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.
Servings: 1 bread loaf
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
Calories: 455kcal | Carbohydrates: 95g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 3422mg | Potassium: 134mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 6mg
Nutrition Values are estimates only.
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