Irish-American Soda Bread
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This Irish soda bread is dotted with currants and caraway seeds. Serve it as you would cornbread—as a breakfast, snack or side dish.
Known in Ireland as a Spotted Dog or Railway Cake, traditional Irish Soda bread is a simple table bread leavened with baking soda instead of yeast and generously “spotted” with currants and caraway seeds. This Irish-American version is a touch sweet — not quite dessert but definitely somewhere in between a cake and a bread. Serve it as you would cornbread — as a breakfast, snack, or side dish.
What you’ll need to make Irish-American Soda Bread
Some traditional Irish versions of this eschew add-ins like caraway seeds and dried fruit, but I think they’re nice additions from both a flavor and texture perspective.
How to make It
Begin by combining 2 tablespoons of the melted butter with the buttermilk and eggs.
Whisk well and set aside.
In another large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and caraway seeds.
Whisk to combine.
Add the liquid ingredients and currants.
Mix with a rubber spatula until just combined.
Grease a cast iron skillet generously with butter. This gives the bread a crisp and golden crust. Don’t worry if you don’t have a cast iron skillet — you can use two 8-inch cake pans.
Transfer the batter to the prepared skillet or pans, smooth with a rubber spatula, and dot the top with the remaining butter.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the top is golden and slightly puffed. Cool slightly and then cut into wedges and serve. This bread is best served fresh out of the oven, but also stays moist if wrapped in an airtight container.
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Irish Soda Bread
This Irish soda bread is dotted with currants and caraway seeds. Serve it as you would cornbread—as a breakfast, snack or side dish.
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1¾ teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
- 1¾ cups buttermilk (see note)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1½ cups dried currants
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F degrees and set the oven rack in the middle position.
- Smear 1 tablespoon of the butter evenly over the bottom and sides of a 10-inch cast iron skillet or two 8-inch nonstick cake pans.
- In a medium bowl, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter and let cool slightly. Whisk in the buttermilk and eggs. Set aside.
- In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and caraway seeds.
- Add the liquid ingredients and the currants to the dry ingredients. Fold with a rubber spatula until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan(s) and smooth the top gently with a rubber spatula. Dot the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
- Place the pan(s) in the oven and bake until the bread is puffed and golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool in the pan(s) and then cut into wedges and serve warm, or transfer the bread to a wire rack to continue cooling. This bread is best served fresh out of the oven, but keeps well if stored in an airtight container.
- Note: If you’d like to make your own buttermilk, check out the easy method here.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The bread can be frozen for up to 3 months. Once it’s completely cooled, wrap it securely in plastic wrap and place in the freezer. To reheat, wrap the bread in aluminum foil and warm it in a 350°F oven until hot.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (12 servings)
- Calories: 284
- Fat: 0 g
- Saturated fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 20 g
- Sugar: 18 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 0 g
- Sodium: 3 mg
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Comments
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Absolutely scrumptious. Making again today.
Hi Jenn!
I have now tried this recipe twice, and neither time did it disappoint! My husband won’t even wait for it to cool, we thoroughly enjoy it. It is soo simple with most of the ingredients being a staple in the kitchen. I grew up in a home where the same 10 dishes were made and no baking. Unfortunately this apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
I just happened upon your site one day, and it is by far the one that fits most with our family’s taste. I have made several of your recipes and will continue to.
I also appreciate the step by step instructions, reviews and questions that are provided on your site, it has helped immensely when deciding on a recipe to try.
Family favourites are this recipe, chicken tenders, and the beef stew with potatoes and carrots. I rarely deviate from recipes, as I don’t have that knack . I love I can that make these recipes as written and they are fantastic!
Thank you for making me, and any other basic cook, feel that we can cook and bake with confidence
Warmest Regards,
Cathy S.
You’re so welcome Cathy! 🙂
Would a 12″ cast iron pan be too big?
Hi Erena, I think it will work but it will be quite thin. Also, it will take less time to bake so keep a close eye on it. Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
Can this be made into muffins? I love this bread recipe A LOT! I noticed you do have a soda bread muffin recipe but it is slightly different from this one so I was hoping this could be made in muffin tins as well!
Glad you like this. I haven’t tried it, but do think you can it into muffins. Please LMK how they turn out if you try them!
Took me a while but I just took these out of the oven. They came out so good! I was able to get 14 out of the recipe and cooked them for about 22 minutes at 400.
Just made this – way better than a recipe I made yesterday. Very easy to follow and took no time at all. I used raisins bc it’s what I had. Going to stick with this going forward. As always, thanks for an amazing recipe, Jenn!
Nowhere near St. Patrick’s Day, but I made this today just for the heck of it. So easy! Looked perfect (used cast iron pan) and tasted amazing. Love the currants. I’m definitely making this again!
I didn’t know what to expect but we really love this bread. It worked really well in my cast iron frying pan and enjoy it both warm and cold. I will make this often.
My changes to make it dairy-free: used only 2 tbsp. olive oil in the batter, omitted the other uses for butter and used cashew beverage with lemon juice instead of buttermilk.
I did use only 2 tsp. of caraway seeds as it is not a flavor that I enjoy. This was perfect for us.
i forgot my rating
What size is the cast iron pan for the
soda bread?
Hi Carol, That’s a 10-inch skillet.
In looking at the photos, your batter appears thick like a bread batter, mine was thin. It cooked ok more cake like than bread. It tasted fine.
Instead of caraway seeds, my grandmother used chopped walnuts…delicious!