Brown Soda Bread and Homemade Butter ~ this traditional Irish soda bread is made with a few simple ingredients ~ no yeast, and no kneading ~ and it bakes up into an gorgeous crusty artisan loaf. Pair it with my easy homemade butter and you’ve got an epic treat!
I think one of the charms of these recipes is how quick and easy they are. You don’t need to do any advance planning or prep work to have hot bread and fresh butter on the table for dinner. This soda bread is really close to being a biscuit or a scone; the only difference is that it doesn’t have the rich butter content. Think of it as a more healthy alternative to a biscuit… either that or a really good excuse to slather on lots of butter to make up the difference!
My previous experience with soda bread was not good. I last made it years and years ago, probably with white flour, and it was unimpressive, so I never touched it again. But I think here the whole wheat flour makes a difference. As does really good butter. This is not fancy or highly flavored bread, it’s a basic food for hungry people. If you make it right before dinner and serve it hot out of the oven, it’s wonderful.
This bread is as easy as weighing your flour, whisking in the soda and salt, and pouring in the buttermilk.
You don’t even really knead it, more like push it around on a floured counter just till it just holds together.
Slash a big X across the top and you’re ready to go.
Don’t forget the butter! It’s as easy as 1 2 3!
Beat heavy cream until it solidifies into crumbles of butter.
Then drain away the whey and strain through cheesecloth.
You’re left with fresh creamy butter!
Brown Soda Bread and Homemade Butter
Ingredients
bread
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, about 9 ounces
- 2 cups whole wheat flour, about 9 1/2 ounces (I used 18 1/2 oz of white whole wheat flour)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- I snuck in a Tbsp of brown sugar
- 2 cups buttermilk
butter
- 2 cups heavy cream
Instructions
- Set oven to 450F
- Weigh out your flour or lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Add buttermilk to flour mixture; stir until blended (dough will be sticky). Turn dough out onto a generously floured surface; knead lightly 4 to 5 times.
- Shape dough into an 8-inch round loaf; place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Cut a 1/4-inch-deep X in the top of the dough.
- Bake at 450F for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400° (do not remove bread from oven); bake 15 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.
How to make butter
- Put the heavy cream in a bowl and beat it as you would for whipped cream. Only keep beating. As you go, you will reach the regular whipped cream stage, then it will go beyond that into a kind of overly thick stage, and finally into a seperated state of curds and whey. Add a sprinkling of salt at this time.
- Drain the butter in a cheesecloth lined strainer for a few minutes, and then pick up the cheesecloth and squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the butter. That leftover liquid is buttermilk, save it to make scones!
- Transfer the butter into a container, smooth it down, and store.
Notes
- Don't overwork the bread, the dough is meant to be shaggy.
- Brown bread is best hot out of the oven, so go ahead, don't be shy!
This sounds good right now. With a bowl of thick chowder, I’d be in heaven. Plenty of butter is always my requirement with soda bread. 🙂
This sounds good right now. With a bowl of thick chowder, I’d be in heaven. Plenty of butter is always my requirement with soda bread. 🙂
Now you know why soda bread is my favourite, it’s fantastic to bake, even after a day at work.
In Brittany we never eat a lobster or crab without soda bread, and it’s great with fish pates and smoked salmon.
I’m a great fan of Darina Allen, and her daughter in law Rachel, both are inspiring cooks and I’d love to go and take a course there sometime. Jude x
Totally impressed with you and the bread and butter post! Your rustic brown soda bread is just a thing of beauty! I always think soda bread is best eaten right up while it’s warm. Mine never keeps well, even if I dress it up with raisins or currants.
Making the butter was such a neat addition to this nod to Darina Allen! Great post!
What a hearty and tasty looking loaf. And, I love your homemade butter as well.
What a nice simple rustic bread to honor Darina Allen by. Lovely write up.
What a great post about Darina and I loved the butter making tutorial. Did you actually get 8 ounces of butter from 2 cups of cream?
We loved Ireland and want to go back one day. I could actually live on bread and butter. Your’s look incredible. You really know how to make me happy with such posts! I am so interested in making butter, ok and eating butter 🙂 Have a lovely weekend!
Well, we made almost the same thing, though my whole wheat to white flour ratio is 3 to 1. My white soda bread is shaped like your brown and I do love that shape, though the loaf is a bit easier to use for sandwiches. The butter, which I made by mistake once, is great and you caught the process perfectly.
Thanks, Sue!
This is wonderful learning about his farm in Ireland. I think of our trip every single day and how much I would love to wander those little country lanes again and eat brown bread at every meal with some sort of fish stew. Sigh…sigh again…Your bread looks so delicious. I love the heartiness of a heavier bread.