Irish Guinness Brown Bread
Malty, with hints of coffee and cocoa, this Irish Guinness brown bread is a popular, modern spin on traditional Irish brown soda bread. Irish soda bread is a type of quick bread that doesn’t need fermenting or a long rising time, instead relying 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.
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat flour, see note
- ½ cup cake flour, see note
- 1 cup rolled oats, divided
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ cups Guinness stout, at room temperature, see note
- 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons molasses, see note
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed, see note
Directions
- 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 1 ½ cups Guinness, 1 cup buttermilk, 4 tablespoons melted butter, and 2 tablespoons molasses. In another large mixing bowl, add 2 cups whole wheat flour, ½ cup cake flour, ¾ cup rolled oats, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, ¼ cup dark brown sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 2 teaspoons baking soda. Whisk together until everything is well combined and make a well in the center.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry 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 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.
Equipment Used
Notes
1) Flour – Irish whole wheat flour is a lower protein amount than whole wheat flour in the US. You can buy some Irish wheat flour and use just that or use regular whole wheat and cut it with some cake flour. If you don’t normally have cake flour, feel free to use all-purpose as well.
2) Guinness – I prefer Guinness Draught, but extra stout 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. Guinness bottles are typically 11.2oz while the cans of draught I like are 14.9oz. If you use the can instead of bottle, measure out just under 1 ½ cups worth instead of the entire can.
3) Molasses & Brown Sugar – Molasses and treacle are both byproducts of cane sugar refinement, but molasses is boiled a little longer and therefore slightly more bitter and less sweet than its treacle counterpart. If you can buy black treacle, just use that in place of the molasses and dark brown sugar. Use unsulfured molasses and not blackstrap. You can also use light brown sugar instead of dark, if that’s all you typically stock.
Nutrition
Calories: 255kcalCarbohydrates: 40gProtein: 6gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 10mgSodium: 601mgPotassium: 202mgFiber: 3gSugar: 8gCalcium: 52mgIron: 2mg
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