Irish soda bread history. Irish soda bread, whole grain

Hello friends! Here's a recipe for truly yeast-free bread - I baked Irish Soda Bread! It should be noted that soda bread was not invented in Ireland; soda was used as a leavening agent for many years before by the Americans. However, soda bread gained worldwide fame as the traditional bread of Ireland. Its peculiarity is that it is always very quick and simple bread, it comes from white and whole grain flour and from the mixture various types flour, often add nuts and dried fruits and various spices to the dough, often cumin. Before baking, make a cross-shaped cut on the bread.

I remembered this recipe because I just wanted something very simple and quick, plus I have a very positive attitude towards light soda notes in the taste of baked goods. Please note: this type of bread has every right to be called yeast-free, because it is loosened with soda and yeast is not added to the dough in any form: neither with sourdough, nor in its pure form. It is generally accepted that fermented bread is better for digestion, however, there are people who do not tolerate yeast bread well, be it a sliced ​​loaf from a supermarket or homemade leavened bread. For such people, soda bread is a great solution because the dough with soda completely avoids fermentation processes. Plus, soda bread is delicious! If you suddenly find that you don’t have a crumb of bread at home or you just want to try something new, bake it, it’s a very interesting bread! I took it for him freshly ground whole grain wheat flour (you can take not only wheat flour, you can make a mix of rye, wheat, oatmeal, spelled, etc.) and homemade curdled milk, not a drop of butter or eggs got into the dough!

Recipe in detail, for one loaf:

450 gr. whole grain wheat flour or a mixture of different types flour (but at least 50% should remain wheat);

350 gr. curdled milk or other fermented milk (kefir, fermented baked milk, whey, buttermilk, water, however, is also possible);

5-6 gr. salt;

20 gr. brown sugar (optional);

1 tsp without a slide of soda (about 3 grams);

100 gr. raisins (optional, but delicious with them).

The process is simple:

Turn on the oven in advance so that it warms up with stone and up to 230 degrees.

Rinse the raisins and pour boiling water for 15 minutes, drain the water.

In a bowl, first mix flour, soda, sugar, salt and raisins, add curdled milk, mix until smooth. There is no need to knead, the soda will begin to react with the acid instantly, and if you continue kneading until the gluten develops, you will squeeze out all the gas bubbles and the bread will turn out slightly loosened.

After mixing, the dough will be sticky, leave for about 15 minutes so that the bran swells a little and it becomes less sticky. Dump the dough onto a floured surface silicone mat.

Form a loaf about 6-7 cm high.

Or use a sharp knife to make a cross-shaped cut.

Place in the oven under the hood. Bake with steam for the first 15 minutes (under a hood), then remove the steam, reduce the temperature to 200 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes. The finished bread will make a hollow sound when tapped on the bottom.

Cool for grate, cut when cooled.

I cut it while it was warm and the bread crumbled mercilessly, but it was very tasty! Especially if you spread a piece with butter and then with currant jam))

This bread on video:

Music by N.A.S.A, composition Way Down.

Good luck and delicious bread!

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For many people Irish soda bread becomes the first bread that they decide to bake themselves. The reason is a simple recipe. No yeast, long kneading, proofing. I just mixed the dough with a spoon, kneaded it with my hands for a couple of minutes, rolled it into a ball and put it in the oven.


Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour,
  • glass of rolled oats,
  • 50 g butter,
  • a third of a glass of sugar,
  • one and a half teaspoons of soda,
  • 1 teaspoon salt,
  • 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of kefir or sour milk,
  • 2 handfuls of small raisins,
  • 2 handfuls of walnuts

How to make Irish soda bread

Mix all the “dry ingredients”: flour, oatmeal, sugar, salt and soda.


Remove the butter from the refrigerator and immediately cut it into small pieces. There is no need to soften the butter for this test.


Place in a bowl with dry ingredients and rub into crumbs with your hands. Literally one minute.


Cut the nuts with a knife and pour into the dough along with the raisins.


Pour kefir into the dough...


Mix well.


Place the dough on a floured board and knead for just a couple of minutes until you get a soft ball.


Flour a baking sheet or pan, place the bread, sprinkle flour on top and make two shallow cuts in the shape of a cross with a knife.


Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place the bread on the middle shelf. Bake for about an hour. It’s very easy to check if it’s ready: tap the crust; if it’s hardened enough, you’ll hear a dull sound. So our Irish soda bread is ready.

Irish soda bread has several dozen varieties. It is not necessary to add raisins, nuts, oatmeal or sugar to it. This bread can also be baked unsweetened, for example, with pieces of cheese and herbs. Only four ingredients remain unchanged: flour, soda, salt and sour milk.

History of Irish Soda Bread

Like many other simple and quick recipes, which has gained worldwide popularity, Irish soda bread was invented in the kitchens of poor people. It was baked almost every day. Only five minutes to knead, the cheapest ingredients. And if you throw a handful of dried cherries, a couple of spoons of sugar or some aromatic herbs into the dough, then such baked goods can be served at the holiday table.

Before putting bread in the oven, housewives made a cross-shaped cut on it, which protected the family from evil spirits. However, some historians believe that the magical meaning of the cross on bread did not appear immediately. Initially, bread was cut before baking so that it would be easier to break it into four parts.

Bread of this shape is traditionally baked in the South of Ireland. In the North, soda bread is flattened into a disk, which is cut crosswise into four pieces and fried in a frying pan. In remote areas of Ireland, the poorest Irish houses, where there were not only ovens, but even open hearths, housewives placed bread in cast-iron pots on tripods directly above burning peat.

Contrary to the legend widespread on the Russian Internet that soda bread has been baked in Ireland almost since the time of King Arthur, in fact this recipe is not even two hundred years old. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) was first developed in Ireland in 1840. Since then, the bread industry has come a long way. There is an abundance of lush yeast loaves and long loaves on supermarket shelves. But large Irish families continue to bake traditional soda bread almost every day, the recipes of which are passed down from generation to generation.

Irish bread can be baked in a slow cooker

I would also like to add that Irish bread is the first bread I baked. And I didn’t make it in the oven, like the one I baked to illustrate this recipe, but in a slow cooker, because I didn’t have an oven at that time. I can’t say that the device could completely replace the oven. Of course not. But I was able to bake a lot of things perfectly in it.

There are hardly many people who don't like bread. Some people are on a diet and cannot afford to eat enough of it, but everyone loves it.

Although nutritionists increasingly argue that yeast dough doesn't do us any good. That such baked goods cause fermentation in the stomach and intestines, causing dysbiosis and flatulence, but there is an alternative - soda bread.

Benefits of soda bread

Bread made without yeast, with sourdough and soda, is aromatic, soft and can replace baked goods with yeast. This product is quickly absorbed by the body, facilitates and speeds up digestion. This baking is coarser than yeast and makes the intestinal muscles and digestive tract.

Also, if you carefully monitor the calorie content of your food, then the soda version has much less sugar and additives than the yeast version.

Water buns recipe

There are many recipes for baking, including those without using yeast. But this recipe for real bread without yeast.

For baking you will need:

  • wheat flour - 700 g, if you stick to healthy image life, then add bran, or take wholemeal flour,
  • boiled cold water– 700 g
  • sodium bicarbonate - 10 g
  • lemon juice - 2 tsp.

Add baking soda to half the volume of flour and mix, leave a glass of water to dilute the lemon juice in it, and pour the rest of the water into the mixture and mix.

We dilute lemon juice in water, add the remaining flour, salt, water and lemon juice to the dough and mix for three minutes. There is no need to stir longer, otherwise it will lose its shape.

Grease the baking tray vegetable oil, put the rolled out loaf there and put it in the oven, heated to 70 degrees.

Bake at this temperature for 15 minutes, then increase the heat to 220 g and bake for another 50-55 minutes. The golden brown bun is ready to eat.

Irish bread by Julia Vysotskaya

Popular TV presenter Yulia Vysotskaya, in front of the audience, baked an Irish loaf with soda for breakfast with dried fruits. It is popular for its speed of preparation, benefits and wonderful taste.

For this product prepare:

  • Wheat flour with added bran – 500 g,
  • Kefir – 450 g,
  • Toasted sunflower seeds - optional
  • Sodium bicarbonate - 5 g.

Pour salt and soda into the flour, then pour in the kefir and knead into an elastic dough. Add sunflower seeds; they can be replaced with dried apricots or prunes, or other dried fruits to taste.

Be sure to sprinkle the dough form with breadcrumbs, place the finished bun there, make two cuts on top crosswise and bake in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 45 minutes.

If you are in a hurry, and you have a bread machine on your household, then use its services, then you will always have a freshly baked aromatic loaf for breakfast.


Rye baked goods are tasty and healthy, especially for those watching their weight. To make it you need:

  • rye flour -1.5 cups,
  • wheat - 1 cup,
  • kefir – 1 glass,
  • baking soda – 1 tsp,
  • equal proportions of sugar, salt and cardamom

Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins or pistachios are added to this dough.

Pour flour into a bowl, add bulk ingredients and pour kefir. Stir and add seeds and dried fruits, mix again. The dough will be elastic but sticky.

Roll out a ball, put it in a mold, pre-greased, and make two or three cuts on top.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees and place a baking sheet with a loaf of bread there. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top to make it golden brown.

Bake for 15 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 180 degrees and bake for another quarter of an hour.

We check the readiness of the loaf using a wooden splinter.

This bread can be eaten immediately hot, it is aromatic and fluffy, slightly sweet from dried fruits and has a crispy crust.

Bread without yeast

If you have unused kefir in the house, you can bake a loaf of it without using yeast. It’s easy and quick to prepare, and most importantly, you don’t have to wait for the dough to rise.

Required components:

  • kefir - 1 glass,
  • oatmeal - 0.5 cups,
  • bran (optional) -2 tbsp,
  • soda, salt, sugar 1 tsp each,
  • flour - 2.5 cups
  • honey -1 tsp (for lubrication).

Pour half a glass of kefir over the oatmeal and let it swell, then add the bran. Mix the dry ingredients for the dough in a bowl and pour the kefir and cereal into it.

Mix thoroughly and add the remaining kefir. Knead into a smooth dough.

Grease a baking sheet and place the rolled out dough on it. Make two cuts at the top. Bake for 45-50 minutes in a preheated oven at 200 degrees.

Brush the still hot loaf with honey and sprinkle with sesame seeds, if desired. Let cool without removing from the pan, and then eat.

Baking with whey

If you have whey from cottage cheese or sour milk left in the house, then use it to knead the dough from which bread and other pastries are baked.

You will need:

  • flour-600 g,
  • whey - 400 g,
  • NaHCO3 – 1 tsp,
  • granulated sugar-30 g,
  • salt to taste,
  • vegetable oil-50 g.

Leaving a little flour (50 grams) for subsequent operations, mix all the bulk products in a bowl.

Pour room temperature whey into the mixture, stir and leave for 15 minutes.

Then add the butter and remaining flour to the dough and mix thoroughly again for 5-10 minutes until it becomes airy and elastic.

Grease a baking sheet with oil and place the rolled out loaf there. Bake for 55 minutes at 180 degrees.

Expert opinion

Did you know?

IMPORTANT: Do not put the baking sheet in a cold oven!

Such baked goods are stored for a long time, do not become stale or moldy. And to make it fragrant, add your favorite dry herbs to the mixture at the first stage of work.


Many people have heard or read about tacos, so beloved by American farmers and gold miners.

They were kneaded from corn flour with the addition of baking soda and baked in dry pans without adding oil. It's delicious and healthy dish, which is stored for a long time.

You can diversify the taste of corn bread with ham, cheese, nuts or seeds, dried fruits and fresh berries.

To make homemade cornbread you will need:

  • corn flour - 1 cup with top,
  • chicken eggs – 2 pcs,
  • skimmed milk – 200 g,
  • soda and salt - half a teaspoon each,
  • sugar -1 tbsp.

Mix milk, egg, salt, sugar, soda in a convenient bowl and mix. Pour flour into the mixture in a thin stream, stirring gently with a fork, being careful not to beat.

The dough will be liquid, so it is better to bake it in small molds. You can use ceramic or silicone. Pre-lubricate them with vegetable oil.

Mix the dough again and carefully pour into the molds.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and bake until done.

Expert opinion


If you don’t like baked goods, then replace the milk with warm water and exclude eggs from the recipe, and change the taste with red pepper or cinnamon (0.5 tsp each).

Sourdough wheat bread with soda

To bake a loaf like your great-grandmothers baked, prepare a sourdough starter. To do this, mix 100 g of water and flour and stir until smooth.

Place this mixture in a convenient container, cover with a towel and put in a dark and warm place for 24 hours until fermentation occurs. During this time, stir the mixture 3 times at equal intervals.

The next day, add another 100 g of flour and about 50 g of water, and knead the dough again to make it thicker. Leave the starter for another 24 hours, don’t forget to stir.

On the third day, the starter is already ready, it is actively fermenting, i.e. Seething. Add more flour, to which add 1 tsp. baking soda, a glass of water and knead the dough. Leave it until it doubles in size.

After this, separate about one third and put it in the refrigerator. You can use this starter another time.

Roll out the remaining dough into a loaf, make two or three shallow cuts on top and bake in a well-heated oven for about 45 minutes. You can tell when the baked goods are ready by the satisfying smell.

The loaf will be golden brown and fluffy; if you wish, you can brush it with an egg diluted in water.

Unleavened cakes

To prepare quick flatbreads in a frying pan you will need:

  • flour - 500 g,
  • water - 1 glass,
  • salt and soda -1 tsp.

Mix flour with soda, and dissolve salt in water. Pour in water and knead the dough. Let it rest for 30 minutes, divide into 8-10 parts and roll out the cakes.

The pan should be hot and dry, dry the cakes in the pan, and then sprinkle a little water. These flatbreads are an excellent alternative not only to store-bought bread, but even to buns.

Recipe for custard loaf with soda

Choux bread can be prepared very quickly, and it will turn out tasty and appetizing.

You will need:

  • wheat flour – 600 g,
  • rye – 200 g,
  • salt, sugar - 1 tsp.
  • bread soda - 1 tbsp.
  • warm water – 1 glass,
  • boiling water-300 g.

Pour 200 g of wheat flour into boiling water and mix well, let cool slightly. Stir salt, sugar, soda in warm water and pour into the mixture, stir again.

Now add flour, first rye and then wheat and knead the dough. It will be both cool and elastic at the same time.

Place it in a bowl, cover with cling film and place in an oven preheated to 50 degrees.

IMPORTANT: turn off the oven after heating!

After half an hour the dough will rise, now form it into a loaf and let it rise in the oven again. After this, heat the oven to 220 degrees and bake the bun.

After 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 200 degrees and bake for another 40 minutes.

Homemade baking without using yeast is very useful product nutrition. It is completely safe for the body. What cannot be guaranteed when consuming store-bought baked goods.

Fluffy, fragrant and crispy Irish soda bread is made in five minutes and baked for thirty

Large industries use some dangerous yeast substitutes. The cake turns out to be very fluffy, but the consumer’s body may suffer. One of the popular recipes for such baking is Irish soda bread. It has become famous in many countries due to its ease of preparation. And also because it contains only cheap and affordable ingredients that are in the kitchen of every housewife.

A little bit of history

Where did this recipe come to us from? The idea of ​​making baked goods without yeast was born in poor Irish families. At that time it was the most widely used, since it took very little time to prepare and required cheap and accessible products.

Over time, the Irish fell in love with soda cakes and baked them almost every day. And to give it a solemn look, they added a handful of dried berries, herbs, and sometimes sugar. This is how they replaced holiday pies and cakes.

In ancient times, people were believers and surrounded themselves with various amulets. This is how the tradition arose of making cross-shaped cuts before placing the dough in the oven. According to legend, such a cross had the power to protect the family from evil spirits. Although historians claim that the cuts were made only for ease of separation.

By the shape of the loaf one could determine which region of the country it was from. For example, residents of the southern part of the country preferred to bake round buns. Disc-like, cut into four parts in the shape of a cross, are more typical of the northern inhabitants. These cakes are not baked, but fried in a frying pan.

It is worth noting that the poorest families did not have stoves or even frying pans.

Therefore, kalachi were baked in cast iron pots suspended over burning peat. But this did not greatly affect the taste of the soda bread.

Modern baking recipes without yeast

Modern housewives often choose Irish soda bread for their first experiments in cooking themselves. Which is understandable, since the baking process does not require infusion and long kneading of the dough. It is enough to mix all the ingredients with a spoon and knead with your hands several times.

There are now many recipes for Irish cakes. Over time, they changed and adapted to modern life. There are a lot of multicooker recipes that are now gaining popularity. Let's look at one of these.

To bake the product you will need the following ingredients:

  • a couple of glasses of coarsely ground flour;
  • one large spoon of oat flakes;
  • a teaspoon of sugar, salt in the same amount;
  • fifty grams of butter;
  • a small glass of kefir;
  • baking soda no more than one and a half teaspoons;
  • If desired, you can add seeds, nuts or dried fruits.

Initially, you need to mix the bulk ingredients in a deep bowl. Softened butter is added. After this, pour in kefir and knead. It should work out soft dough.


The Irish sometimes add a handful of caraway seeds or raisins to their soda bread.

Pour the resulting mixture into the multicooker container, which must first be greased with butter. It is necessary to cook for half an hour by selecting the “Baking” mode. To prevent the product from becoming dry, after cooking it can be greased with a piece of butter and wrapped in a towel.

No less popular among housewives is soda bread, the recipe for which includes currants. For it you need to mix three glasses of sifted flour and an incomplete glass of sugar. Add to them one teaspoon of salt, soda, and three level spoons of baking powder. Beat two eggs separately and mix them with two tablespoons of melted butter. You need to pour this mixture into the flour, add a glass of kefir, currants and knead. The dough should be the same thickness as for a sponge cake.

You need to bake this cake in the oven at a temperature of one hundred and eighty degrees for an hour.

After cooking, do not immediately remove the product from the mold. Let it cool.

Useful qualities and possible harm

To obtain real soda bread, only unleavened dough is used. The range of baking products is minimal, which means that it contains no harmful additives.

Thanks to the use of a minimal set of ingredients that are completely natural, such baked goods have a number of beneficial properties:

  • If you use wholemeal flour in your Irish bread recipe, eating it will help you lose weight and eliminate excess fat.
  • There is a large percentage of fiber in the product, due to which a feeling of fullness occurs after consuming even a small amount.
  • Baking has a lot useful substances: carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins.
  • Helps improve the digestion process.

In addition to its positive properties, Irish soda bread, like any other food product, has not only positive effects. If you consume a lot of such baked goods, the acidity in the stomach may increase.

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