If you are looking for a quick and easy soda bread recipe, then you have come to the right place. Irish Soda bread is made with buttermilk and does not contain yeast – so there’s no kneading involved. You can have this delicious seed-packed loaf on the table in less than an hour. What are you waiting for?
Seeded Irish Soda Bread with Buttermilk
This seeded Irish soda bread is jam-packed with goodness. It is made with half wholemeat and half regular flour and is crammed with pumpkin and sunflower seeds. For added goodness it contains sesame and linseeds (otherwise known as flaxseeds).
It is delicious served fresh out of the oven, smeared with butter. Or you can use it to mop up the juices from your favourite soup or stew. And if there is any left over, you can even make sandwiches for your lunch. This soda bread will stay fresh for up to 3 days, stored covered in your bread bin.
There is no yeast in this bread. Insead, bicarbonate of soda is used. The buttermilk reacts with the bicarb to form tiny bubbles which cause the dough to rise. Consequently, you don’t have to spend hours kneading and waiting for the the dough to rise. Just combine all the ingredients, pop it in the oven and you have a mouth-wateringly good loaf of seeded Irish soda bread in under an hour. You can’t get easier than that!
How to make Seeded Irish Soda Bread with Buttermilk
Ingredients
You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions on how to make this recipe on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
To make this recipe for Irish soda bread you will need the following ingredients.
- 200g each of wholemeal and plain flour. The plain flour is just normal all purpose flour (not bread flour).
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (or baking soda) – don’t use baking powder. It won’t rise properly if you do.
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 25g pumpkin seeds + 1 tablespoon to sprinkle on top of the loaf before baking.
- 25g sunflower seeds
- 1 tablespoon each of:
- linseeds (flax seed)
- sesame seeds (untoasted is fine but you can use toasted if that is all you have)
- black treacle – dip your spoon in oil before measuring this out. The treacle won’t stick to the spoon.
- sugar – you could substitute this for 1 tablespoon of honey if you prefer
- sunflower oil – that is all the fat that you will need for this recipe
- 500ml buttermilk
Steps
Pre-heat the oven to 180C / 360F
Grease a 8″ x 4″ loaf tin and set aside
Place the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl
- Measure the wholemeal flour into a mixing bowl and sift the plain flour on top.
- Add the salt, sugar and bicarbonate of soda and the seeds and and stir to mix through.
- Make a well in the centre and pour in the buttermilk, treacle and oil and mix well to combine
The texture should be a soft dropping consistency – similar to a cake batter. If it seems too thick, you can thin it down with a splash of milk.
Bake
Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds.
Place in the pre-heated oven and bake for 40 – 45 minute.
The loaf will be cooked when a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out cleanly. Alternatively you can knock on the bottom of the tin. If the loaf if cooked, it will sound hollow.
Your questions answered
If you don’t have any buttermilk, you can use any one of these alternatives:
– Add 1 Tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk and let it stand for a few minutes until it thickens.
– Add 1 and 3/4 teaspoons cream of tarter to 1 cup of milk
– Use 1 cup of plain yoghurt in place of the buttermilk
Buttermilk contains lactic acid, and this reacts with the bicarbonate of soda to form tiny bubble of carbon dioxide which causes the bread to rise.
You can wrap the loaf in plastic wrap and store it in your freezer for up to 6 months.
To use, remove from the plastic wrap, cover with a clean tea-towel an let it stand on the counter until it has defrosted.
You can store the loaf, in a plastic bag, for up to 3 day at room temperature.
This loaf is delicious, fresh from the oven, with butter and jam or marmalade. You can also serve it with soups and stews, or use it to make sandwiches. My favourite sandwich made with this bread is slices of ham and tomato, with a shredded lettuce and mayonnaise.
It is delicious served as part of a ploughman’s platter, with cheese and pork pies. My favourite way is to serve it with a bowl of hearty Irish seafood chowder or a warming bowl of winter beef and vegetable soup. For a quick and easy light lunch, serve a slice with a bowl of orzo pasta summer salad.
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Convert grams to cups
To help you convert your recipes, I have created a handy Cookery Conversion Calculator which will convert ingredients between grams, ounces, tablespoons, cups and millilitres. I hope you will find it useful.
If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read about how to do this in this post on baking at high altitudes.
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Recipe – Seeded Irish Soda Bread with Buttermilk
Seeded Irish Soda Bread with Buttermilk
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Spatula
- 8" x 4" loaf tin (29cm x15cm)
Ingredients
- 1½ cups (200g) Wholewheat flour
- 1½ cups (200g) Plain flour
- 2 tablespoons (25g) Pumpkin Seeds
- 2 tablespoons (25g) Sunflower Seeds
- 1 Tablespoon (10g) Linseeds (flax seeds)
- 1 Tablespoon (10g) Sesame Seeds
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 pint (500 ml) Buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon Black Treacle
- 1 tablespoon Sunflower oil
- 1 tablespoon Sugar
Instructions
- Measure the wholewheat flour into a large mixing bowl
- Sift in the plain flour
- Add the seeds , the bicarbonate of soda, the sugar and the salt and stir together.
- Make a well in the centre and add the buttemilk, treacle and sunflower oil.
- Mix well to combine
- Pour into greased 8" x 4" loaf tin
- Sprinkle with 1 Tablespoon pumpkin seeds
- Place in the oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, or the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath.
- Remove from the oven.
- Serve warm with butter. Or serve with your favourite soup or stew.
Notes
- 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice mixed with 1 cup of milk
- 1 cup plain yoghurt
- 1 and 3/4 teaspoons of cream of tartar mixed with 1 cup of milk
I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.
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Hello VJ. I am keen to try this loaf. When you specify Plain flour’, is that Bread flour or Cake flour? I ask because of gluten content. Got this recipe from your Beef Vegetable Soup post. Thank you.
Hi Lawrie
The loaf uses a mixture of plain all purpose flour (cake flour) and wholewheat flour. I added the wholewheat flour because of the lovely texture it gives but to be honest you could swap this for cake flour although there would still be gluten in the cake flour. Do you have a brand of gluten-free flour in mind? I hope you manage to try it – it goes really well with the soup!
VJ xx