Traditional Irish Soda Bread

3.0

(10)

3 Reviews

By

Martha Stewart Test Kitchen

Updated on March 8, 2022

Servings:

6

This crusty, traditional Irish bread is a proud product of the peasant hearth—and the most suitable companion to Irish Stew. Soda bread requires no rising time, as baking powder, baking soda, and buttermilk act as leaveners.

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 cup whole-wheat graham flour
2 ½ teaspoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 ⅔ cups buttermilk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a large bowl. With a pastry blender or your fingertips, blend in butter until it resembles small peas. Add buttermilk all at once; stir with a fork until mixture holds together.
In the bowl, pat the dough into a domeshaped loaf about 7 inches in diameter. Lift out dough; transfer to lined sheet.
Lightly dust top of loaf with flour. Cut a 3/4-inch-deep cross in top, reaching almost all the way to edges. Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until deep golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Cook's Notes

Graham flour is coarser than regular whole-wheat flour, which also works. If you use the latter, substitute one-half cup wheat bran for one-half cup all-purpose flour.

Originally appeared: Martha Stewart Living, March 2004