Irish Soda Bread with Raisins [Recipe with Step by Step Video] (2024)

Irish Soda Bread isn’t just for St. Patrick’s Day: We love this quick and easy bread without yeast year round!

I’m usually quite snobbish about traditional recipes – raisins and egg in soda bread?? No way! (Because then it’s technically called a tea cake, or a spotted dog!) But I tried altering my “normal” soda bread recipe… and yes, it’s delicious. And just like my Shepherd’s Pie has the choice of making it with lamb or beef (because nobody outside of the commonwealth knows there’s a difference…), this is now a Soda Bread with Raisins. Or were you searching for “Spotted Dog”? See ?

I now make this raisin version all the time – because I love a good raisin bread, and a good homemade bread… And am mostly terrible at planning ahead far enough for a yeasted bread these days ?? So, here’s my new favorite bread recipe!

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredient notes

• Buttermilk: This recipe absolutely needs the acidity from the buttermilk. If you don’t have any, you can either use ¼ cup plain yogurt and ½ cup regular milk, or ¾ cup regular milk with 1 tablespoon white vinegar stirred in.
• Butter: It’s important to use butter cold from the fridge for the recipe to work correctly. Margarine can be used in place of the butter, but it must be stick margarine. A spread will not work.
• Raisins: I sometimes use dried cranberries in place of the raisin, or chopped dried apricots. Both taste delicious and are a nice variation!
• Baking powder and baking soda: Please use the amounts of baking powder and baking soda the recipe calls for. This is the only leavening in the bread, and it’s important to use both baking powder and baking soda for the bread to come out correctly.

Full recipe video

How to make Irish Soda Bread

1 Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the cold, diced butter.

2 Rub the cold butter into the dry ingredients until you have a bowl filled with tiny crumbs. Add raisins to the bowl and stir in well.

3 Whisk together the buttermilk and egg in a separate measuring jug, then pour into the bowl with the flour.

Stir with a wooden spoon just until no more dry flour is visible. Tip the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead 3-4 times. Shape into a ball.

4 Place on a lined, lightly floured baking sheet. Lightly dust the top of the bread with flour, then cut a deep cross across the bread (cut almost completely through the bread!).

Then bake until golden on the outside and baked through on the inside. Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing. Done!

Recipe tips

• The most important parts of any traditional Irish Soda Bread recipe are definitely to not overwork the dough,
• and to make those cross-cuts deep enough. Don’t worry about cutting the bread apart entirely! It’s actually worse to cut into the bread too little, so make sure you do almost cut it apart. This is so the dense dough can cook all the way in the middle – and according to Irish tradition, it’s to let the devil out ?
• And finally… Definitely try a slice while the bread is still a bit warm ?

Storage tips

Soda bread is definitely best eating shortly after it comes out of the oven, at least on the same day it is baked.

If you have leftovers, keep them wrapped in a clean kitchen towel on the counter for up to an additional day.

More Irish recipes

Printable recipe

PSIf you try this recipe, please leavea review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along onPinterest,FacebookorInstagram.

Recipe first published on 03/11/2020. Updated on 02/23/2021.