This Irish soda bread is a wonderful traditional Irish quick bread with currants, caraway seeds, and honey. Here is a simple make-ahead Irish soda bread mix that is wonderful for gift giving or to whip up an Irish soda bread in just a few moments.
Is Irish Soda Bread Irish?
Irish soda bread is tender, dense, often crumbly, unleavened bread. As such, the bread is quite filling. It is often mistakenly thought that soda bread came into existence during the infamous Irish potato famine of 1845 when the blight hit the potato crops. While it makes for a good story, it’s just a myth.
Soda bread recipes were previously published in The Gentlemen’s Magazine in 1817, as well as by Mary Randolph in The Virginia Housewife in 1824. Baking soda was first introduced in Ireland during the 1840s, which is how the rumor began. Thus the inexpensive Irish soda bread was born.
Traditional Irish soda bread consists of just four simple ingredients, flour, salt, baking soda, and buttermilk. Sodium bicarbonate (also known as baking soda) is the leavening agent, rather than the more traditional bread leavening agent, yeast.
Irish Soda Bread Mix Recipe
You’ll Need:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
- Preheat the oven to 425 F. degrees. Lightly grease and flour a cake pan.
- Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, mixing well.
- Add the buttermilk forming a sticky dough. Transfer to a floured surface and lightly knead.
- Shape into a round flat shape in a round cake pan and cut a cross in the top of the dough.
Spotted Dog Irish Soda Bread Mix
Spotted dog is another version of soda bread, but with the addition of fruit and caraway seeds to make it “spotted”. While not a traditional Irish recipe, it is the more widely prepared in the United States in celebration of St. Patricks day. In truth, when Irish soda bread was at its most popular, people couldn’t afford to add dried fruit or seasonings.
Spotted Dog Irish Soda Bread Mix
You’ll Need:
3 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole-wheat flour
1 c. dried currants or raisins
1/2 c. light-brown sugar
1 T. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
Measure all ingredients into a large ziploc bag, seal and shake well. This makes 1 package of mix.
To Prepare:
Irish Soda Bread Directions
1 package Irish Soda Bread Mix (as listed above)
1/2 c. butter softened
1 egg
1 c. buttermilk
First, cut the butter into the bread mix working it in with your fingers or a mixer until the mixture resembles the texture of cornmeal. In a small bowl beat egg and buttermilk together and pour into the mix. Stir just enough to moisten evenly, but don’t over mix or your bread will be tough. Serve drizzled in honey.
Shape into a high round ball and place on a buttered cookie sheet. Make a criss-cross slash across the top Bake at 350F for 45-55 minutes. Cool the bread completely before slicing.
Irish Soda Bread Mix
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F and lightly grease and flour a round cake pan.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and mix well.
- Add the buttermilk and stir just until a sticky dough forms.
- Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly.
- Shape the dough into a round flat loaf and place it in the prepared pan.
- Cut a cross in the top of the dough.
- Bake until the loaf is cooked through and browned, starting to check at about 30 minutes.
Recipe Size Alteration
💡 If you altered the ingredients above by doubling or tripling the recipe, you may also need to change the pan/dish size and adjust the cook time.
Notes
For the spotted dog variation, combine 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup dried currants or raisins, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 2 teaspoons caraway seeds if using.
To prepare spotted dog, cut 1/2 cup softened butter into the mix, beat 1 egg with 1 cup buttermilk, stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened, shape into a high round loaf, slash the top, and bake at 350°F for 45 to 55 minutes.
Store dry mix in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months for best leavening performance.
Wrap leftover plain bread tightly and keep at room temperature up to 2 days, refrigerate up to 4 days, or freeze up to 3 months.
Refrigerate spotted dog leftovers within 2 hours and use within 3 to 4 days, or freeze up to 3 months.
being 3/4 Irish, I really dislike when recipes like this say “traditional”. While they may be traditional to a family, they certainly are not the authentic Irish Soda Bread. If the recipe calls for anything other than flour, buttermilk (or sour milk), baking soda and salt, it is a modified version.
if it adds yeast or baking powder, sugar, eggs or items like that, it is now a cake and no longer bread. the peasants in ireland could not afford much and certainly not currants, caraway seeds, butter, and all the other “fancy” ingredients of our time. the true/authentic recipe is as follows:
4 cups all purpose flour.
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon salt
14 oz of buttermilk or sour milk
Preheat the oven to 425 F. degrees. Lightly crease and flour a cake pan.
In a large bowl sieve and combine all the dry ingredients.
Add the buttermilk to form a sticky dough. Place on floured surface and lightly knead (too much allows the gas to escape)
Shape into a round flat shape in a round cake pan and cut a cross in the top of the dough.
Cover the pan with another pan and bake for 30 minutes (this simulates the bastible pot). Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
The bottom of the bread will have a hollow sound when tapped so show it is done.
Cover the bread in a tea towel and lightly sprinkle water on the cloth to keep the bread moist.
Thank you so much for adding your info!! Although not Irish, I grew up with a friend who is and her Mom used to make this all the time!! Everyone has a hard time finding a recipe that comes close to what she used to make, and of course she would never have had a need to write it down!!
I will be trying this out!
She also used to make what she called a potato bread, which she seemed to make similar (?) but it was done on the stove in a frying pan.
It wasn’t like a flat bread though, I don’t think! Have to search for that one!
Thanks again 🙂
just made the recipe that is posted in the article, not the one above in the comment section. my soda bread did nothing but crumble and was way too dry. i followed the directions exactly.
i think maybe the flour mixture needs cut in half or something?
When you measured the flour did you scoop it into the measuring cup or did you scoop the cup into the flour and pack the cup, that makes a huge difference.
soda bread dont have currents caraway seeds for a start off its brown soda bread not white wot you u have there is current white bread
lol your comment made me seriously laugh out loud, to the point of my family asking what i was roaring about, because when i read it i thought, yes, that soda bread is just about as irish as your post is english. hahahahaha
i think what you meant is, “soda bread doesn’t have currents, caraway seeds as it is a brown bread, not a white bread. what you have there is a current white bread.”
see how much easier it is to understand when you use actual english?
as for the recipe, this is a very common irish soda bread recipe. google it
dear english expert, they are currants, not currents. who’s laughing now??
Being from Enniscorthy co.Wexford Ireland, I can tell you, generations of my family would including my grandmother would add raisins (currants) to her bread all of the time. And the bread can be white or brown.