Irish Brown Bread
Posted in: Food & Recipes from Ireland
This is variously referred to as Wheaten Bread (mainly in the north), Brown soda bread or just Brown Bread and there are probably as many different recipes as there are cooks.
At its basic level it is much the same as white soda bread except with whole grain flour.
There are two recipes here, the first for Brown Soda Bread at its most simple, the second for a slightly more complex whole wheat bread, though it’s also an easy recipe.
Irish Brown Soda Bread
If not made with a light touch this can be heavy and doughy, so handle with care. The most common mistake people make when first making soda bread is to think that the ingredients look too simple and so adding or altering ingredients.
This is a very simple recipe, but it works, so just stick to it!
As I write there is a loaf of this very bread baking in my oven, smelling delicious, which I am making to photograph for this article. We will eat it too of course!
All the notes on ingredients for white soda bread also apply here, so if you have not read them, do so before you start.
The recipe I use most often has half and half white and wholemeal flour, which makes a lighter, everyday, bread. There is a second recipe below for a more substantial version, which is excellent thinly sliced and served with smoked salmon.
Ingredients
| US | Imperial | Metric | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 cups | 14oz | 380g | Wholemeal Flour |
| 3 cups | 14oz | 380g | Irish white flour or unbleached flour |
| 1 teaspoon | 2 level teaspoons | Bread (Baking) soda | |
| 1 teaspoon | 2 level teaspoons | Salt | |
| 2½ cups | 1 pint | 0.75 litres | Buttermilk or sour milk |
Preheat the oven to 450ºF (230ºC/Gas Mark 8). Do not start until the oven is hot.
Method
Put the wholemeal flour into a large mixing bowl and add the sieved white flour, salt, sugar and bread soda. Mix well. Scoop out a well in the flour and pour in about ¾ of the milk. With your fingers draw the flour into the milk, mixing them with as light a touch as you can. The dough should come together easily into a soft ball, if it is too dry add a little more milk but avoid allowing the dough to become sticky.
Turn the dough onto a floured board and shape it into a flattened oval about 2 inches high. Cut a large cross into the surface. Place in the oven immediately.
After 10 minutes reduce the heat to 400ºF (200ºC/Gas Mark 6). Bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and knock on the base of the loaf – if it sounds hollow it is done. If not return to the oven for about 5-10 minutes more.
Irish Wholemeal Bread
This is a variation of brown soda bread which makes a loaf type bread that is darker and more moist than the one above and has a slightly nutty flavour.
It is heavenly with smoked salmon or with any kind of a cold seafood platter, or just with butter. Which brings me to….
…The difference between Irish Butter & American Butter
Irish butter has a higher fat content and a lower moisture content than typical American butter, which gives it a much higher smoking point. This means it can tolerate being cooked better, giving a lighter and less watery result. Higher fat also means more flavour, so you need less butter.
This may sound irrelevant, but it explains, at least in part, why recipes that work perfectly in Ireland can taste different, and not always as nice, when they are made somewhere else.
Many specialty food stores in the USA stock European butter and those that do usually have Kerrygold, a well known brand of Irish butter. Which is all very well, except that it is counted as a luxury gourmet item and is about 4-5 times as expensive as it would be here. So using it would make for pretty expensive cooking!
A good alternative in Irish recipes that call for butter is to use half butter half sunflower oil, which about brings the fat content up to the same level, though it will not replicate the flavour. Another good option is to use clarified butter, if you can get it.
Ingredients
| US | Imperial | Metric | |
| 2½ cups | 12oz | 320g | Wholemeal Flour |
| 1½ cups | 8oz | 260g | Irish white flour or unbleached flour |
| ½ cup | 3oz | 80g | Wheat germ |
| 2 teaspoon | 4 level teaspoons | Honey | |
| ½ teaspoon | 1 level teaspoon | Bread soda | |
| ½ teaspoon | 1 level teaspoon | Salt | |
| 3 teaspoons | 1½ tablespoons | Butter, at room temperature | |
| 1 | Large egg | ||
| 2 cups | ¾ pint | 0.5 litres | Buttermilk or sour milk |
Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC/Gas Mark 6). Do not start until the oven is hot.
Method
Spread the wheat germ on a baking tray and place in the hot oven for 3-5 minutes until it is lightly toasted. In the meantime mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk together the egg, oil, honey and about ¾ of the milk.
When the wheat germ is done, leave it for about 2-3 minutes to cool a little then mix it in with the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into small pieces and with the tips of your fingers rub it into the flour.
Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the milk mix. Quickly and bring the flour in from the edges and mix with the milk, until all the ingredients come together into a soft slightly wet dough. It should not be overly sloppy, you should feel you could pick it up without it running through your fingers, but it should be soft enough that it sinks slowly down and takes on the shape of the bowl. If it is too dry add a little more buttermilk. There is no need to knead this dough.
Put into a 9″ x 5″ loaf tin, the inside of which has been smeared with a little butter or oil. Place in the oven. Bake for 50 minutes. The bread should be nicely browned, have a good crust and sound hollow when you tap it. If it seems a little underdone, put it back in for 10 minutes.
Allow the bread to cool in the loaf tin before turning it out.
This bread keeps for a few days, and is much easier to slice thinly if you wrap it in aluminium foil and keep it until the next day.
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I lived in Ireland and fell in love with the dense brown bread (2nsd recipe). I will have to leave a comment after I make it to see if it stands up to my expectations. Yummy, slice of brown bread with butter and a cup of Lyons Green Label tea… my mouth is watering.
I am in Ireland right now as I write this and I am crazy for this bread I’ve been eating. As I head home to the US in 2 days, I am looking to make this bread when I get home. A shop in the next town stocks Kerrygold butter so I am excited to try this. Thank you for sharing it. Ireland is amazing and I don’t want to leave!
Our favorite restaurant in Dingle made the most delicious small loaves topped with pumpkin seeds, and I am delighted to find your recipe and guidance. I hope that wholemeal is the same as whole wheat. I guess I am about to find out! Thanks so much.
I married an Irishman and we love this recipe. I found this on a fluke and then found the wholemeal flour in a shop and it was beautiful. Eat with Irish Stew or homemade soup….mmmmm….good.
I’m irish and just about to make my Mums brown bread buns… I think you have one major flaw in your receipe though. Sorry! Irish bread never has any sugar it in or honey… Or if it does its so little that you dont taste it. Thats the one thing I dislike about some breads when I go abroad.
I spent a good deal of time in Ireland and gathered the recipe for the brown bread before I left, as my neighbor made it the way I like it. It makes for a much heartier bread, but is sooo good for you and really goes so well with some good Irish butter and a cup of black tea. Here is the recipe I have:
Irish Brown Bread (Soda bread)
14 ozs (400g/scant 3 cups) stone ground wholemeal flour (I just use Gold Medal whole wheat)
2 ozs (55g/scant ¼ cup)white flour, preferably unbleached
1 tablesp. (1 American tbsp + 1 teasp) bran (oat or wheat)
1 tablesp. (1 American tbsp + 1 teasp) wheatgerm
1 level teasp. (1/2 American teasp) (I didn’t quite get this so I kind of used a little less than a tsp) bread soda (bicarbonate of soda)
1 teasp. salt
1 teasp. soft brown sugar
1 egg, preferably free range (I use brown fr rng)
2 tablesp. (2 American tablesp + 1 teasp) oil (I use 2 tbsp melted butter and 1 tsp oil)
14 fl ounces (400ml/scant 1 ½ cups) (I know the math doesn’t add up, but they call kilometers miles, so who knows what they mean. I just went with the 1 ½ cups) buttermilk or sour milk
Loaf tin, 9 in (23 cm) x 5 in (12.5 cm) x 2 in (5 cm) (good luck finding one of those. I used a regular bread pan)
Preheat the oven to 200 ◦c/ 400 ◦f/regulo 6 (induction ovens are very big over there)
Put all the dry ingredients including the sieved bread soda into a bowl and mix well. Whisk the egg, add it to the oil and most of the buttermilk. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid, mix well and add more buttermilk if necessary. (I did not find it necessary) The mixture should be soft and slightly sloppy. (like biscuit dough) Pour into an oiled tin and bake for 60 minutes approx., or until the bread is nice and crusty and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on wire rack.
Note: my neighbor would add finely chopped nuts such as pecans or pumpkin seeds as she felt like it. I substitute honey for the brown sugar, or leave it out altogether, increasing the salt instead. I have made this dozens of times since I’ve been back in the US and it comes out delightful every time.
my gran came from northern ireland about a century ago. her recipe just called for flour, baking soda and buttermilk. the loaves were round and flat. but after it cooled completely, she would slice them in half and fry them in bacon drippings til brown and crusty and we would eat them for breakfast with bacon and eggs. oh, so good. ive never heard of any other recipe like that, but we always ate it like that!
You are describing soda farls, which are a variant of soda bread mainly found in Northern Ireland. And yes, they are fried and are utterly delicious, although definitely not health food!!
you saved me in a crisis i couldnt find my cook book and i had to make the soda bread for today thanks for saving me
Oi! C.L. Cross. A kilometre is five eights (5/8) of a mile. Can be confusing! We know what we mean! I still use pounds instead of kilos! And I’m only 34!! Thanks for your recepie. I have to agree with Lynn about the sugar. Never the less I plan to make the recepie today as it is! Happy baking!
On the sugar controversy
I completely agree, Irish soda bread should never ever contain sugar/honey/syrup or any sweetener. Ever.
The first recipe above is for traditional Brown Soda Bread, and has no sugar. The second recipe is for an Irish style wholemeal bread, which is a different thing entirely. It still uses soda as its raising agent, but has a different appearance, taste and texture to the traditional version.
You can leave the honey out. But from experience in baking it without, when I didn’t happen to have honey about, I can tell you that it’s still nice, just not AS nice.
Hi Katherine
Thanks for the Irish Wholemeal Bread Recipe – it’s great
Margaret