Soda bread is a perfect get out of trouble yeast-free bread which is great to make when you don’t have time to wait for dough to rise.
Read on to see the recipe, find out more about soda bread and see an additional recipe for soda bread with cheese and onions.
Quick and easy soda bread
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Baking sheet or tray
- Sheet of baking paper
- Serrated bread knife
Ingredients
- 375 g Plain white flour
- ¾ tsp Sea salt (Maldon if you have it)
- ¾ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
- 284 ml Buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F.
- Place a sheet of baking paper onto the bakingtray or sheet.
- Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl mix and bring together with your hands to form a dough.
- If the dough seems too dry, add a splash of milk to the mix.
- Generously flour your work surface and tip out the dough onto the flour.
- Gently shape the dough into a round shape and lightly roll all sides in the flour so they're covered.
- Place the loaf on the lined tray.
- Using a bread knife cut a line into the middle of the dough stopping once you get half way through. Then turn and cut another line halfway through to form a cross (see image).
- Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes until the loaf is golden brown and crunchy on the top – it should also hear a hollow sound when you knock on the base of the loaf.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
Nutrition
TIP: Not sure if you have all the necessary bread baking equipment at home? Check out my recommended picks below (Amazon links):
-
- Scale: Nicewell 22lb Digital Kitchen Scale
- Mixing Bowls: OXO Stainless Mixing Bowls Set
- Pastry Scraper: OXO Stainless Pastry Scraper
- Loaf Pan: OXO Non-stick Loaf Pan
- Kitchen Thermometer: ThermoPro Digital Thermometer
- Stand Mixer (optional): Kenwood Kmix Stand Mixer
Soda bread with cheese and onions
Ingredients
- 1 quantity soda bread dough (see above) stop at stage 4 while the dough is still in the mixing bowl.
- One small red onion
- 75g Mature cheddar cheese – grated
- 1tbs olive oil
Method
- Chop the onion into small pieces.
- Place a small pan over a medium to low head, add the olive oil and gently fry the onions for around five minutes until slightly softened.
- Leave the onions to cool.
- Add the onions and grated cheddar to the mixing bowl with the dough and gently fold it into the dough with your hands.
- Continue with the soda bread recipe from step 5 (see above).
What is soda bread?
Soda bread is a traditional Irish recipe which is made by using baking soda as the rising agent instead of yeast. Soda bread has a unique taste which is unlike bread made with yeast, it has a fluffy almost scone-like texture and crunchy top which is extra tasty.
It’s very easy to make soda bread, because it doesn’t need time to rise, no kneading is required and this recipe only contains four ingredients which are flour, salt, buttermilk and bicarbonate of soda.
If you’ve not used buttermilk before, its consistency is a bit like a thin yogurt and it helps to give soda bread it’s fluffy texture.
You can buy buttermilk from most supermarkets and it’s usually found alongside fresh cream, the main buttermilk brand is St. Ivel.
Soda bread goes well with soup, stews or just warm with lashings of real butter.
Read on to see the soda bread recipe and an additional recipe for soda bread with cheese and red onions.
How long can you keep soda bread for?
For best results, soda bread is best eaten within 24hours of baking. You can freeze a soda bread loaf or slices and it does freeze well, but I recommend freezing it when it’s very fresh.
To save time, make a double batch of soda bread and freeze one of the cooked loaves in a large freezer bag and then simply defrost and use.
You might also like…
If you enjoyed making soda a yeast free bread, you might like the following posts to find out more about other yeast-free bread types:
