Irish Brown Bread

If you’re looking for a new bread baking project to get you through winter this year, may we suggest a hearty loaf of Irish brown bread? It’s technically a quick bread (meaning no yeast or rise) and has a dense yet tender interior that’s as good for eating with butter and jam as it is for dipping into a creamy winter soup. It’s also the perfect pairing for many of our other St. Patrick’s Day-inspired foods, like our Irish beef stew or our corned beef and cabbage. In short, it's the epitome of comfort—you’ll want to have a loaf of it lying around for the coldest days. Keep reading on for all of my top tips on how to make it the best it can be:

How To Make Irish Brown Bread

INGREDIENTS

• All-Purpose Flour & Whole Wheat Flour: Whole wheat flour is what gives Irish brown bread its nutty flavor and hearty texture. While you could substitute with using entirely all-purpose flour here, it wouldn’t produce the same results as far as flavor and color. Try to find the highest-quality whole wheat flour available at your local grocer or health food store. We used King Arthur's Whole Wheat Flour when testing for this recipe. If you can find stone-ground, even better! The real key is blending both whole wheat and all-purpose, which creates a loaf that’s soft with great texture and a good rise.
• Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar helps to enhance the flavor profile by bringing out the nuttiness of the whole wheat flour and balancing it out with a bit of sweetness.
• Baking Soda: Baking soda is the main leavening agent in this bread that reacts with the buttermilk to create carbon dioxide, which is what causes this bread to rise without the addition of yeast.
• Kosher Salt: Salt is important for adding a bit of flavor to this bread and bringing out all of the other ingredients!
• Unsalted Butter: We use unsalted butter so that this bread doesn’t get too salty. Make sure that your butter is cold when you add it so that you get a better crumb and texture in your final result.
• Egg: The protein from the egg helps this bread to hold its shape and structure!
• Buttermilk: Buttermilk is important here not only for the flavor that it adds, but also for how it reacts with the baking soda to help the bread rise.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

Lightly grease a cast-iron skillet and preheat your oven to 425º before you start. Traditionally, this bread is made in a large cast-iron skillet to help with shaping. If you don’t have a cast-iron, you can also just use a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

First, you’re going to whisk together your dry ingredients: both flours, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Then add the cold butter and use your hands or a pastry cutter to mix the butter into the flour until it is dispersed in pea-sized pieces. It’s okay if there are some slightly larger pieces as well!

Next, whisk together the egg and buttermilk. Make a well in the center of your flour/butter mixture and pour the wet ingredients into the center. Use a wooden spoon to stir everything together until the dough is so stiff and tough that you can’t stir anymore. Flour a work surface and turn your dough out onto it. Knead until there are no more dry streaks visible in your dough. This should only take about 30 seconds. Make sure not to overknead this dough! If anything, it should feel like you’re underkneading.

Place the dough ball onto your skillet or baking sheet and slice a ½”-deep X on top with a sharp knife so that air can escape while it's baking.

Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 400º. Bake for another 30 to 35 minutes until the bread is golden brown all over, and it sounds hollow when you tap the bottom. Let cool for at least 5 to 10 minutes before you serve!

The full list of ingredients and directions can be found in the recipe below.

Recipe Tips

• What's the difference between Irish brown bread and Irish soda bread? What’s the difference between Irish brown bread and Irish soda bread? Don’t worry, we had the same question. Though there are several similarities between the two, they vary greatly in flavor. Irish soda bread is generally a little sweeter, like a scone, and made with white flour. Brown bread, on the other hand, is more savory with a nuttier flavor. It’s usually made with wholemeal flour, but we used whole wheat in this recipe. What both Irish breads have in common is that they're leavened with baking soda (hence the name soda breads).
• What kinds of variations can I do? You’ll sometimes see raisins, currants, and chocolate chips in Irish soda bread, but brown bread tends to lean more savory. We’ve never found raisins in Irish brown bread, but we have discovered that many home cooks have their own favorite add-ins, like oats, wheat germ, seeds, and nuts. Here we kept it pretty straightforward, but feel free to play around with the recipe.

Storage

Store covered at room temperature for up to 3 days, or freeze for around 2 months.