Irish Soda Bread Biscuits

These Irish soda bread biscuits are my answer to the soggy middle that plagues whole loaves of soda bread. You know; super crispy outside, doughy middle. Sound familiar? Dive into the recipe inspired by Nadia Hussain‘s Soda Bread recipe.

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Why I Love This Recipe?

This recipe is versatile and easy to put together, with minimal fuss. With that said, the biscuits it makes are super tasty and cooked all the way through without being dry. Studded with dried fruits, these will be the star of the show for breakfast or dinner.

Ingredients & Equipment

Ingredients

• Flour: All-purpose flour to keep it simple. Bread flour should work and will probably make a better biscuit, but we are going for quick here.
• Shortening: Here we want a fat that is solid at room temperature. Bacon grease, Crisco, tallow, butter, etc. They each will come out a bit different.
• Buttermilk: Activating the baking soda while adding the liquid to the mixture, I use buttermilk anytime I make a loaf of soda bread. Also makes a great pancake!
• Dried Fruit: In the recipe, I use raisins and Craisins (dried cranberries). The sweetness of the raisin and the tartness of the Craisin combine into something amazing. You can sub anything dried here, just make sure to dice into small chunks.
• Spices: To keep it simple, I avoid spicing the bread. However, I can totally see adding cinnamon or allspice to the dough to transform it into something else entirely.

Equipment

• Mixing bowl: Never underestimate how often you’ll use a mixing bowl. I use mine daily. I find that metal works better than ceramic and dried-out stuff comes off quickly.
• Mixing Spatula: I wish these had a different name to differentiate them from flipping spatulas… You’ll use a mixing one of the initial mix to avoid totally submerging your hands in buttermilk.
• Big Knife: I used a meat slicing knife to cut the biscuits, which sounds weird but it worked beautifully. Something long and sharp should work.

Preparation

Preparing the Biscuit Dough

These Irish Soda Bread Biscuits use a tried and true method for baking Irish Soda Bread, so it look fairly similar until the end. So, let’s get started.

1. First things first, make sure you have all the ingredients! I frequently skip this step and end up with a half-prepared something sitting there while I run to the store. Get it all out and check. This also makes everything go faster so you’re not running to the fridge all day.
2. Combine your dry ingredients in the bowl. Flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and dried fruits. Give it a stir to spread everything out evenly. Nothing worse than finding a pocket of baking soda in your finished biscuit… (It’s gross, from experience)
3. Add your Crisco and buttermilk. start stirring to combine everything until a dough forms. Don’t panic and add more buttermilk, there should be enough but it’ll be dry. If you absolutely need to add more liquid, add it a tablespoon at a time.
4. Once all the liquid is roughly absorbed, dump everything out onto a clean, floured working surface and knead it until almost all the dry flour is worked into the dough. It’ll still look dry, and that’s ok. Don’t overwork it, it should take 2-3 minutes of kneading and that’s it.
5. Take your rounded dough ball and place it make into the mixing bowl. Cover it with a damp towel and let it rest for 15 minutes. This step lets all that extra, dry flour absorb moisture and the textures come together.

Making Them Into Biscuits

If you want just a load of soda bread, stop here and make your slits in the top of the dough and bake. I have no recommendations for the baking of entire loaves, as I cant seem to get the middle to cook without making the outside into concrete. For biscuits, carry on!

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F.
2. Once the rest period is up, dump your dough out again. Form it into a dome shape and cut it into 8 equal pieces. I cut it like a pizza with a big knife to make it easy.
3. Take each piece of dough and roll it into a ball and plop it on your baking tray. You are ready to bake. These make 8 baseball-sized biscuits per the recipe. Those are huge biscuits, so you could cut them in half before baking and make 16 smaller biscuits instead.
4. For baking 8 biscuits, bake them for 20 minutes. They should be about done at 20 minutes, slightly crispy on the outside but still moist in the middle.
5. Allow them to cool a bit before serving. Slather with room temperature butter for an amazing snack or breakfast.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Soda Bread?

Soda Bread is a bread made without yeast. These breads usually use baking powder or baking soda and an acidifier (we use buttermilk here). The action of these combinations cause a bubbling reaction. When it happens in the dough, you get little air pockets! This is what opens up the texture of the bread. The reaction is rather instantaneous when compared to yeast, so there is no rising time needed for soda breads.

What is Spotted Dick?

Spotted Dick is a soda bread which has been studded with fruit. I don’t think the distinction is well known in the U.S., which is why I decided to call it Soda Bread.

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