I think this will be the easiest bread I will ever bake. There is no yeast action, no eggs or even butter. It's as easy as mixing dough for chapathis.
Try this simple white bread recipe using yeast if you want to make a traditional soft and fluffy white bread.
If you tried this Irish Brown Bread recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
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Recipe
Irish Brown Bread Recipe
Recipe for baking irish brown bread without yeast, using buttermilk, all purpose flour and whole wheat flour.
Need To Convert Measurements?Check out the Baking Measurement Chart!
Ingredients
- 1-½ Cups All Purpose Flour
- 1-½ Cups Whole-Wheat Flour
- ½ Cup Quick Oats
- ½ Cup Wheat Germ
- 1-½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¾ Teaspoon Salt
- 1-¾ Cups Buttermilk
- 2 Tablespoons Honey
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425°F/220C for 15 minutes. In bowl, combine all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, quick oats, wheat germ, baking soda, and salt.
- In small bowl, mix buttermilk with honey. Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture; stir to combine.
- Turn dough out onto floured surface and shape into a circle. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
- Reduce temperature to 400°F and bake 15 minutes more or until the bread sounds hollow when you tap it. Let cool 20 minutes.
My Notes
- While combining the dry ingredients, don't forget to seive the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour and baking soda to avoid uncooked lumps in the baked bread. I usually seive them, but this time I totally forgot it and found some lumps in the bread.
- Similarly while adding honey to the buttermilk, keep stirring it using a whisk or fork, until the honey dissolves in the buttermilk. Since I had to take a picture, I added the honey and just left it. When I was done taking the photo, I found that the honey had stuck to the bottom of the vessel and had lumped. So I had to use my muscle to dissolve it. Also before measuring the honey, spray the tablespoon with some non stick cooking spray and then pour the honey into the spoon. By doing this the honey will easily pour out from the spoon without sticking.
- Combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients. The recipe mentions to turn the dough onto a floured surface to shape it into a circle and then transfer to a baking sheet.
- The bread requires ½ cup of wheat germ, I guess it can be replaced with whole wheat flour itself. I also added 1 tablespoon flax seed meal.
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- I don't know whether I did not flour the surface well or what, this step was a bit messy and I was not able to shape it properly. So I sprayed both my hands with vegetable oil and removed the dough from the surface and transferred it to the greased baking sheet and shaped it in the baking sheet itself. This was very easy.
- Bake it for 15 minutes at 425°F and for another 15 min at 400F. Let it cool for at least 30 minutes before you can cut it. The bread has a nice nutty smell and flavor.
Taste & Texture
- Enjoy it with your favorite jam!
Namrata says
Hi,
What can b replaced to all purpose flour? Thanks and regards
Madhuram says
You could try whole wheat pastry flour or equal parts of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour.
Isaura says
Hi, I don't eat dairy, so my question is what can I substitute the buttermilk for?
Thank you
Madhuram says
You could use vegan buttermilk by mixing about 1.5 teaspoons of vinegar to 1 and 3/4th cup of any non-dairy milk of your choice.
Wan Jee Tay says
Hi Madhuram
I tried the Irish Brown Bread. It was awesome while it is still warm,crisply on the outside and soft on the inside. However, it was hard and dry the next day when it was cold. Is it meant to be this way? By the way, the cup mesurements that you use, are you using the US calculator. I do not have a measuring cup, so I had to convert everything to gm and ml. Really hope that I am not using the wrong measurements. Thank you for your great recipes.
Madhuram says
It's been 4 years since I baked this bread, so I really don't remember the texture of the bread. But I think it does harden up and this bread is best when dunked in warm soup.
steven says
Hello Madhu
Substitute for 1/2 cup wheat germ?
I have recipe Fruit bread 3/4 cup organic whole wheat flour,1/4 tsp baking soda,1/4 baking powder,1/4 tsp salt ,3/4 cup buttermilk,4 cup walnuts/anynuts, any dried fruits
300F FOR 60 minutes.
Thank you
Madhuram says
You could use whole wheat flour itself.
anu says
Hi,
I want to try this recipe. sounds awesome.
I wanted to ask if I a recipe asks for vinegar can i add apple cider vinegar ? does it give the same result ?
thank you
Madhuram says
Yes you can substitute one for the other.
SS says
Thank you so much Madhuram. I was getting directed to some site which required a registered member etc.....anyways it was a great help.
Madhuram says
No problem SS. Thanks for letting me know.
SS says
Hi Madhuram,
I am unable to get through to the ingredients n procedure please help me.
Madhuram says
I have included the recipe SS.
Meena says
Dear Madhuram,
I've been looking for homemade bread recipes and this was so perfect. It has no yeast!! So I tried this today with all the ingredients. It came out pretty well I must say. Outside crust was crisp and soft warm bread inside was just so good. I read in your blog that if we use vinegar, the result will be a light and airy bread. If i were to add white vinegar for the above recipe, how much should i add? Do we use both the buttermilk and the vinegar, or just vinegar?
Amira says
This recipes looks great and I will probably try it soon. That goes for a lot of others i ave found on this sound. I am very excited becuse I have an allergy to eggs and many of these recipes are what I have been looking for. one question; is flax seed the same as flax seed meal?
Thanks Amira. Flax seed meal is nothing but powdered whole flax seeds. You get this readymade in the stores or you could buy flax seeds and powder it yourself.
Krsna says
Hi Madhuram,
i tried this bread using vinegar. It truned out pretty good. I think for me the baking time was something like 20-25 mins 🙂
Thanks for a nice recipe.
You're welcome Krsna.
Nandhini says
You know what my mom had flax seed at home it seems. When i was talking to her today she told me this. I was wondering how i was unaware of this. Let me try out this recipe once again after getting flax seeds. Most of the baking items are available in Nilgris,Chennai.
Nandhini says
Added to my previous post, instead of honey i used sugar syrup (2tbspn) as suggested by u.
Nandhini says
Hi Madhuram,
I baked this Irish Brown Bread and came out well. Only thing is top layer came out a bit harder which i had to remove while serving. Also i added 1 tbspn apple cider vinegar instead of Flaxseed Meal as i dont get that in Chennai. Is that bcoz of this, i got the top layer harder.
I think over baking and/or over mixing makes the bread harder. I don't think it's because of substituting apple cider vinegar, because by doing that you should have got an airy and light bread. Flax seed is very much an Indian product Nandhini. It's "alli virai" in Tamil and alsi in Hindi, so try it by those names either in big departmental stores or naatu marundhu kadai.
Nandhini says
Hi Madhuram, As i dont eat Honey, can u suggest a substitute for Honey in ur above brown bread recipe.
Nandhini, why don't you try maple syrup, brown rice syrup. I think even simple sugar syrup should be fine.
Madhu says
hi Madhuram,
this seems to be a very tempting recipe.... i don't have wheat germ in hand right now and not interested in buying it just for this recipe.... so how do u think i can substitute its quantity in this recipe... i do have flax seed with me... any suggestions or ideas?? and also is it ok to bake it with unbleached whole wheat flour? 'coz thats what i have in hand now.... waiting to see ur reply :).... have a gr8 weekend!!
Madhu you can use whole wheat flour (bleached or unbleached) itself instead of wheat germ.
Ramya says
Hello.. came across your website today...
This looks such an awesome recipe that i'm inspired to go and try it out as soon as I get home today!
One question - it it OK to avoid the all-purpose flour? I know the texture may not come out as good, but I love to make all my recipes free of bleached flours.
Thanks Ramya. Sure you can use whole wheat flour itself, as far as you are ok with the nutty flavor and different texture. If you can get whole wheat pastry flour you can use that also in all recipes that require all purpose flour. It gives a nice texture to the baked goods without compromising on the health benefits. It's available in Whole Foods and other natural/organic stores.
hema says
hi madhuram this a nice bread & what a relief to hear a bread recipe without yeast.
Yes Hema, I'm not yet ready to use yeast.