Easy White Soda Bread

A crusty bread on a wooden board with a green-patterned tea towel around it.

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Easy White Soda Bread, a fantastic Irish recipe that is perfect for your St Patrick's Day celebrations, but also all year round. It's a delicious crusty bread that is wonderfully fluffy on the inside and has an incredible aroma. Only 4 simple ingredients, no yeast, no kneading, sheer goodness!

Prep Time15

Cook Time30

Total Time45

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Irish

Servings: bread

Calories: 2134kcal

Author: Daniela Apostol

Ingredients

500 g plain flour (4 cups)
500 ml buttermilk (2 cups)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit).
In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, add the salt and bicarbonate of soda and give it a good mix.
Add the buttermilk and use your hands to bring everything together into a dough.
Flour a baking tray, transfer the bread onto it, and dust the top of the bread with flour.
Use a sharp knife to cut a cross on top of the bread, making sure you don't cut all the way down.
Bake for 30 minutes, then remove it from the oven and allow it to cool down completely on a cooling rack.

Video

Notes

Make sure the oven is well preheated before the bread goes in, as the bicarb of soda and the buttermilk start working straight away, so the heat will help the bread get the instant rise it needs.
The dough might look too sticky, but that's ok, it gives a bread a perfect crust and the bread is super fluffy on the inside. I find that less buttermilk makes the bread quite stodgy.
Instead of adding more flour to the dough, just dust your hands generously with flour in order to give it a shape, then dust some more flour on top of the bread.
As tempting as it might be, it is best to allow the bread to cool down completely before slicing it, as when it's hot the bread is not as perfectly springy.

Nutrition