Ironically, my venture into making Irish soda bread began with a completely different baked good: cookies. My friends and I were trying a new red velvet cookie recipe and mistakenly purchased buttermilk instead of butter. Thankfully, we found some reserve butter in our fridge and made our cookies without a hitch. Two days later, however, the true consequence of our actions reared its head. Our buttermilk — whose best-by date we hadn’t bothered to check — was on the brink of expiration.
As someone vehemently against food waste, I was not about to let that buttermilk go bad. I scoured the internet for hours, looking for a recipe that would use all 32 ounces of that dying dairy. After what felt like a lifetime of scrolling, I finally found it: Sally’s Baking Addiction’s Grandma’s Irish Soda Bread.
Irish soda bread gets its name from its leavening agent: baking soda. While most breads use yeast, Irish soda bread uses this salty base in a no-rise dough that can be prepared in under 15 minutes with mostly pantry staples. Simply mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, cut in the butter, and add lots and lots of buttermilk. Once the buttermilk is incorporated, lightly knead and form a boule shape, akin to sourdough bread. After 45 minutes at 400 F, you’ll have a freshly baked loaf of bread with a pillowy, soft inside and a crisp and crumbly crust.
Though I had eaten Irish soda bread before, this was my first time making it from scratch. For someone whose baking expertise starts and stops at cookies — the treat that got us here in the first place — I feel like I did pretty well! I’ll admit that she wasn’t a looker. With a dusty brown crust and lumpy shape, let’s just say that she did not look like her profile picture. But, as we all know, you should never judge a book by its cover. One bite, and I was hooked. Warm, soft, and lightly salted with a crunchy exterior — what more could you possibly ask for from freshly baked bread?
If you love fresh bread but hate the effort, this beginner recipe is not only easy to follow but tastes like you’ve been chef-ing it up all your life. Baking this chewy, springy, and subtly sweet Irish soda bread is the perfect way to kill an hour, test your bread-making skills, and most importantly, use up the almost-expired buttermilk sitting in your fridge. Once that warm bread smell hits your nostrils, you’ll realize that your unfortunate grocery store blunder was, in fact, a blessing in disguise.
