Traditional Irish Soda Bread

This traditional Irish Soda Bread recipe produces an easy and hearty loaf with a texture between a yeast bread and a biscuit. The traditional Irish soda bread might not have raisins, but it is perfect for breakfast or for along side of a thick and hearty Irish stew. 

Baking Soda Bread

While we think tend to think that the idea of using baking soda to make bread was an Irish invention, the earliest reference to making bread with baking soda (at that time known as ‘soda ash’ or ‘pearl ash’) was by the American Indians in hot rock ovens.

The earliest Irish recipes for soda bread date to the early 1800s. The Irish and the American Indians had the same idea, just a few decades apart!

Irish Soda Bread

You will find MANY recipes for Irish soda bread these days. (We even have another version for caraway soda bread.) But, many of these Irish soda bread recipes add extra ingredients and resemble more of a tea cake than a true, traditional Irish soda bread.

Traditional Irish soda bread only calls for four ingredients: flour, baking soda, buttermilk, and salt.

That’s all!

Does Irish Soda Bread Have Raisins?

You’ll see many recipes for Irish soda bread that include raisins. We do love making soda bread with raisins too!

But, if you add raisins to your soda bread, it’s no longer ‘Irish soda bread’.

What you have now is considered an Irish tea cake and properly called a ‘spotted dog’.

So for today, we’re sharing a recipe for the traditional Irish soda bread with no raisins.

Irish Soda Bread in Different Forms

Soda bread is eaten throughout Ireland, but it takes on different shapes in different regions. In the north of Ireland, they call their soda bread farl. The bread is cut into serving-sized pieces and baked on a griddle. (If you think traditional Irish soda bread is a quick bread to make, you need to try farl!)

In the south of Ireland, you will find soda bread baked in a round “cake” form. It can be white or brown. (White uses all white flour, while brown uses a mixture of white and whole wheat flours.)

It characteristically has a large cross cut in the top of the loaf. Practically, this helps the bread rise in the oven. But, there is also an old Irish superstition that the cross cut into the bread would help to ward off any evil spirits.

A Truly Quick, Everyday Bread

With so few ingredients, it is easy to see why soda bread was (and is) a daily bread in Ireland.

Soda bread is best eaten within a few days. It doesn’t keep for too long, so it’s a bread that needs to be made in small loaves every few days.

Making bread every few days could be a lot of time-consuming work, but by using baking soda as leavening, rather than yeast, this bread doesn’t need any rising time. It goes straight from the mixing bowl into the oven.

When you can have fresh bread in under an hour, why not make it every day?

Our Traditional Irish Soda Bread Recipe

We stick to the traditional ingredients for a white soda bread in our Irish soda bread recipe below. We love the dense, lightly crumbly texture and hearty flavor of the bread.

And, while it does slice better if you let it cool completely before cutting into it, we can never resist a slice of warm soda bread!

Seriously, bread in just an hour. How could you resist?