Traditional Irish Brown Soda Bread

I just made this to go with our supper of lentil soup, and I hope there will be some left for breakfast tomorrow morning! A good, hearty loaf, unpretentious and rustic, like all good Irish country cooking. Note to Hine's Honey---did you know that you can change a metric recipe by clicking on "U.S." beside the recipe? The site will automatically convert it for you. Thanks, K in K, for a wonderful recipe.

Yes! Yes! This is the one! I had this at my mom's a month or two ago (don't know where she got it) and have been obsessed ever since. I do use buttermilk in mine and grind the oatmeal up into oat flour, but otherwise it's the same. Not a bit sweet, no silliness with raisins, and the oatmeal just sends it over the top good. The crust on this thing is hard for me to talk about, it is so sublime. I actually just pulled a loaf out of the oven and would mow through half of it if it weren't currently 7:30 at night. Bless you, Kate, for already putting up the recipe. I will continue my passionate affair with this bread until I die. **Update: I have made this bread several times and have found that about 1 3/4 cup of buttermilk and baking 40 minutes works best for me in my climate. Also, everyone remember to let your dough stand still and rest a few minutes to give the whole wheat flour a chance to absorb some of the liquid, then decide from there if you need more flour. It is quite a wet dough, and you don't want to have to throw in a ton of extra flour and end up with a delicious block of wood. Killer recipe! Thanks again, Kate!

This is really good. Not exactly like one I enjoyed at a Dublin pub but close. I ground the oatmeal as another reviewer suggested. I baked the bread for 40 minutes. It was starting to get dark so I took it out. However, when I sliced it open it was still doughy in the middle. So I sliced it up a bit and stuck it back in the oven. Next time I will try baking it on my pizza stone. Everyone enjoyed it with our Irish stew. Thanks for posting!

This bread is dense and chewy. A nice rustic bread. I did not expect it to rise quite so much and the first loaf was done on the outside and gummy on the inside. The first loaf was free form and for the 2nd loaf, I sprayed a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray, dusted lightly with oat bran, placed the prepared dough in the pie plate and baked for 30 minutes as directed in my convection oven. This made a great addition to my St. Patrick's Day menu.

Kate this is great bread, I made it for St'. Pat's both at home and at work with my seniors. It was a hit in both places. Great with as an addition to a bowl of soup or even as a sandwich bread. Thank you so much for posting, this will be a staple in my kitchen.