This Irish soda bread recipe is so delicious and so easy to make. This soda bread contains no yeast and gets its rise from mixing buttermilk with baking soda. It is baked in a Dutch oven to produce a nice brown crust and a soft and tender crumb.

Years ago, my husband lived in Ireland and worked for a local farm in Cape Clear, Ireland in County Cork. The husband on the farm tended to the goats and the wife made the most amazing artisanal cheeses from the goat's milk.

She had a wonderful soda bread recipe which she shared and that is this recipe. Their family recipe is very much like an Irish brown bread in flavor, color and texture and it is made with the traditional soda bread ingredients like baking soda and buttermilk. It does not have raisins or caraway seeds and I prefer it this way.

This Dutch oven soda bread recipe is the recipe that we make all the time and we all love it! It is very easy to make and does not require any kneading at all since it has no yeast.

Dutch Oven Irish Soda Bread Ingredients

(full details below)

All all-purpose flour
Whole Wheat Flour
Old Fashioned Oats
Buttermilk
Salt
Baking soda
Brown Sugar

Ingredient Notes

Brown Flour In Traditional Soda Bread: In Ireland, they have a blend of flour called brown flour. This type of flour is not the same as the flour here so I have combined regular all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour to get the right brown flour consistency and color. It works perfectly.
The consistency of the batter becomes very thick and sticky almost like a very thick oatmeal. This is normal.
If you do not have buttermilk you can substitute a mixture of milk and lemon juice. I do highly recommend the buttermilk if you can find it!

How To Make Irish Soda Bread

soda bread before baking — The bread is ready to go in the oven. The X shape on top is traditional when making this bread.

Mix ingredients: In a large bowl mix all of the ingredients together.
Add to Dutch oven: Place the dough into a parchment lined Dutch oven. The Dutch oven when a lid is on it helps produce steam to give the bread a nice crust.
Cut X on top: Cutting an x on top of the dough before baking is traditional. There are folklore stories as to why but regardless, I just do it since this is what was taught to me.
Bake: Bake the bread in a preheated oven until golden brown.

How to serve

This soda bread is best served fresh with some butter on top or a thin spread of goat cheese if you have it on hand (this is how the farmer's wife always served it.)

We also love serving it with homemade nectarine jam and berry jam.

My family will basically eat the whole loaf right from the oven with the butter. When you make this authentic Irish soda bread you will want to do the same!

Storing

I like to keep the soda bread covered on the counter for up to 2 days. Since it is fresh bread with no preservatives, it doesn't keep for long. Plan to use it up for snacks, breakfast or as a side with dinner on the first 2 days because of this.

More Bread Recipes

If you are looking for some more bread recipes and want to try your hand at making other types of bread then you may like:

More Dutch Oven Recipes

baked Irish soda bread with an x pattern on top in a Dutch oven

Print Recipe

5 from 7 votes

Irish Brown Soda Bread (Dutch Oven Recipe)

This Irish soda bread recipe comes from Cape Clear, Ireland and it is so delicious and so easy to make. This traditional recipe contains no yeast and gets its rise from mixing buttermilk with baking soda. It is baked in a Dutch oven to produce a nice brown crust and a soft and tender crumb.

Prep Time10

Cook Time50

Total Time1

Servings: bread loaf

Author: Melissa Oleary

Ingredients

1 ½ - 1 ¾ cups of buttermilk see directions below. If you do not have buttermilk you can substitute 1 ½ cups of milk mixed with 1 ½ tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar.
1 ½ cups oats (old fashioned)
1 ½ cup whole wheat flour (if you don't have whole wheat flour you can substitute all purpose white flour)
1 cup All purpose flour
¼ cup brown sugar packed
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.
Get a large dutch oven out and place a sheet of parchment paper inside the dutch oven and set aside. Don't worry if the parchment paper overlaps the dutch oven.
In a large bowl sift your flour, baking soda and salt.
1 ½ cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup All purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt
Now add your brown sugar and mix it into the flour mixture.
¼ cup brown sugar packed
Add your oats and mix that around.
1 ½ cups oats (old fashioned)
Now add your buttermilk. The original recipe calls for 1 ½ cups of buttermilk but I found this was too dry (maybe because it is always so wet in Ireland that breads need less liquids), so I added an additional ¼ cup of buttermilk so that the dough is moist not crumbly and it came out great. So start with 1 ½ cups and add more until you have a very moist dough.
1 ½ - 1 ¾ cups of buttermilk
After you add your buttermilk mix it well by folding your dough around with a spoon making sure to get all of the flour incorporated into the buttermilk.
Once that is done, bring your bowl over to your dutch oven and dump the dough right in to it.
With the back of a spoon or a spatula, smooth out the dough into a round even shape.
Score the top of your dough with a very sharp knife by making an X pattern. Make sure to only score halfway through the dough. This is a traditional pattern for Irish soda bread.
Now place the lid on your dutch oven and place it in your pre-heated oven for 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes, remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes to give the bread a nice brown golden crust.
When done, remove from the oven and take your bread out of the dutch oven and place on a baking rack for 30 minutes to cool slightly (it is best eaten right after this when it is still warm).
With a serrated knife, cut your bread into 1 inch slices. The bread will have a nice hard crust on the top and bottom and the inside will be nice and soft.

Nutrition