This is the perfect Irish Soda Bread that has a combination of white and whole wheat flour, buttermilk and butter! Lightly sweet and nutty, it’s the perfect companion to any hearty dishes like Irish Stew, corned beef and cabbage or any kind of heart Irish fare.
Who is Mrs. O’Callaghan? In the (March 2010) issue of Bon Appetit Magazine, Actor Andrew McCarthy writes about his quest to find the Ultimate Irish Soda Bread recipe in Ireland– where he has a second home. I will print a portion of her quote, from this article:A tiny, still-elegant woman with red hair, Mary O’Callaghan has been baking her mother’s recipe for brown soda bread through 45 years of marriage and 12 grandchildren. “It takes me five minutes now to make. I like it with just some butter and a bit of the marmalade we get right in Doolin. Or it’s lovely with a slice of salmon for lunch.” Mary made all five of her children’s wedding cakes and did all the baking for the hotel, but now, it’s just the brown bread. She leans close. Her hazel eyes are dancing. “Denis likes it,” she whispers. And it’s easy to see what wowed her husband 45 years earlier, when Mary’s mother was Denis’s teacher at school.
I decided to experiment using a food processor. I’m all about shortcuts, so here we go! Pulse the cold butter, until crumbly. Then add the buttermilk. Once the dough becomes “shaggy” (that’s what the recipe said). Shaggy? Mine was a little dry, but clumpy.
On a lightly floured surface, I kneaded the dough together…and kneaded…and kneaded. It took some work to get the dough to “stick”. I’m not sure if I should have used a little less flour? I finally resorted to using a rolling pin to smooth out the ball of dough to about 7″ in diameter. As instructed, I cut an “X”. I improvised and brushed a little melted butter on top and sprinkled some Old-Fashioned Oats– for some texture. I set the dough on parchment paper and baked it at 425 for 40 minutes (checking it at 35 minutes). Later, I realized I could have used a baking stone. D’oh!
My advice is to be sure to bake to a golden brown. My dough was shaped “round”, so the ends baked first and it the middle seemed a little less baked. The workaround to this is to bake it in a loaf pan. (I ended up returning the loaf back into the oven for 5 more minutes, and it worked out just fine. The smell is incredible! No kidding, my mouth was watering…
I intend to try another version, or two, of Soda Bread. The bar is set high, because this is a winner. I served this with Irish Stew and another time with “Eggs in Purgatory” . The bread was perfect for both recipes. Tomorrow morning, we are going to lightly toast a slice of this, slather it with butter and homemade marmalade and a cup of hot tea.
If you are afraid of yeast breads (which, fortunately, I am not), this is super easy to make. I’m not Irish, but but my visit to Ireland has left a special place in my heart for this Green Isle, the people and the food. For that reason, I like to make Irish recipes for St. Patrick’s Day. I have a few different ways of preparing corned beef and cabbage (which really more of a US tradition and not really a big deal in Ireland. Or, I like to cook with Guinness Stout to make a nice glaze for pork chops and some Irish Colcannon.
TASTING NOTES: This really is a simple quick bread, but I’d suggest that you add about 1 cup less of each type of flour, at first. You can always add more flour, but while kneading the dough, it took a bit of elbow grease to get the dough to really stick together.
Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
- Nonstick vegetable oil spray
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick) , cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons butter melted, optional
- 1 tablespoon oatmeal not Irish oatmeal
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Spray heavy baking sheet with nonstick spray. Whisk both flours, sugar, and baking soda in medium bowl to blend. Add butter and cut in until the butter is reduced to pea-size pieces. Grating the butter makes this task must easier. Add buttermilk; stir until shaggy dough forms.
- Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Knead until dough comes together, about 10 turns.
- Shape dough into 9-inch round (the round should be about 1 inch high). Place dough on prepared baking sheet. Cut large X, 1/2 inch deep, in top of dough, almost all the way to the edges of the round.
- Bake bread in center of oven until deep brown and bottom sounds hollow when firmly tapped (a bamboo skewer inserted into the center of the bread should emerge clean without any stickiness or moistness), about 55 to 60 minutes. Transfer bread to rack and cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
I just love you and your posts…I feel like I am right in your kitchen with you and seriously wish I was so I could eat some of this soda bread. Photos are amazing as always!
Debby, we have subscribed to Bon Appetite for over 30 years. In all those years, we have always tried to make at least 2 recipes out of each issue and succeeded. Let's say we certainly have gotten our money's worth. This bread and your purgatory eggs look excellent.
Debby, your photos of the slices of bread with all that beautiful melting butter are awesome! If only there was a computer software program that allowed you to send me a slice just as you have posted; I'd be a happy happy guy.
Interesting story about Mrs O'Callaghan & Andrew's quest. I'll have to get a copy and read it.
I want a slice of that:D It looks gorgeous Debby! I love the picture of the slice with the butter and honey – yum!
This bread looks exactly like the kind I happily ate all around Ireland. So delicious!
I just subscribed to Bon Appetit after getting a special offer from Amazon.com. I love all of their recipes so I don't know why I waited so long either. It's been SO LONG since I've had Irish Soda bread…maybe since elementary school? I definitely am going to try to squeeze in some time to make it this year. Yours looks quite delicious.
How could we resist the call of the Irish Debby:D
You can bet I'll be making this in a week or two!
I love bread. It is one of my weaknesses. I gave it up when I started low carbing but when I saw your post, your pictures drew me in to read about this bread. It looks awesome! 🙂
I just found your blog and I'm really enjoying it!
I love Bon Appetit – have been reading it for years. I've never had Irish Soda Bread – about time to fix that!
I had just finished reading BA when I saw your post…I had decided that I would be making this bread. Thanks for taking it on a trial run!! It looks so delicious.
I saw this post hte other day and wanted to comment but I didn't have time! Actually I didn't want to comment, I wanted to reach through the screen and grab a piece of this. yum!
Hi Debby, Just wanted you to know that I made this soda bread and mentioned you when I posted on the Saturday Blog Showcase.
http://www.thibeaultstable.com/2010/03/hot-fudge-sauce-saturday-blog-showcase.html
I just put a loaf of this bread in the oven after reading the article from Bon Appetite. I have been a faithful subscriber to this great magazine for 30+ years, since the year I graduated from college. I love it!
My bread dough was so dry when kneeding it that I had to put it back in the bowl and add some more buttermilk. We'll see how it turns out, but yours looks absolutely perfect.
Soda bread does not need kneading,the key to it turning out right is handling it as little as possible. Once you turn it out of the bowl, shape it and put on baking tray. Also the idea of the cross on top is to mmake sure it cooks evenly throughout, and from your photos it looks like quite a shallow cross you put on it so that could explain why it baked unevenly… (I'm Irish and make soda bread regularly!). Nice to see other people making it though, well done. 🙂
I tried this recipe and could not get the dough to stay together enough to shape into a 9-inch round. Every time I worked with it, it kept falling apart. It was almost as if there was not enough liquid in the recipe. Are you sure something isn't missing? An egg, more liquid? I finally got it together enough to go ahead and try baking it, but it turned out looking like a craggy old mountain on the top. My husband said salt was missing, too. I want to try to make it again, but I don't want it to turn out the same way.
I'm sorry you had problems, Norma. Honestly, I made this recipe exactly as I found it in Bon Apetit! I added a little bit of liquid until it just came together and mine turned out great.
Thanks. My husband and I talked it over and decided we're going to try it again but add more liquid. It just didn't seem like there was enough. The bread does have a good taste to it, though.