Guinness Brown Bread

2 slices of brown bread on a wood board.

5 from 1 vote

Guinness Brown Bread, a delicious variation of the classic Irish soda bread. It's a quick bread recipe that doesn't need any yeast nor proving, and it's on the table in under one hour. The buttermilk, Guinness stout and bicarb of soda act as the leavening agents in this bread to give it a lovely texture and great taste.

Prep Time10

Cook Time50

Total Time1

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Irish

Servings: loaf

Calories: 2429kcal

Author: Daniela Apostol

Ingredients

350 g wholemeal flour (whole grain flour, 2 ¾ cups)
100 g plain flour (¾ cup)
50 g rolled jumbo oats (½ cup)
1 ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
50 g butter (¼ cup)
250 ml buttermilk ( I used Guinness Draught 0.0 alcohol free, 1 cup)
225 ml Guinness (1 cup)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit, 180 fan oven).
In a large mixing bowl, sift the flours, add the butter cut into cubes, and use your fingertips to rub them together to create a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the oats, salt, sugar and bicarbonate of soda, and use a spatula to mix everything together.
Pour in the buttermilk and Guinness, and mix well to get a sticky wet dough.
Butter and flour a 4 lb loaf tin - mine has 23.5 x11.5 x 8.5 dimensions.
Spread the dough well in the tin, sprinkle some more oats on the top, and bake for 45-50 minutes until the bread is well risen and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Leave the bread to cool down completely on a cooling rack before slicing.

Video

Notes

If the regular soda bread is traditionally round shaped, I find that this Guinness bread works better in a loaf tin, as the dough is a lot stickier and wetter than the regular bread dough.
Using bicarbonate of soda is crucial to get the bread going - do not substitute it for baking powder, or the bread will not work, and you will end up with a very dense soggy bread.
It is crucial to leave the bread to cool down completely before slicing it, as when it's still warm, as it doesn't have the right texture still. A perfectly baked bread is light without any soggy feeling to it.

Nutrition