Fruit Soda Bread - Deliciously golden and crusty on the outside and tender, fruity - almost scone like - in the middle. Serve it warm with a smearing of butter and a cup of tea for a happy breakfast. This Fruit Soda Bread is a no knead, no prove bread - ready in an hour.
Warm fruity bread for breakfast without having to get up at 5am to get it ready for breakfast!
This bread requires no yeast, no kneading and no proving time. You can have it out of the oven and cooling in an hour.
I've always loved fruit toast for breakfast, and usually buy it in for weekends if I'm not making pancakes or sweet grilled sandwiches. I've discovered recently just how easy it is to make though. A simple case of mixing your dry ingredients, mixing your wet ingredients, combing them together into a rough cob shape and giving it an egg wash before sticking it in the oven.
The result is a rustic looking bread like this:
It's also great toasted the next day (and will even just about stretch to a third day, toasted).
The kids love it - they call it cake bread, and they love just ramming handfuls of the unbuttered bread in their mouths as a snack, before running back outside to play in the garden.
I'd recommend using the fattest, juiciest raisins you can find to get a nice burst of chewy stickiness with each mouthful. I'm tempted to try soaking some raisins in orange juice first on my next batch of this. I'll update this post with the results when I do.
Fruit Soda Bread Recipe:
Fruit Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 500 g plain/all purpose flour - plus a little extra for sprinkling the baking sheet
- 100 g caster sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 200 g juicy raisins - or other dried fruit if you prefer
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 250 ml buttermilk
- 50 g melted butter - just melted - not boiling hot - as this will scramble the eggs
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat your oven to 175c. Take a baking sheet and sprinkle with a small handful of flour
- In a large bowl, combing the flour, caster sugar, baking powder, baking soda, raisins and salt. Give everything a mix. This is your dry mix.
- Break the eggs into a cup and whisk gently with a fork for a few seconds. Pour all but 1 tbsp. of the egg into a separate bowl. Add in the buttermilk and melted butter and mix. This is your wet mix.
- Pour your wet mix into your dry mix and stir until you get a nice sticky dough. Don't overmix or you'll end up with tough bread. If you don't mind getting a bit sticky, you can do this stage with your hands. Form the dough into a rough cob or ball shape and place on your prepared baking sheet.
- Using a sharp knife, make a large cross in the middle - cutting about 1 inch into the bread. Using a pastry brush, give the whole loaf a egg wash using the reserved egg. Place in the over and cook for 45-50 minutes until the bread looks golden.
- Take out of the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before cutting up and serving with butter, or toasting and serving with butter.
✎ Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional info obtained from caloriecount.about.com - based on 14 slices
Jo says
Not sure about the wet to dry ratio. This comes out like cake batter.
Nicky Corbishley says
Hi Jo, the quantities are correct.
Did you convert to cups maybe? I don't have cup measurements on this recipe as it's quite an old one (before I started added volumetric convertions), but 500g is about 4 cups plus 2/5 tbsp of flour.
Kathleen Cosgrove says
The nicest fruit soda I have ever, ever tasted. Thank you
Claire says
So quick and easy to prepare but has come out so crumbly (though tasty). Definitely not the right texture for soda bread.
Katy says
Fantastic recipe. So easy too. A firm favourite.
Alcoser says
Bonjour super recette, alors mon pain n'était pas dur du tout, plus tôt trop friable, dommage car difficile à couper.... Sinon excellent. Merci pour cette recette si vous avec une astuce pour qu'il soit plus compact? Et qu'est ce que la poudre à pâte ? Bien à vous.
Kelly Reeves says
Easy recipe to follow - i made my own buttermilk (again from your recipes) - and added lemon zest to the mix aswell.
It was delicious served warm with butter, although i feel is like a large rock cake so not sure if this is correct or if i did something wrong.
Happy with the result though 🙂
Thanks
Sharon Thompson says
Is the oven temp for fan please?
Bev D says
Fabulous recipe, favourite in the house now.
Christine says
I made this with for a lazy Saturday morning breakfast and it was so easy and tasty.
nagimaehashi says
I love irish soda bread! Actually I'm sharing mine soon, but it's the basic version. I make it a lot because it's so easy! Yours looks very fancy and fab 🙂
Nicky Corbishley says
Thanks Nagi. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for your version 🙂
[email protected] says
I had no idea that you can make bread without yeast!! Genius recipe!
Nicky Corbishley says
Glad you like it Ami 🙂
Oana says
Never thought about turning a soda bread into a delicious dessert. Looks amazing and such a great idea! All it needs is a cup of tea and the afternoon snack is set.
Nicky Corbishley says
Dessert/snack/breakfast/supper - I'll eat it anytime 🙂
apuginthekitchen says
Love soda bread, it looks delicious.
Nicky Corbishley says
Thanks Suzanne, it didn't last long...
Ahu Shahrabani says
This looks amazing! I suppose it's the baking soda that makes it rise instead of yeast?
Nicky Corbishley says
Thanks Ahu. I believe it's the soda reacting with the buttermilk that causes the rise. The soda is very alkaline whilst the buttermilk is very acidic. That's about the limit of my scientific knowledge on the subject though 🙂