I know that many are struggling to find yeast at the moment, so I´d thought I´d share with you a new twist on my Traditional Irish Soda Bread – A Red Onion and Balsamic Soda Bread – made without yeast!
Soda bread is great for when you want to make some homemade bread in a short amount of time. It´s also perfect because you can add absolutely anything to a basic soda bread recipe.
For this version of my soda bread, I have added red onions that have been gently cooked and caramelised in balsamic vinegar to the mix. It really tastes as good as it sounds! Because the onions are cooked slowly until soft, they release all of their natural sweetness, which is met with a slight acidy from the balsamic vinegar!
This bread is a great accompaniment to a hot bowl of soup for lunch. My Grandma´s Thick Vegetable Soup or a Red Lentil Soup go extremely well with this bread!
If there is no yeast, how does soda bread rise?
As you don´t use yeast to make soda bread, you might be wondering where the bread gets its rise from. As the name suggests, the leavening agent in this bread comes from bicarbonate of soda.
The bicarbonate reacts with the acidic liquid you add to the dough, here I have used a mix of buttermilk, milk and lemon juice, to form carbon dioxide, which will make the bread rise.
The reaction starts as soon as those two ingredients mix, so it is crucial to get the bread into the oven as quickly as possible.
How to make the Red Onion and Balsamic Soda Bread:
To make this soda bread, you start by gently cooking the red onions over a low heat in some oil. It´s best to use a large frying pan for which you have a lid to do this. That way you can almost steam the onions, making sure they go lovely and soft without burning. About half-way through, the balsamic vinegar is added.
Once the onions have cooled, you can make the dough for the bread. I use 420ml of buttermilk in my Classic Irish Soda Bread recipe. As buttermilk here comes in 300ml cartons, to avoid having to buy two cartons, I have replaced some of the buttermilk with normal milk and a bit of lemon juice.
The key things to look out for when making soda bread
When you make this red onion and balsamic soda bread, there are a few key things to look out for.
First, you should make sure the red onions have cooled before you add them to the bread. You could prepare and cook the onions in the morning, and
Second, you should make sure that once you have added the liquid, you get the bread into the oven as soon as possible. Soda bread doesn´t need much working or any kneading. All you need to do is bring all the ingredients together until combined into a nice dough and then putting it on a baking tray.
Also, make sure than you score a deep cross in the bread before you bake it, cutting almost all the way down to the bottom of the bread. This will help it bake and expand evenly.
Lastly, as the reaction between the acid and bicarbonate occurs as soon as you combine the dry and wet ingredients, it is important that you get the bread shaped and into the oven as quickly as possible.
Other No-Yeast Breads
Try some of my other breads made without yeast: My quick-breads and sourdough breads.
- Classic Irish Soda Bread
- Cheddar Cheese and Chive Soda Bread
- Cheese and Chive Scones
- Crusty Sourdough Bread
- Rye Sourdough Bread
- Seeded Sourdough Bread
Red Onion and Balsamic Soda Bread
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 large red onions, sliced into semi-circles
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 250g strong white (bread) flour
- 250g strong wholemeal (bread flour)
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 10g salt
- 300ml buttermilk
- 100ml semi-skimmed milk
- 1 tsp of lemon juice
Method:
- Start by peeling and finely slicing the red onions into semi-circles.
- Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan (that has a lid) over a low heat. Add the onions to the pan and cover with a lid. Stirring occasionally, cook the onions for 5-10 minutes until they start to go soft. Add in the balsamic vinegar and cook the onions for another 5-10 minutes until the onions are soft, caramelised and slightly translucent. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
- Once the onions have cooled, preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with a sheet of baking paper.
- Take a bowl and mix together both types of flour, the bicarbonate of soda, salt, and cooled onions.
- Combine the buttermilk, semi-skimmed milk and lemon juice in a measuring jug and briefly whisk together with a fork.
- Then, pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon to make the dough (it might be slightly sticky).
- Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and carefully roll and fold the dough until it comes together. You don´t have to knead the bread – just briefly work it until you can shape the dough into a rough ball.
- Place your ball of dough onto a baking tray and flatten slightly.
- With a large knife, score the dough with a deep cross (cut almost all the way down to the bottom of the loaf) to divide it into quarters. Then dust the bread with a little flour.
- Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes until golden brown. The bread should sound hollow when you tap it from below. If you feel like your bread is browning too quickly but isn´t fully baked yet, cover it with some tin foil and return it to the oven for a little longer.
- Leave the bread to cool on a wire rack until cool either completely or serve the bread whilst it is still slightly warm.
