This Irish brown soda bread is made with a blend of whole wheat and white whole wheat flour and is delicious and easy to make! It’s kind of a splurge on carbs, but I have to make it every year when it’s St. Patrick’s Day in memory of my dad!
Use the Irish Brown Soda Bread to try later!
Irish soda bread is one of those dishes that everyone in America associates with St. Patrick’s Day, and you’ll find many variations on the recipe, although traditionally in Ireland soda bread contains flour, baking soda, salt, and sour milk or buttermilk. Maybe we should call our bread American Irish Soda Bread, but whatever you call it, this is it Brown Irish Soda Bread Easy to prepare and delicious.
For my Irish Soda Bread recipe, I used a blend of white whole wheat and whole wheat flour with the addition of wheat bran and wheat germ to make it relatively healthy, and in the updated recipe I swapped out the brown sugar to sweeten the Golden Monkfruit.
And this is the second version of Irish soda bread featured here, although when I started this blog, I never dreamed of making Irish soda bread. Then I began to hear about it, and found out that my father, who was partly Irish, loved it, and during the last years of his life I made it for him every year on St. Patrick’s Day. And I’ve been doing it every year since then, and I don’t mind going overboard on the carbs a bit for a holiday tradition like this..
(Irish soda bread with whole wheat and white oats It was my first baking soda recipe. You can use this link for a printable recipe if you’d like to try it.)
What ingredients do you need?
(This is a list of ingredients only; please scroll down for the full printable recipe. OR if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the full recipe.)
Why is this type of bread called soda bread?
The only leavened ingredient in this bread is baking soda, which is why it’s called soda bread!
Want more healthy baking ideas?
I’m more of a cook than a baker, but I do have a few other ideas for delicious bread, including low-carb almond flour bread. You can find it in the index Sweets and baked goods.
More Irish soda bread from my blogging friends:
I learned about Irish Soda Bread in the early days of my blog, and here are more ideas for Irish Soda Bread from some early blogger friends:
How to make Irish brown soda bread:
(This is just a summary of the recipe steps; please scroll down for the full printable recipe. OR if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, you will be taken directly to the full recipe.)
- mix together Whole white wheat flour (affiliate link), Whole wheat flour (affiliate link), toasted wheat bran, wheat germ, oatmeal crumbs, Golden Monkfruit Sweetener (referral link), baking soda, and salt.
- The recipe called for the butter to be cut into small pieces, but my butter was frozen so I peeled the rolled butter up to the 2 T mark and grated it with the large side of a grater. This worked really well.
- Here’s what the grated butter looked like before I mixed it in with my fingers.
- Pinch the butter into the flour with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
- Measure out 2 cups of the buttermilk, and add it in 1/2 cup increments until the mixture becomes a loose paste. (In Utah where it’s very dry, I used 2 full cups of curd, but you might not need all of it.)
- Here is what my dough looked like after mixing the curd.
- Scrape the dough into a 9-inch by 5-inch by 3-inch loaf pan that you’ve sprayed with olive oil or nonstick spray. (I smoothed the top down with my fingers but later thought maybe I shouldn’t!)
- Here is how my brown soda bread used to bake for 43 minutes at 425F/220C. Let it cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes, then eat it warm.
More Irish American foods:
paying off Low-carb, Irish-inspired keto recipes for St. Patrick’s Day To see my other favorite things I used to make for my little Irish dad!
ingredients
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1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
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1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
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3 tons of toasted wheat bran
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3 tons of roasted wheat germ
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2 ounces oatmeal (I used oatmeal “crumbs” that were ground in a food processor)
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2 tons of golden monk fruit sweetener
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1 tsp. baking soda
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1/2 tsp. salt (I used finely ground sea salt)
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2 T cold butter, cut into small cubes or grated on the large side of a cheese grater
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2 cups curd (you may not need all of it, but have 2 cups just in case you need it)
directions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F / 220°C.
- Spray a 9-inch by 5-inch by 3-inch loaf pan with olive oil or nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, mix Whole white wheat flour (affiliate link), Whole wheat flour (affiliate link), toasted wheat bran, wheat germ, oatmeal crumbs, Golden Monkfruit Sweetener (referral link), baking soda, and salt. Mix well
- Cut the butter into small cubes or grate it with the large side of a cheese grater, then add the butter to the flour mixture.
- Wash and dry your hands, then use your fingers to pinch the butter into the flour until it is well blended and the mixture resembles coarsely ground cornmeal.
- Measure out two cups of curd.
- Add the curd to the flour/butter mixture 1/2 cup at a time, stirring after each 1/2 cup curd is added.
- Keep adding the curd until you get a loose paste. (Depending on where you live and how dry your flour is, you may not need all of the buttermilk.)
- Scrape the dough into the sprinkled loaf pan.
- Bake until bread is very brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes. (I baked the bread in these photos for exactly 43 minutes.)
- Run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert the bread onto a cooling rack and let it cool for 10-15 minutes on the rack before slicing.
notes
Irish soda bread can be eaten hot, and it also makes a great toast. This kind of brown soda bread with a little butter in the recipe will keep a little longer than some types of Irish soda bread, but it’s still best to eat the day you make it or the day after.
Recipe adapted slightly from The Bon Appetit Cookbook.
Nutrition information:
fruit:
12
Serving size:
1 slide
Amount per service:
Calories: 173Total fat: 4 gramsSaturated fat: 2 gramsUnsaturated fats: 0 gramsUnsaturated fats: 2 gramsCholesterol: 9 mgsodium: 311 mgcarbohydrates: 29 gramsFiber: 4 gramssugar: 2 gramsprotein: 7 grams
Nutrition info is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I’m using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, as many variables affect these calculations.
Low Carb Diet / Low Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Obviously, this Irish brown soda bread isn’t appropriate for a strict low-carb diet, but it’s relatively low-glycemic and authentically South Beach-friendly, and probably not quite as much of a carb for a holiday dish, especially if you’re Irish. . Patrick’s Day!
Find more recipes like these:
Uses Sweets and baked goods To find more baking recipes. Use the Diet type indicator To find recipes suitable for a particular food plan. You may also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on PinterestAnd in FacebookAnd on instagramAnd on TikTokor on YouTube See all the good recipes I share there.
Historical notes for this recipe:
Irish Brown Soda Bread was first published in 2010. I’ve been making it ever since, and the recipe was recently updated with more info in 2023.
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