Easy Soda Bread Rolls made with only 4 ingredients: plain flour, buttermilk, bicarbonate of soda and salt, a fantastic homemade bread that goes down a treat on St Patrick's Day, but also all year round. No back-breaking kneading, no proving, on the table in 40 minutes.
There is nothing more satisfying, and indeed delicious, than making your own bread. And if the whole process might seem overwhelming and rather intimidating, these delicious rolls are so easy to make, and pretty much failproof.
The regular yeast white bread is amazing, no doubt about that, but it does take at least 2 and a half hours to be ready, as the proving can be long without the right temperature. Still easy to make though.
But traditional soda bread doesn't need yeast, since the bicarbonate of soda acts as a raising agent and it makes the bread fluffy and delicious. And from the classic variation, you can get countless of different flavours to make the bread as yummy as one wishes.
My Guinness Brown Bread is another great variation of the classic soda bread, with a strong Irish touch. And the Manx Bonnag, which is a sweet bread originating in the Isle of Man, is very similar to the Irish soda bread.
You can even turn these rolls into muffins, my Irish Soda Bread Muffins are incredibly delicious and so easy to make!
These soda bread rolls use only plain flour, rather than half plain and half wholemeal flour. You can, of course, use the regular flours, or even just wholemeal flour, it's completely up to you!
Ingredients needed
- plain flour -all purpose flour
- buttermilk
- salt
- bicarbonate of soda
Step-by-step photos and instructions
As promised, this is such an easy recipe that comes together really quickly:
- sift the flour into a large bowl, add the salt and bicarbonate of soda, and mix everything well
- add the buttermilk and bring everything together quickly into a ball
- cut the ball into half, then quarter, then each quarter into half to end up with 8 small balls
- arrange each ball onto 2 baking trays lined up with non-stick paper, dust them well with flour, and use a sharp knife to cut a cross on top of each roll
- bake in the preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit) for 23-25 minutes until golden and if you tap on the bottom of the bread it sounds hollow
Expert tips
There is very little that could go wrong with this recipe, but there are a few tips to get a roll that is crusty on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
Make sure you don't over knead the dough - there really isn't need for that, just use your hands to bring the ingredients together quickly into a slightly sticky dough.
If you don't have buttermilk, you can use plain full-fat yogurt or sour milk, you should get the exact same results. It's the acidity that together with the bicarb of soda helps the bread rise.
And that's pretty much it, a super simple, super delicious bread recipe that goes fantastically well with any soup or stew. Do give it a go!
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Soda Bread Rolls
Ingredients
- 500 g plain flour
- 475 ml buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit)
- Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the salt and bicarb of soda.
- Mix them well, then pour in the buttermilk.
- Use your hands to bring everything together quickly into a large bowl.
- Use a sharp knife to cut the dough ball into half, then into quarter, and each quarter into half again to end up with 8 small balls.
- Arrange the balls onto 2 baking trays lined with non-stick paper, dust them with flour and cut a cross on the top of each ball.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and when you tap on the bottom of a roll it sounds hollow.
Video
Notes
- If you'd like to see the ingredients listed in cups and ounces, please check the US Customary Link.
- Also, the amount of ingredients changes depending on the servings, so click on the number listed to change it to the number you prefer.
- Make sure you don't over knead the dough, just bring all the ingredients together quickly.
- If you don't have buttermilk, plain yogurt or sour milk can be used instead.
Nutrition
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Albert L J Hall
LIke a lot of recipes on the web some of those for SODA BREAD are, to me, guilty of 'over jamming the sandwich' as it were and I find this one, though as basic as it get much nearer the 'Soda Bread Spirit' than most though I might just try adding some 'grated cheese or herbs at some point.
As for theBUTTERMILK. I make mynownYOJHURT by adding a long dated small carton of plain yoghurt to a 4 pint carton of milk stand in the airing cupboard, give it ashake aftera couple of days and BINGO! .After all it's the LACTIC ACID in Buttermilk, Yoghurt or sour milk that' with BICARBONATE of SODA that are the active ingredients
Shelagh Erskine
Thanks for this lovely recipe, I hadn’t made individual soda bread rolls before ! Can add the grated rind of 1 orange to the basic recipe.
Daniela Apostol
Thank you! Absolutely, the flavour will be really nice!