Gluten Free Irish Soda Bread Recipe

With our easy homemade recipe, you can easily create a delicious loaf of our gluten-free Irish soda bread. We are using Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour to make our gluten-free soda bread, plus cold butter, fresh buttermilk, baking soda, and raisins or currants to make it as authentic as possible. It's definitely a WHOLE LOTTA YUM!

 

Gluten Free Soda Bread

We LOVE Irish soda bread, but my stomach doesn't love the gluten in the traditional recipe.

If you're in a gluten-free household as well now you can enjoy a completely authentic Irish-inspired meal right in your own home when you serve your gluten-free Irish soda bread alongside a delicious bowl of pressure cooker Irish Guinness beef stew (best served over colcannon) or a heaping plate of Irish bangers and mash.

We also have an Irish soda bread without buttermilk to give you tips on how to turn this into a gluten-free dairy-free Irish soda bread recipe!

Either way you slice it, gluten-free soda bread is going to bring the luck of the Irish right to your dinner table. Just don't forget to serve jam and/or butter alongside your gluten-free Irish soda bread.

Why You'll Love This!

• Our gluten-free Irish soda bread makes enjoying homemade Irish soda bread so easy and delicious, you will be sure to find additional ways to include the bread all year long.
• Made with Bob's Red Mill 1:1 gluten-free flour, you can sure that you are making a gluten-free bread.
• The addition of either raisins or currants helps keep our gluten-free Irish soda bread as authentic as possible.
• As the name implies, our Irish soda bread recipe is gluten-free, but we are also including vegan adaptions below.
• Other than needing a quality gluten-free bread, our homemade Irish soda bread recipe contians ingredients that are easily found right in your kitchen. Plus, it utilizes a cooking method that is easy to follow, even if you don't have a breadmaker or consider yourself an expert baker.

Ingredient Notes

Gluten-free flour, salt, butter, baking soda, eggs, buttermilk, sugar, and either raisins or currants (option, but authentic and delicious!) are all you need to make a delicious batch of homemade gluten-free Irish soda bread right at home.

• gluten free flour - look for the kind that is with xanthan gum like 1:1 Bob's or King Arthur
• salt
• butter - cold and cut into cubes
• baking soda
• egg - beaten
• buttermilk
• granulated sugar
• raisins or currants - optional

** Please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post for the exact quantities **

Diet Adaptions

• Vegan- To make your Irish soda-bread vegan, use vegan-approved substitutes in place of both the butter and the buttermilk.
• Sugar Free - You can make your Irish soda-bread sugar-free by substituting either monk fruit or erythritol as a 1:1 swap for the sugar.

Step by Step Instructions

Homemade gluten-free Irish soda bread is the perfect way to bring a little bit of Ireland to your kitchen table - without the need for a breadmaker or extensive baking skills! We start by combining dry ingredients, then cut in the butter, and finally incorporate the wet ingredients before we bake our gluten-free soda bread loaf to perfection.

Prep Ingredients

Heat the oven to 400 F and make sure the oven rack is in the center position.

Prepare a baking sheet by covering it with parchment paper. You can also grease or use parchment on the bottom of an 8-10" cast iron skillet, a cake pan, or use a 5-quart round Dutch oven (no lid).

Assemble

In a large bowl mix the gluten-free flour, salt, baking soda, and sugar until it's well combined.

Add in the cold butter cubes by cutting them in with a pastry cutter or a fork.

In a small bowl combine the beaten egg and the buttermilk.

Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture all at once and stir it with a fork until the liquid is absorbed and the bread dough starts to hold together like a rough biscuit dough. The dough will be wet but if it's too sticky, mix in a tiny bit more flour.

Stir in the raisins if you're using them.

Lightly sprinkle some of the gluten-free flour on a cutting board. Using your hands, pick up the dough and form it into a round dome shape loaf that's about 8-9" in diameter on the cutting board.

Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet or pan. With a sharp knife, make a deep ¾" X shape into the loaf.

Bake

Bake the Irish soda bread for about 45-50 minutes or until the bread is golden brown a cake tester or wooden skewer comes out clean. If the bread seems to be browning too fast during cooking, you can add foil over the top.

Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temp with butter and/or jam. Yum!

Recipe Tips

• Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour was used for recipe testing, make sure you buy the 1:1 baking flour substitute (in the light blue bag) that contains xanthan gum and not the GF all-purpose substitute without the xanthan gum (in the red bag).
• Keep the butter cold until you are ready to add it to your dry ingredients.
• When combining the wet and dry ingredients, be sure to add the wet ingredients all at once.
• Making your loaf smaller or larger than 8-9 inch diameter will change the cooking time.

Common Questions

More Irish Recipes

Looking for more Irish recipes?

• Instant Pot Guinness beef stew
• Instant Pot calcannon with bacon
• Crockpot cabbage and bacon
• Irish bangers and mash
• Vegan Irish soda bread recipe