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!
Looks delicious! I haven’t made soda bread since I was a little kid and I’ve mostly been focusing on yeasted breads, but I should definitely try this.
I found that although white whole wheat is good for replacing white flour in things like cookies, it makes bread with a flavor that is neither as complex nor as pleasurable as red whole wheat (although, obviously, red whole wheat produces a heavier, slightly bitter loaf without a sweetener). Did you find that you liked the taste of the white whole wheat in the soda bread?
Sue, seriously drooling here!! tI have always wanted to try making soda bread, love the ease of this recipe…anf the homemade butter, divine! so easy and I bet the flavor is fresh. great pics!
Amazing, never thought of making my own butter. I will try it for sure! Thanks. 🙂
I want a big hunk of that gorgeous soda bread with some homemade butter for slathering on heavily. Looks amazing, Sue!!
Hah! I never knew that’s how buttermilk’s made. I’m sure Darina would’ve pooh-poohed me and given me a little figurative slap on the wrist for not being aware of such basics. But, it sure is fun to learn like this because I get to drool at pictures at the same time.
Wonderful write up Sue! Fun that so many of us made soda breads…and they all look different. Love the butter you made..you are so clever! What could be better than homemade butter with hot from the oven soda bread??
Sue, Such a wonderful post! Your bread looks perfectly beautiful! The butter looks so soft and creamy! I’m seeing beautiful breads all over the web today and they have inspired me! My grandson just asked this week if we could make butter…I sent a link for your blog to my daughter-in-law. You made it look so easy. Have a great weekend!
I love the instructions for making butter :-). The bread also sounds wonderful and I really liked the way you presented her biography. Have a wonderful weekend. Blessings…Mary
Susan—I completely agree, the soda bread was best warm from the oven. I gnawed on a piece of it this morning and it just wasn’t the same. I think we Americans are just too used to rich breads to be able to appreciate it!
Mireya—I should have weighed it, and now 1/2 of it’s gone 😉 I think I got about the equivalent of a stick of butter, so that would be 4 oz, maybe a bit more. Worth it, though, for guests, or to do with kids.