Buttermilk Irish Soda Bread

This is the American take on Irish soda bread. True Dublin-style soda bread is just flour, salt, soda, and buttermilk: bone simple, savory, and meant for slathering with butter. The Americanized version on this side of the Atlantic adds sugar, raisins, and caraway seeds, which technically makes it a ‘spotted dog’ or ‘spotted dick’ variation. Either way, it’s the kind of bread that shows up on every St. Patrick’s Day table from Boston to Chicago.

The buttermilk and a quarter cup of sour cream team up to do double duty here. Buttermilk reacts with the baking soda for the lift, and the combination of dairy fats produces a moist, almost cake-like crumb that traditional soda bread cannot match.

Caraway seeds are the love-them-or-hate-them detail. They add that distinctive licorice-rye warmth that some people will remember from grandma’s kitchen and others will pick out one by one.

Pro Tips

• Cut the butter in until it resembles small peas, no smaller. Tiny butter pockets are what make the bread tender. Overworked butter creates a tough, dense loaf.
• Stir the wet into the dry just until combined. Soda bread benefits from undermixing. Smooth batter develops gluten and turns the bread chewy.
• Cut a deep cross in the top before baking (a tradition believed to ward off evil spirits, but also genuinely useful for even rising).
• Let the loaf cool at least 20 minutes before slicing. Hot soda bread is gummy; cooled bread slices cleanly.

Variations

• Skip the raisins and caraway for traditional Irish white soda bread.
• Use currants instead of raisins for a more old-fashioned Dublin spotted-dog look.
• Add 1 tablespoon of orange zest for a bright citrus twist.