Irish Soda Bread and Spotted Dog Recipes

Traditional Yeast Free Breads for St. Patrick's Day

Feb 25, 2009
Deborah Harding

white soda bread - dc harding

Traditional Irish soda bread doesn't contain raisins but another type of bread called "spotted dog" does. Here are recipes for both.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread isn’t exactly what you find in the stores around St. Patrick’s Day. The traditional fare was not embellished with dried fruits, whiskey, or orange zest (where would they find orange zest in Ireland?). It is merely a mixture of four, salt, baking powder and buttermilk. Bicarbonate of Soda was introduced to Ireland in the 1840’s and that is when Irish Soda Bread was created. It was the poorer people of Ireland that made soda bread because the ingredients were cheap and it didn’t take yeast to make.

Their were two types of soda bread. One was cooked in a skillet on top of the stove called a farl and the other was cooked in the oven and was called cake. Neither were sweet. Below are recipes for traditional brown soda bread and one for white soda bread. Then there is one for the non-traditional raisin infested soda bread that is actually called “spotted dog” because that is what it looks like. Your kids will love helping you make these breads and they will especially love telling everyone they ate a spotted dog!

Brown Soda Bread

Ingredients:

4 cups wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose white flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a bowl combine flours, soda, and salt. Make a well (shape into a volcano-like shape with a crater in the middle) and pour the buttermilk in the indentation. Quickly whisk into the buttermilk some of the flour mixture from the sides with a fork and begin to combine gradually until all is mixed into a rather sticky dough.
Form into a ball and move to a floured surface.
Knead the dough for just a few minutes then shape into a round flat form about 1-1/2 inches thick that will fit into a round 9” cake pan that has been sprayed with a non stick spray and floured.
Take a sharp knife and run it through some flour. Cut an X in the top of the bread but not all the way through.
Cover the full pan with another pan of the same size place up-side-down on top and place in the oven.
Bake 30 minutes and remove extra pan and bake about 15 more minutes. Bread will be done when brown and has a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.
Lightly spray a tea towel with some water and place over top the bread and let cool. Slice and serve.

White Soda Bread

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Proceed the same as the above brown bread recipe to the end.

Non-Traditional Irish Soda Bread or “Spotted Dog”

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup raisins
1 egg, beaten
2 cups buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, sugar, salt, and soda.
Using a pastry cutter work butter into the flour mixture until it resembles a course meal then add the raisins and stir.
Make a well in the mixture (see above with the volcano analogy).
In a small bowl beat the egg and add buttermilk.
Pour this into the indentation in the flour mixture and start to stir the flour mixture into the milk mixture. Use a fork or wooden spoon until it becomes too stiff then use your hands dusted with flour.
Transfer dough to a floured surface and knead dough about a minute and form mixture into a ball.
Press down to shape into a round, slightly flat loaf.
Place on a greased or sprayed baking sheet or in a oven safe skillet (you can use an iron skillet but the skillet should be hot when you put the dough in. Iron skillets take a long time to heat and this would increase the baking time if the skillet was not heated.)
Cut X shape into the top of the dough with a sharp or serrated knife.
Place a tent of aluminum foil over the loaf and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove the foil and bake another 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Test by thumping bread on the bottom. If it sounds hollow it is done or you can insert a toothpick into the center and if it comes out clean the bread is done.
Let cool and serve.

Enjoy your Brown or White Irish Soda Bread or “Spotted Dog” at breakfast with some butter and jam. Or it is just as good accompanying lunch or dinner.

See other information by this author at PrymeThyme On-Line.