Irish Guinness Brown Bread

Irish soda bread is a type of quick bread that doesn’t need fermenting or a long rising time. Instead, it relies on baking soda and buttermilk for a quick rise. From start to finish in less than an hour, this modern version of Irish brown soda bread is packed with subtle flavors that’ll make it a new favorite.

Irish Guinness brown bread is a popular twist on the traditional brown (wheaten) soda bread in Ireland. This bread has a craggy crust and dark, almost cake like interior with a hearty texture, and with a slightly bitter yet subtly sweet flavor. It’s no wonder that this brown bread has become so popular at pubs all over Ireland.

Flour – Authentic Irish soda bread is made with whole wheat flour, but the kind in Ireland is made from soft wheat and is a lower protein than the whole wheat flour made in the US from hard winter wheat. If you can get some Irish whole wheat, use that for sure, but here we’ll be using regular whole wheat and cut it with some cake flour (or unbleached all-purpose flour) to soften the flavor and protein amount.

Oats – Optional, but some rolled oats add a nice texture and flavor to the bread. Add some to the batter itself, and then cover the top of the bread with some more right before baking. In Ireland, porridge oats are used, and in the US, you can use steel-cut, old-fashioned rolled oats, or quick-cooking oats, but don’t use instant oats.

Baking Soda & Powder – Traditionally you only need baking soda, but I add a little baking powder here as well for a little better rise and not moving quickly enough won’t be the end of the world. Baking soda needs an acid to activate it, which is where the buttermilk comes into play.

Buttermilk – Buttermilk adds a nice, tangy flavor to the bread, but most importantly, it activates the baking soda because of its acidity and gives the bread its needed rise in place of yeast.

Guinness – In this version of soda bread, Guinness stout beer replaces some of the buttermilk. The acidity helps activate the baking soda, add the beer adds a great flavor. I prefer a Guinness Draught, but extra stout beer is also a good choice. If you don’t like Guinness, you can use another stout beer you prefer, but if you just want to avoid alcohol altogether, you can replace it with more buttermilk instead. Guinness also makes a Guinness Zero if you want to try that.

Butter – Add a little butter (or oil) for flavor and to enrich the dough. It also adds a little more fat to help keep the bread moist.

Molasses or Treacle – Traditionally, the bread is sweetened with black treacle (which also helps contribute to the dark color) but is harder to find in the US. The lighter version, called golden syrup, is a little more available. While you can order black treacle online, here we’re going to replace it with molasses and a bit of dark brown sugar. Both are byproducts of cane sugar refinement, but molasses is boiled a little longer and therefore slightly more bitter and less sweet than its treacle counterpart.

Sugar – You don’t have to make this with sugar, but if you use molasses instead of black treacle, I recommend adding some dark brown sugar (light brown is fine if that’s all you tend to keep around). Molasses is a little more bitter and less sweet than black treacle, so a little sugar helps balance things out.

Preheat your oven to 400°F / 205°C and line or butter a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside.

In a large measuring cup or mixing bowl, mix the Guinness, buttermilk, melted butter, and molasses. In a separate bowl, add the flours, most of the oats, salt, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisk together until everything is well combined and make a well in the middle of the bowl.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a stiff spatula or wooden spoon. Just mix until there’s no visible dry flour pockets. The dough will be wet.

Pour the bread dough into your prepared 9x5 loaf pan and bake for about 40 minutes. A toothpick inserted should come out dry. Allow to cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes. Remove from the loaf pan and continue cooling on a wire rack.

Slice and serve while warm with some salted Irish butter or jam. Also goes great with some coffee or tea (or more Guinness!). Also goes great with some Guinness Irish stew.

Whisk – While I like using a balloon whisk for most of the mixing, Danish dough whisks are perfect anytime you need to fold in ingredients like the oatmeal here without overmixing. I switch to this when I begin adding the dry ingredients.

Loaf Pan – Whether making this with a 1-pound loaf pan, which measures 8 ½ x 4 ½ inches, or a 9x5 loaf pan, I prefer the listed USA Pan loaf pans for most recipes.

Bowl Scraper – A cheap bowl scraper made of stiff but flexible plastic or nylon are amazing for recipes involving batters or doughs. I use one here because it contours to the shape of the mixing bowl to easily scrape out all the Guinness bread batter and it helps to spread and level it out in the loaf pan.

❄️ How to Store Guinness Bread

Like other soda breads, Irish Guinness brown bread is best the day it is made. You can store it in a sealed bag or plastic wrap at room temperature for about 2-3 days though.

You can also freeze the bread for 4-6 months. I’d recommend slicing the cooled bread and then wrapping it in plastic wrap and again in aluminum foil, unless you plan on thawing and using the entire loaf at once.