Simple, savory Irish soda bread with a few tweaks, this Rustic Irish Soda Bread is a breeze to prepare. With a few simple swaps to lower the calorie count, including light buttermilk and light butter, the rest of the ingredients remain the classics. I skipped the raisins here, but feel free to add them if your family’s classic soda bread recipe uses them.
What you’ll need to make a loaf of rustic Irish soda bread
Here’s the simple, short ingredient list for this recipe:
- all purpose flour
- sugar
- caraway seeds
- kosher salt
- baking soda
- light butter
- light buttermilk
- egg
- cooking spray
What I used to bake the bread
I used a baking dish for this, it is oval in shape and measures approximately 9″ x 12″. You can use a baking dish similar in size, or two smaller loaf pans. I haven’t tested the bake times for this recipe in different sized dishes, but you can just check for the bread to be golden in color.
How to make the dough
This honestly couldn’t be simpler; all we are doing here is mixing the dry and wet ingredients separately, and then combining them. Add the flour, salt, baking soda, sugar, and caraway seeds to a bowl. Then, add the butter, and mix it in (you can use your hands here).
In a separate bowl, add the buttermilk and egg together. Whisk them together, and then pour the mixture into the dry ingredients.
When the dough is mixed, it will look like this. It might feel a bit wet, but I think this is what ended up making this bread moister, and not as dry as you might be used to. Spray the baking dish, and add the dough to the dish. Pop it in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.
Serving the bread
The recipe for this bread is for 12 servings, but you can divide this however you want! This bread is delicious served warm, sliced and with butter. It’s divine! It’s even better toasted in the morning with some butter and jam.

Easy Irish Soda Bread
Equipment
- baking dish or large loaf pan
Ingredients
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tsp caraway seeds
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup light butter
- 1.75 cup light buttermilk
- 1 egg
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, caraway seeds, kosher salt, and baking soda.
- Add the butter to the bowl, and mix with your hands.
- In another bowl, combine the buttermilk and egg.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
- Spray the baking dish or loaf pan with cooking spray.
- Add the dough into the pan and bake for 40 minutes,
Sooo good! I’ve never made bread and was confused about how to get the butter mixed in but threw it in the oven anyway and turned out delish!
I made this for St. Paddy’s Day and I’m so glad I did. This bread is delicious! It was so easy to make too. Now I’m standing over the stove slathering the warm bread with butter and enjoying every bite!
Made this for St. Patty’s Day and it was delicious! I left out the caraway seeds because my family loves it plain but it had great texture and was not dry or too dense. Yum!!
This bread was addicting! I absolutely loved the flavor and texture of it. We ate it all week instead of just on St. Patrick’s Day. It was super easy to make and everyone really enjoyed it.
I just made this bread today, but I added 1/2C of raisins. I eliminated the caraway seeds, because I don’t like them. This bread is so good warm with light butter! Thanks for this great recipe! Definitely make this!!
Made this for St Patrick’s day and it was delish!! Not as dry as Irish soda bread usually is which made it so much better… I added raisins and it was a big hit!
This is delicious bread and a super easy recipe!