My gluten-free Irish soda bread with oat flour has a rustic, dense but soft texture and hearty flavor, with a perfectly crunchy crust and tender crumb. This quick bread is super easy to make with no wait time, minimal mixing, and no kneading. You will love a warm slice slathered with butter and/or jam, and it's a perfect accompaniment to soups and stews (especially, my Irish beef and Guinness stew).
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What is Irish soda bread?
Soda bread is a quick bread that doesn't require yeast. Instead, it is leavened with baking soda and buttermilk, or, in this case, yogurt. In Ireland, traditional Irish soda bread doesn't typically contain sweeteners or mix ins. In North America, it's common to add raisins or currants and sometimes a sweetener like sugar, honey, or molasses. Irish soda bread is commonly enjoyed for St Patrick's day, but can be enjoyed any time of the year.
Why is there a cross cut on top of the bread?
Traditional soda bread loafs are scored with a cross on top of the loaf before baking. This was done for suspicious reasons, as bakers believed that the cross would let the fairies out and ward off evil spirits.
Ingredient Notes
You'll need just a few simple ingredients for this easy gluten-free homemade bread.
- Oat Flour: Oat flour is simply rolled oats that have been ground to form a flour. So if you want, you can make your own oat flour. Just process rolled oats in a food processor until you have a fine flour. One cup of oats will yield ¾ cup of oat flour. Make sure your oats or oat flour are labeled as gluten-free.
- Gluten-free flour blend: I have made this gluten-free Irish soda bread recipe (and many other recipes) with Cup4Cup gluten-free flour blend, and also with Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten-free baking flour. These two brands are my favorites and they are both 1:1 ratio and both contain xanthan gum. Xanthan gum gives gluten-free baking the elasticity that is missing, and without it, your baked goods can be dry and crumbly. If your gluten-free flour blend does not contain xanthan gum, you will need to add it. You'll need ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum per cup of flour.
- Baking soda (bicarbonate of soda): Baking soda is the leavening agent in this gluten-free version as it is in a traditional Irish soda bread recipe. The alkalinity of the baking soda reacts with the acidity of yogurt to create the leavening (rising) action without yeast.
- Butter: For this gluten-free soda bread recipe, I cut in cold butter, much like we do with biscuits or scones. In the oven, the butter melts in pockets, creating tender, flaky layers.
- Yogurt: I originally tested this recipe with buttermilk, which worked great and was delicious. Then the next time I wanted to make it, I didn't have buttermilk on hand (does anyone?). I was about to try the common buttermilk substitute of lemon juice and milk to make it. But then I spotted a tub of plain Greek yogurt in the fridge. I thinned the yogurt with water and used that in place of buttermilk. I think it made this Irish soda bread even better than the buttermilk version. The yogurt really gives this soda bread an extra tanginess.
How to make gluten-free Irish soda bread
Full instructions and ingredient quantities are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine oat flour, gluten-free flour blend, baking soda and salt. (photo one)
- Use a pastry cutter to blend in the butter. (photo 2)
- Make a well in the flour mixture and stir in the yogurt. (photo 3)
- Shape the dough into a round, and flatten. (photo 4)
- Use a sharp knife to score a shallow cross on the top of the loaf. (photo 5)
- Brush with yogurt and sprinkle with oats. (photo 6)
- Bake until the soda bread is crusty and golden, about 30 minutes.
Tips and variations
- Oat Flour: I originally tested this gluten-free Irish soda bread using only oat flour. The result was very dense and crumbly. After a couple of tries with the ratio of flours, I think I got it right with this recipe. If you don't want to use oat flour, you can make this loaf using only a gluten-free flour blend. Replace the two cups of oat flour with one and a half cups of gluten-free flour blend, for a total of three and one quarter cups of flour.
- Add an egg: You can add a beaten egg along with the yogurt, which will make the loaf richer and more cake-like.
- Sweetener: If you prefer a sweet Irish soda bread, add a tablespoon of white sugar, brown sugar, molasses (my favorite), or honey. Stir the sweetener into the yogurt before adding it to the dry ingredients.
- Add in's: Raisins or currents are popular add-ins, but you can also add dried cranberries, caraway seeds, dried herbs like rosemary and thyme, or chopped nuts.
- Buttermilk: You can use buttermilk instead of the yogurt/milk combo that I used for this recipe, in the same quantity. If you don't have either, make your own by adding one tablespoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar per cup of milk. Stir and allow it to sit for 5 minutes.
- Baking: You can bake your loaf on a baking sheet, like I do with a parchment paper or silicone liner. You can also use a cast iron skillet or and oven safe dish. It should be 8-9 inches diameter. If the loaf is browning too quickly, loosely tent it with aluminum foil.
- Storage: Store your homemade soda bread in an airtight container, or zip lock bag for three days at room temperature or up to five days in the fridge.
- To Freeze: After cooling completely, tightly wrap the wrap the whole loaf in plastic wrap or in a freezer bag. Freeze for up to three months. You can also wrap and freeze individual slices.
Serving suggestions
Irish soda bread is a perfect addition to your St. Patrick's Day meal. It's a natural on the table alongside corned beef and cabbage, or Irish stew, and Irish mashed potatoes (colcannon). Mix up some Irish mule cocktails to make the celebration complete.
But there's no need to reserve this gluten-free Irish soda bread for St. Patrick's Day! This yeast-free quick bread it delicious pairing with soups like lentil and turkey soup, or chicken minestrone soup and roasted tomato basil soup.
I like to spread warm slices of soda bread with garlic butter and enjoy with pasta, especially simple and hearty ones like sausage and kale pasta.
Or, simply enjoy a slice spread with butter (Irish butter is lovely), jam or honey. This soda bread is great toasted, too!
Did you make this recipe? Please leave a rating in the comments below and let us know how it turned out. Did you make any changes? We would love for you to share and your feedback is important! Thank you for visiting The Food Blog!
Recipe
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Gluten-free Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups oat flour*
- 1 ¾ cups gluten-free all-purpose flour with xanthan gum
- ½ cup rolled oats plus 2 tablespoons for topping
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon cold butter
- 1 cups plain full fat or Greek yogurt plus 1 tablespoon for topping
- 1 cup milk or water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine flours, oats, baking soda, and salt.2 cups oat flour*, ½ cup rolled oats, 2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 ¾ cups gluten-free all-purpose flour
- Cut in butter with a pastry blender, or your fingers. The mixture will resemble coarse crumbs.2 tablespoon cold butter
- Combine yogurt with milk or water.1 cups plain full fat or Greek yogurt, 1 cup milk or water
- Make a well, and pour in yogurt/water mixture.
- Stir together to mix well (you will have a slightly sticky dough).
- Shape by hand into a flat round about 8" across
- With a sharp knife, score a large, shallow X across the top of the dough.
- Use a pastry brush to glaze the top with reserved yogurt, then sprinkle with oats.½ cup rolled oats
- Bake in center of oven for about 30 minutes. The loaf should be golden brown with no wet batter visible in the scoring.
- Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before slicing.
Notes
- Oat Flour: I originally tested this gluten-free Irish soda bread using only oat flour. The result was very dense and crumbly. After a couple of tries with the ratio of flours, I think I got it right with this recipe. If you don't want to use oat flour, you can make this loaf using only a gluten-free flour blend. Replace the two cups of oat flour with one and a half cups of gluten-free flour blend, for a total of three and one quarter cups of flour.
- Add an egg: You can add a beaten egg along with the yogurt, which will make the loaf richer and more cake-like.
- Sweetener: If you prefer a sweet Irish soda bread, add a tablespoon of white sugar, brown sugar, molasses (my favorite), or honey. Stir the sweetener into the yogurt before adding it to the dry ingredients.
- Add in's: Raisins or currents are popular add-ins, but you can also add dried cranberries, caraway seeds, dried herbs like rosemary and thyme, or chopped nuts.
- Buttermilk: You can use buttermilk instead of the yogurt/milk combo that I used for this recipe, in the same quantity. If you don't have either, make your own by adding one tablespoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar per cup of milk. Stir and allow it to sit for 5 minutes.
- Baking: You can bake your loaf on a baking sheet, like I do with a parchment paper or silicone liner. You can also use a cast iron skillet or and oven safe dish. It should be 8-9 inches diameter. If the loaf is browning too quickly, loosely tent it with aluminum foil.
- Storage: Store your homemade soda bread in an airtight container, or zip lock bag for three days at room temperature or up to five days in the fridge.
- To Freeze: After cooling completely, tightly wrap the wrap the whole loaf in plastic wrap or in a freezer bag. Freeze for up to three months. You can also wrap and freeze individual slices.
Veronika
We recently started eating gluten-free so I had to make soda bread GF for St. Patrick's Day this year for the first time. It came out delicious, thanks for the recipe!
Colleen
You're welcome, Veronika! I'm happy to hear that the recipe came out delicious. Thanks for sharing!
Erin
This bread looks great! I'm about to go make it. It looks like the crumb is just right!
Cathleen
I am so excited to make this tonight! I love a good soda bread, and this one looks like a winner. Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Dennis Littley
What a great recipe to celebrate St. Patty's Day for gluten-free diets! I sent the recipe to a friend who is GF, I'm sure she's going to love your soda bread.