Irish Soda Bread Recipe: How to Make and Freeze Homemade Soda Bread

I have outlined here in an easy step by step guide how to make Irish Soda Bread, both white and brown.

The sultana Soda Bread recipe is just as easy to follow with lots of photographs to help you with your baking.

It can be ready to eat within an hour after preparation has started. It can be used in a variety of dishes both savoury and sweet.

Irish Soda bread also freezes very well so it will always be fresh and handy for you to eat whenever you wish.

So if you fancy a go at some bread baking why not try this recipe. It is bread baking at its easiest.

White Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients

• 16 ounces of plain white flour
• 1 level teaspoon of baking soda
• 3/4 pint of buttermilk
• 1 level teaspoon of salt
• 4 ounces of soft margarine

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 425 Fahrenheit or gas mark nine. Lightly grease your chosen tin.

1. Into a large bowl sieve the flour, and then add the salt and baking soda. Mix these ingredients together with your fingers, lifting slightly in the air as you do so.
2. This gives the best result because it allows the air to pass through the mixture naturally. Put in the margarine and mix with your fingers until the mixture is crumbly.
3. Do not use a mixer for this process because you will find your soda bread will taste heavy. This is because the air has not had enough time to mix in with the ingredients.

Mixing the wet ingredients

1. Make a hole in the centre of the mixture and add half the amount of buttermilk. Mix in with a wooden spoon. Gradually add in the remainder of the milk.
2. Once the milk has been blended with the dry ingredients it is time to finish off the mixing with your hands. You are aiming to achieve a light, soft dough, sticky but not too wet.
3. On a wooden board sprinkle a generous amount of flour. Sprinkle a little flour onto the top of your mixture in the basin to allow for easy removal. Tip out the finished mixture on to the board.

Knead the dough

You will have to lightly knead the dough for about one minute. Cover your hands with flour as this helps with the process. If the dough gets too sticky add more flour to the mixture.

Once this process is finished add a sprinkling of flour on top of the dough. Put into your tin. Most people like to use the traditional round shape.

I have been taught by my mother when she makes Soda Bread to use an oblong shape tin so this method is what I use.

Irish Soda Bread Cross

The last important step before baking the Irish Soda Bread is the cross. Using a large knife cut down and across to make a deep cut in the dough.

When the bread is cooked this cross will have separated the bread so that it is very easy to break the bread in to four quarters. Easier for cutting into slices and for storage and freezing.

Baking the bread

Bake in the preheated oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for fifteen minutes. Turn down the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for the remaining thirty minutes.

Have a clean wet tea cloth ready for when you are about to remove the soda bread from the oven. If you bake soda bread often it is advisable to have a plastic bowl and a few tea towels exclusively for this purpose.

Check on the soda bread to see if it is ready.

It should look lightly brown on top. Before removing it from the oven you can test it by inserting a large knife into the centre. If it comes out dry then it is cooked. Bring the tin over to the wet tea towel and tip out on to it.

If this is your first time baking soda bread and you are not too sure if it is cooked then once it is removed from the baking tin you can tap the underneath lightly, if it sounds hollow then it is ready.

This should also be lightly brown in colour and firm.

As quickly as you can wrap the wet tea towel around the hot soda bread and leave standing up against the wall or on a wire tray until cool. This will trap the flavour in and keep the bread soft while it cools.

For the best flavour and taste Irish Soda Bread is always eaten the same day.

Once it has cooled down enough to cut, then slice it up and spread on butter. You can also add jam or honey. Another very popular use in Ireland for soda bread is at breakfast time.

After frying an egg, rasher, tomatoes and sausage on the pan add a little bit of oil to the pan and cook for about 15 seconds, until the bread is lightly brown. This soaks up all the flavours of the rashers, tomatoes and sausages.

Freezing Irish Soda Bread

Soda bread freezes very well, so if it is not going to be eaten that day prepare it for the freezer. It is always best to do this as soon as the bread is cool enough because the freshness is then frozen.

You can either wrap a quarter piece of the soda bread in a freezer bag and freeze whole or you can cut up in slices and wrap two slices in each piece of cling film.

Once removed from the freezer and put in the microwave to defrost it is as fresh as if it has just come out of the oven.

Brown Irish Soda Bread recipe

To make Brown Irish Soda Bread substitute twelve ounces of the white flour with the same amount of wheat flour and prepare and bake as above.

Ingredients

• 16 ounces of plain white flour
• 1 level teaspoon of baking soda
• 3/4 pint of buttermilk
• 1 level teaspoon of salt
• 4 ounces of soft margarine
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 5 ounces of sultanas
• 1 large egg

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 Fahrenheit /Gas Mark 9.
2. Lightly grease your chosen tin.
3. Into a large bowl sieve the flour, and then add the salt, baking soda, sugar and sultanas.
4. Mix these ingredients together with your fingers, lifting slightly in the air.
5. This gives the best result because it allows the air to pass through the mixture naturally.
6. Put in the margarine and mix with your fingers until the mixture is crumbly.

Adding the wet ingredients

1. Add the egg and half the buttermilk into a small dish and whisk gently with a fork.
2. Make a hole in the centre of the mixture and add this to it.
3. Mix in with a wooden spoon. Gradually add in the remainder of the buttermilk.
4. Once the milk has been blended with the dry ingredients it is time to finish off the mixing with your hands. You are aiming to achieve a light, soft dough, sticky but not too wet.
5. On a wooden board sprinkle a generous amount of flour.
6. Sprinkle a little flour onto the top of your mixture in the basin to allow for easy removal.
7. Tip out the finished mixture on to the board.

Lightly knead the dough

1. You will have to lightly knead the dough for about one minute.
2. Cover your hands with flour as this helps with the process. If the dough gets too sticky add more flour to the mixture.
3. Once this process is finished add a sprinkling of flour on top of the dough. Put into your tin. Most people like to use the traditional round shape.

I have been taught by my mother to use an oblong shape tin so this method is what I use.

Cut the soda bread in to four quarters

1. The last important step before baking the Irish Soda Bread is the cross. Using a large knife cut down and across to make a deep cut in the dough.

When the bread is cooked this cross will have separated the bread so that it is very easy to break the soda bread in to four quarters. Easier for cutting into slices and for storage and freezing.

Bake in the preheated oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for fifteen minutes. Turn down the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for the remaining thirty minutes.

Have a clean wet tea cloth ready for when you are about to remove the soda bread from the oven.

Check on the soda bread to see if it is cooked. It should look lightly brown on top. Before removing it from the oven you can test it by inserting a large knife into the centre.

If it comes out dry then it is cooked. Bring the tin over to the wet tea towel and tip out on to it. Once removed from the oven tap the underneath lightly, if it sounds hollow then it is ready. This should also be lightly brown in colour and firm.

This Sultana Irish Soda Bread also freezes very well.

As quickly as you can wrap the wet tea towel around the hot soda bread and leave standing up against the wall or on a wire tray until cool.

This will keep the flavour in and keep the bread soft while it cools. This Sultana Irish Soda Bread also freezes very well.

The Sultana Soda Bread can be covered with butter and jam for a delicious snack. By pouring hot custard over the sultana bread you have a very quick and tasty desert.

Recipes and tips for white, brown and Irish Sultana Soda Bread

Now that you have seen how easy and quick it is to make white, brown and sultana Irish Soda Bread with these recipes why not have a go.

An Irish tradition has always been the children learning how to make the soda bread beside their mothers.

They would be given a smaller piece of dough to knead and shape.

They would laugh with delight when their own smaller version of the Irish soda bread loaf would come out of the oven, just like mums.

© Copyright 2012. L.M.Reid