just been introduced to cooks, having been invented in the 1790s. Because baking soda is alkaline, a chemical reaction occurs when it is combined with an acid such as sour milk or buttermilk. When mixed, they erupt in a flurry of bubbles that can make bread rise. Unlike yeast leavening, which can take hours, this chemical reaction is lightning-fast, making soda bread a staple that cooks can put on the table quickly.

The earliest breads were baked in bastibles—flat-bottomed pots that resemble cast iron Dutch ovens. Cooks could mix the bread, set it in the bastible, and allow it to bake in a hearth fueled by a peat turf fire. By the late 19th century, wheat and baking soda became more affordable, and soda bread’s popularity soared. It also made use of two of Ireland’s chief agricultural products: grain and dairy.

A Bread Made for Ireland

Ireland’s damp weather and sunless days make growing many varieties of wheat difficult. Most grains like the sunshine. But soft wheat grows well in cool, coastal climates such as Ireland’s, and although it isn’t great for most bread baking, turns out it’s perfect for soda bread. It has very little protein compared with hard red wheat, which bread bakers usually favor, and thus has a hard time handling the long rises needed for sourdough and yeast bread. It can fall flat—literally. Instead, it works well in quicker applications such as pastries and quick breads.

Like soft wheat, sour milk was readily available because of Ireland’s long dairying tradition. In the absence of refrigeration, fresh milk rapidly turns sour. Naturally, it was wise to make use of every drop when families couldn’t afford the luxury of waste. Soda bread used what was available, was easy to make, and tasted delicious. These days, most bakers use buttermilk instead of soured raw milk.

In the 19th century, Irish immigrants brought soda bread to America, where it took on a new life. Instead of a simple, plain loaf, it became sweeter and richer. The American version contains dried currants and caraway seeds. Sometimes raisins replace the currants, depending on what a baker might have lingering in the kitchen. Additionally, bakers often enrich the dough with fresh eggs and a little sugar. It became less about sustenance and more about celebration.

Bona Fide Advice From the Source

There are a few tricks to making good soda bread, and Caroline Rigney knows them all. She has been making soda bread since she could stand on a stool in her grandmother’s kitchen, where her grandmother made six loaves a day to feed her 11 children.

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Ms. Rigney learned all the tricks and now puts them to use in the bed and breakfast she runs with her husband, which sits on a farm just outside Limerick in western Ireland. It’s an idyllic sort of place, with geese that roam the pasture and pigs that wallow in iron-rich mud. Every morning, they greet guests with a full Irish breakfast consisting of bacon, fried eggs, sausage, black pudding, and, of course, freshly made soda bread served with plenty of rich, golden butter.

Good soda bread, she said, comes down to speed: “As soon as the dough is mixed, the magic is working.” You need to get it into the oven fast. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to end up with a brick that’s tough on the outside but still doughy and raw in the center.

She also recommends using a light hand when mixing the dough; otherwise, you might end up with a tough cake of soda bread. Ms. Rigney suggests mixing just enough buttermilk into the flour so that it feels well-formed but pliable.

Once you form the dough into a round loaf, mark it with a cross and cut deeply into the dough without separating it. According to tradition, marking the bread with a cross lets the fairies out and stops them from spoiling the bread. The technique plays a practical role, too: It allows steam to escape while encouraging the heat to penetrate deep inside, so that it cooks all the way through. Remember, too, that as tempting as it may be to slice into a hot loaf, it still needs to cool before you cut into it. If you slice it too early, the inside may turn gummy.

Traditional Irish soda bread comes together with only three ingredients. (Jennifer McGruther)

Irish Soda Bread

Using self-rising flour for Irish soda bread speeds up the process as it already contains leavening agents. All you need to do is add enough buttermilk to allow the dough to come together.

Makes 1 cake (serves about 8)

• 4 cups (500 grams) self-rising flour
• 2 1/2 cups (600 milliliters) cultured buttermilk
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

Heat the oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the flour and buttermilk in a large mixing bowl until it just comes together. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a round ball. Then cut deeply into the dough, forming a cross.

Place on the prepared baking sheet and transfer to the oven. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.

The sweeter American soda bread is often enriched with sugar and fresh eggs and dotted with currants and caraway seeds. (Jennifer McGruther)

American Soda Bread

Unlike traditional Irish soda bread, the sweeter American-style version is often enriched with sugar and fresh eggs, yielding a texture that is dense yet tender. Dried currants and caraway seeds add pops of extra flavor. The trick is to get it into the oven as quickly as possible after mixing it together, so it’s wise to mix the dough only once the oven comes to temperature.

Makes 1 cake (serves about 8)

For the Bread

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup dried currants
• 1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups cultured buttermilk

For the Egg Wash

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon water
• Sugar, for dusting the bread

Preheat the oven to 425 F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

When the oven reaches 425 F, mix the dough by combining the flour, salt, baking soda, sugar, currants, and caraway seeds in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the beaten egg and buttermilk until it just comes together.

Lightly dust your working surface with flour, then turn out the dough. Form it into a round ball, then cut deeply into the dough, forming a cross. Place it on the prepared baking sheet.

In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk and water together to make an egg wash. Brush the egg wash lightly over the dough, and then dust it with additional sugar.

Transfer the dough to the oven. Then, turn the heat down to 400 F. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.

Brown soda bread has a rich, wheaten flavor and rustic quality to it. (Jennifer McGruther)

Brown Soda Bread

Brown soda bread is made with whole-wheat flour rather than with white. It has a rich, wheaten flavor and rustic quality to it. Whole-wheat pastry flour, which is made from soft white wheat, is a good choice for soda bread, as it has less protein than most whole-wheat flours and thus encourages a tender texture.

Makes 1 cake (serves about 8)

• 2 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups cultured buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 425 F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

When the oven reaches 425 F, mix the dough by combining the whole-wheat pastry flour and all-purpose flour with salt and baking soda in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the buttermilk until it just comes together.

Lightly dust your working surface with flour, then turn out the dough. Form it into a round ball, then cut deeply into the dough, forming a cross. Place it on the prepared baking sheet.

In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk and water together to make an egg wash. Brush the egg wash lightly over the dough, and then dust it with additional sugar.

Transfer the dough to the oven. Then, turn the heat down to 400 F. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.