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The Good Hearted Woman

Home Cooking & Cozy Living

  • SOURDOUGH RECIPES & RESOURCES

Easy Authentic Irish Soda Bread

March 15 By Renée 9 Comments

Perfected and approved by real Irish persons, for your pleasure, this Irish Soda Bread is amazingly easy to make.

This post may contain affiliate links, but don’t worry – they won’t bite.

As you may know, St Patrick’s Day is my favorite holiday. In fact, I love all things Celtic – even my wedding ring has emeralds and Celtic knots on it – and I’ve always had a thing for Ireland and the Irish people. I can literally take on a light brogue just thinking about it. (In fact, as I write this, I’m falling into it).

Irish Soda Bread - loaf

My affinity for Ireland dates back to before I can remember, and St. Patrick’s Day is always a real celebration at our house. On that day each year, I serve up a feast of “Once-a-Year Mashed Potatoes” (so called because they are so rich and creamy you should only eat them once a year), slow-cooked corned beef, corn, cabbage, and soda bread; and then I usually throw in something new year to year to mix things up. 

However, before even one fork full passes, I deliver my compulsory pre-St Patrick’s Day dinner monologue (which I will share with you one of these years) about the fascinating and inspiring life of the real man who become St Patrick. It takes all of about three minutes, and my kids sigh and groan and laugh through it every year. At this point, they can repeat it almost verbatim. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Today I am sharing with you one of my most prized recipes: my Irish Soda Bread. Perfected and approved by real Irish persons, for your pleasure, this Soda Bread is amazingly easy to make.

Irish Soda Bread - loaf

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St Pat’s Irish Soda Bread

Perfected and approved by real Irish persons, for your pleasure, this Irish Soda Bread is amazingly easy to make.
Prep Time30 mins
Cook Time40 mins
Total Time1 hr 10 mins
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course: Bread
Servings: 16 servings
Calories: 277kcal
Author: Renée | The Good Hearted Woman

Ingredients

  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup white sugar Use 1/3 cup if you like your Soda Bread a little less sweet.
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1 ½ cups raisins I use a mix of golden and craisions. Just use your favorite raisin.
  • 2 teaspoons caraway seeds Optional. (Not really.)
  • 1¼ cups buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup melted butter melted (I use salted butter.)
  • 2 eggs lightly beaten

Brush on Top

  • 2 Tablespoons butter melted
  • 2 tablespoons buttermilk
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350° | 177°C.
    Lightly grease a 9-inch round cast iron skillet, 9-inch round baking pan, or heavy standard loaf pan.
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, raisins and caraway seeds.
  • In a medium bowl, buttermilk and sour cream and melted butter. Blend in eggs.
  • Fold the flour mixture into the liquid mixture, mixing just until well combined.
    Knead dough in bowl about 10 to 15 strokes.
    Dough will be very sticky. Mound the dough in the prepared skillet or pan using a spatula or wooden spoon.
    DO NOT use an electric mixer for this step – your bread will bake up too heavy.
  • In a small bowl, combine 2 Tbls. melted butter with 2 Tbls. buttermilk; brush the mounded dough/loaf with this mixture.
    Use a sharp, wet knife to cut an ‘X’ into the top of the loaf.
  • Allow dough to rest in the pan for about 20 minutes before putting into oven.
    This step is optional, but the “rest” time will give you a lighter loaf in the end.
  • Bake preheated oven for 60 to 75 minutes.
    You can brush the loaf with the buttermilk/butter mixture once or twice during baking if you wish.
    Test loaf for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center – it should come out clean.
  • Let cool and turn bread onto a wire rack.

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 277kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 45mg | Sodium: 370mg | Potassium: 195mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 326IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 76mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @TheGoodHeartedWoman or tag #thegoodheartedwoman!

If you are interested learning more about the real man who would become Saint Patrick, I highly recommend reading How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill.

Irish Soda Bread - loaf

More St Patrick’s Day celebrations on GHW

  • Emerald Sunrise (St Patrick’s Day Cocktail)
  • Irish Blessing Celtic Knot  Shamrock Watercolor (Printable St Patrick’s Day Art)

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Perfected and approved by real Irish persons, for your pleasure, this Irish Soda Bread is amazingly easy to make. | The Good Hearted WomanWavy Line

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, including Amazon affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they do help keep this site up and running. As always, all opinions and images are my own. Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!

Filed Under: Bread, Eating Style, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: Holidays, Irish, quick bread, St. Patrick's Day

Zucchini-Banana Bread: The Best of Both Worlds!

September 16 By Renée 5 Comments

Is it Zucchiana Bread? Banini Bread? Whatever you want to call it, this amazingly moist Zucchini-Banana Bread is the best of both worlds!

Zucchini-Banana Quick Bread Recipe | The Good Hearted Woman

It seems like every mother’s child and shirt-tail cousin remembers their favorite “best ever” quick bread, and the person who made it for them too. For me, it will always and forever be my mother’s banana bread – fresh out of the oven or cold from the fridge – it didn’t matter.

Mom’s banana bread was always, every time, Perfect. The only way to make it any better was to slather a thin layer of fresh butter over the top of a thick slice and eat it slowly, savoring every bite like it was my last.

Try as I might, I’ve never been able to replicate mom’s banana bread. Something’s always missing. Maybe it’s the smell of our turquoise kitchen, or the slick yellow and chrome kitchen table I sat at to eat. Maybe it’s just my mom in her brown flour-covered apron.

Whatever it is, her recipe is likely long lost, along with her fading memory, so unless I stumble on it tucked between the pages of one of her many hoarded cookbooks, it may well be gone forever. But I keep trying.

POST UPDATE 5/2/2018: I did it! You can find Mom’s Banana Bread recipe here.

Zucchini-Banana Quick Bread Recipe | The Good Hearted Woman

However, my latest attempt took a turn away from straight banana bread. For this, I merged my banana and zucchini bread recipes into what turned out to be an amazingly tasty loaf.

After making a number of batches, I attribute this bread’s soft texture and rich flavor to the fact that, for the first time in years, instead of subbing in yogurt as I usually do, I went with full-fat ingredients.

If you are trying to cut fat, you can always sub it back in, but keep in mind that the relatively small amount of fat used is balanced by the fact that most of the moisture (and a lot of the sugar) in this bread comes from fruit and vegetable sources.

Zucchini-Banana Quick Bread Recipe | The Good Hearted Woman | The Good Hearted Woman

TIP: I like to sprinkle some raw sugar on the loaves just before I pop them in the oven. It gives the tops a thin glazed texture, and I think it makes the bite feel more interesting on the tongue. (For reference, the small loaf above on the right was sprinkled, and the loaf on the left was not.) Enjoy!

Zucchini-Banana Bread Recipe - Is it Zucchiana Bread? Banini Bread? Whatever you want to call it, this amazingly moist Zucchini - Banana Bread is the best of both worlds! | The Good Hearted Woman
5 from 1 vote

Zucchini Banana Bread

This amazingly moist Zucchini-Banana Bread is the best of both worlds!
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time50 mins
Total Time1 hr 5 mins
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Comfort Food
Keyword: quick bread
Servings: 32 slices
Calories: 138kcal
Author: Renée | The Good Hearted Woman

Equipment

  • 2 Standard Loaf Pans

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup oil
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 cups grated zucchini
  • 3 ripe medium bananas mashed (or two large)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1/4 cup raw sugar optional
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 325°F.
  • Grease and flour two 8x4 bread loaf pans (or just spray them with nonstick cooking spray).*
  • In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  • In the bowl of an electric mixture, beat eggs until they are light yellow and frothy.
    Add sour cream, oil, white and brown sugars, grated zucchini, bananas, and vanilla.
  • Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly to combine.
    Do not over mix.
  • Fold in walnuts.
  • Divide batter evenly between loaf pans.
  • Sprinkle loaves with raw sugar. (optional)
  • Bake in preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Allow to cool in the loaf pans for 15 minutes on a wire rack before removing.
    Allow to cool completely.

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 138kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 138mg | Potassium: 99mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 67IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 29mg | Iron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @TheGoodHeartedWoman or tag #thegoodheartedwoman!
This Zucchini-Banana Bread recipe will make: 

  • 2 standard loaves [as in recipe directions]
  • 1 standard loaf + 2 small loaves
  • 5 small loaves 
  • 24 standard muffins
  • 1 standard loaf + 12 standard muffins
  • 12 jumbo muffins

… or any combination that makes you happy. You get the idea. 

Just be sure to adjust cooking times to compensate for different-sized pans.

Zucchini-Banana Quick Bread Recipe | The Good Hearted Woman

Wavy Line

THANK YOU so much for being a faithful reader and supporter
of The Good Hearted Woman. 🌻 Be sure to PIN this post!

Zucchini-Banana Bread Recipe - Is it Zucchiana Bread? Banini Bread? Whatever you want to call it, this amazingly moist Zucchini - Banana Bread is the best of both worlds! | The Good Hearted Woman   Zucchini-Banana Bread Recipe - Is it Zucchiana Bread? Banini Bread? Whatever you want to call it, this amazingly moist Zucchini - Banana Bread is the best of both worlds! | The Good Hearted WomanWavy Line

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, including Amazon affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. While clicking these links won’t cost you any extra money, they do help keep this site up and running. As always, all opinions and images are my own. Please check out our disclosure policy for more details. Thank you for your support!

Filed Under: Bread, Recipes, Sweets, Vegetarian Tagged With: baking, bananas, quick bread, zucchini

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