Soda bread is a quick bread, I’ll leave you to ponder what that means. The only rising agent in the dough is the baking soda. No yeast means no proofing time so depending on how fast you prepare your savory ingredients, you can go from start to finish in under one hour. While I will agree that delayed gratification is great and all, sometimes you just want something quick, easy and delicious. The inspiration for this recipe comes the great British bakeoff. The base recipe can be found in the GBB cookbook but the savory fillings are my own creation. If the ingredients don’t sound appealing to you, check out the classic Irish soda bread recipe here.
Savory Filling Tips
I found the combination of shallots, sun-dried tomatoes, dill, feta, and butter to be rather delicious in soda bread. But if that combination doesn’t strike your fancy, feel free to modify as you see fit. Maybe add a splash of balsamic vinegar to the shallots and omit the feta. Or substitute the dill for fresh rosemary. You could even do a bacon, cheddar, and onion soda bread. Fun fact, that’s actually the combination I used for the photos that you see in this recipe post. But we’ll keep that our little secret. Nobody reads these sections anyway. But apparently I need to write them for better SEO rankings so google will show my site when people search for soda bread recipes. Long story short, whatever savory combination you think will taste good in your soda bread probably will. Just add 80-120 grams of your savory ingredients to the rest of your ingredients when pulling your dough together.
Prepare your savory filling before making your dough. Melt the butter in a pan over low heat and add the shallots once hot, stirring until soft and caramelized. The shallots don’t need to be caramelized but they do need to be soft. At this point, add the sun-dried tomatoes and maybe a clove or two of garlic if you want a bit of a punch, up to you. Once everything is smelling delicious, remove the pan from the heat and put the ingredients in a bowl to cool. Add the fresh dill and feta once cooled and stir to combine.
Soda Bread Dough Tips
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Add all of your dry ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine. Add your savory ingredients and the buttermilk and mix everything together with one hand, using the other to hold the bowl steady. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make your own. Once the ingredients are all combined, turn out the dough onto a floured work surface. Try to use as little flour as possible since the more flour you add, the denser the dough is going to be. You could theoretically use olive oil instead of flour on your work surface to prevent the dough from sticking but I haven’t tried this myself so I can’t confirm if/how well it works. Leave me a comment if you decide to try letting me know how it went.
Shape the dough into a rough ball and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using a dough scraper, cut the ball into quarters and then roughly press the four pieces back together. Place dough in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the internal dough temperature is 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack and then dig in. The loaf is delicious warm with a healthy shmear of butter. Also worth noting, the flavors develop over time so if your loaf makes it to the second day, it may taste even better then. The loaf can be stored at room temperature and should be eaten within three days. If you cooked your loaf with bacon or other perishable ingredients, store in the fridge to be on the safe side and reheat in the oven.
Soda Bread Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Baking sheet lined with parchment paper
Ingredients
Soda Bread Ingredients
- 500 grams all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 420 ml buttermilk
Savory Filling Ingredients
- 4 large shallots
- 5 sundried tomatoes in olive oil
- 1 bunch fresh dill
- feta cheese, as much or as little as you like
- 14 grams butter or 1 tbsp
Instructions
Savory Ingredient Instructions
- Thinly slice the shallots and roughly chop the sundried tomatoes. Chop the fresh dill
- Heat a pan over low heat and once hot add the butter and the shallots. Cook until the shallots are soft and starting to caramelize. Add the sundried tomatoes and cook for another few minutes until the tomatoes are soft and fragrant.
- Move the shallots and sundried tomatoes into a small mixing bowl. Once cool, combine with the chopped dill and feta and set aside.
Dough Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and then add in the savory ingredients and the buttermilk.
- Mix with your hand until everything is combined, the dough is going to be super sticky. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and work the dough together into a ball. Try to use as little flour as possible.
- Transfer the dough to your parchment lined baking sheet and using a bench scraper, cut the dough into quarters and then press back together a bit.
- Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown and the internal dough temperature is 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cool on a wire rack and serve.
