Gretchen's Vegan Bakery

Irish Soda Bread

By

JUMP TO RECIPE

Traditional Irish soda bread can have a tendency to be dry

But this recipe is definitely not that!
I love Irish Soda Bread and would serve it all year round! But somehow we only think about it around Saint Patrick’s Day.

Irish Soda Bread

With just a handful of ingredients that you probably already have

Leave out the raisins and caraway seeds if you don’t like either of those things and you will still have a great tasting, quick and easy Irish Soda bread

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS BREAD!

Irish Soda Bread

Yield: 2 Loaves

Irish Soda Bread

Irish Soda Bread
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • All Purpose Flour 500g (4 cups)
  • Salt 6g (1 teaspoon)
  • Baking Powder 5g (1 teaspoon)
  • Baking Soda 5g (1 teaspoon)
  • Caraway Seeds (optional) 8g (1 Tablespoon)
  • Light & Dark Raisins 82g (½ -¾cup total)
  • Soy Milk 1½ cups (355ml)
  • Apple Cider Vinegar 1 Tablespoon (15ml)
  • Coconut Oil or any Vegetable Oil 2 teaspoons (10ml) *can be omitted

Instructions

  1. Add the apple cider vinegar to the soy milk and let stand to thicken about 5 -10 minutes.
  2. In a large mixing bowl combine all the sifted dry ingredients and the raisins and caraway seeds, toss to combine.
  3. Add the oil and the soured soy milk and work this dough by hand to a very soft, sticky mass. It's like making a jumbo biscuit
  4. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead it gently into a disc (or 2 if you are making the smaller loaves). You will add more flour to get it "less sticky" probably up to ½ cup more. I like to make 2 smaller loaves rather than 1 large loaf (mostly because they bake better that way)
  5. If you go for one larger loaf turn the oven down to 300°F for the last 20 minutes of baking to avoid over browning.
  6. This loaf is what we call a "free form" bread. So you will place onto a sheet pan with parchment paper or a non stick sheet pan lightly floured and cut an X in the top of the dough round.
  7. Dust with a little more flour, and bake immediately in preheated 350° F oven
  8. Bake for 15 minutes at 350°F then turn the oven down to 325°F and bake for another 30 min to 40 minutes (depending on the size of your loaf or loaves smaller loaves take less time) or until it reaches 200°F on an instant read thermometer
  9. Cool completely before slicing

Notes

Store bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week

© Gretchen

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Eileen

    Thanks for all the great recipes. A friend bought me your cookbook and everything I made has been great! My family didn’t even notice my husband’s birthday cake was vegan:). Just wondering if you could suggest a replacement for the soy milk you have in several of your recipes? Cashew, coconut or almond milk?

    • Gretchen

      my non vegan blog is shut down
      I couldn’t keep up the cost to host it on the internet and maintain it monthly anymore

      The cost to host such a huge database was close to $400 a month (with the maintenance cost, I needed to hire a tech guy to help keep it running smoothly)
      So that cost was severely outweighing any small profits I had been making though running ads on the videos & blogsite.

      I have not kept any of the non vegan recipes, since for over 4 years now I have been strictly vegan;
      so for me they are of no use. They were all housed in the database and that has shut down.

      Here is a video explanation I recently uploaded in response to the many emails I have been getting https://youtu.be/ghHVqNZuNaA
      Thanks for your support and encouragement though the ages!
      ~Gretchen

      • Sarah

        So sorry and sad to hear that you are the best , I purchased your E book few years ago but didn’t save the videos, went to the link it didn’t work , is there a way i can pay and purchase it again please

    • Gretchen

      Not specifically JUST those flours, as there would be no gluten to hold it all together. I am not a GF baker, but I do know you have to use at least a GF Blend that is a 1:1 ratio for subbing All Purpose flour, or if you are an avid GF baker, you can make a blend using the gums that help to bind in place of the gluten you are losing by switching to a GF flour.

  6. Robert Reeves

    This did not work out at all. It made is wet unworkable dough!! I used almond milk. Maybe that was the problem. But with flour at a premium with the current pandemic, I’m not happy!!!!

    • Gretchen

      Im sorry that happened to you. Almond milk is slightly thinner than soy milk and since soy milk is the only milk that will thicken with the addition of vinegar, it is the first choice, however that said it would not make or break the recipe. I hope you did not toss it out, by adding another few tablespoons of flour it would have rectified the “wet unworkable dough”

  7. Emily

    I made this last year and it was great! This year’s loaf is in the oven as I type.

    One suggestion, though: in the video it specifies to knead about 20 times. The recipe doesn’t say this and I didn’t see the video until after it was in the oven. I only kneaded it 2 or 3 times because I figured it was like biscuit dough, so it was really sticky when I tried to score it. Hopefully it still turns out okay and not too crumbly, but I wanted others to have a heads up in case they are like me and prefer text recipes over videos.

Skip to Recipe