Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Today, we wanted to share our take on a traditional Irish treat: Soda bread!

Soda bread is a kind of quick bread popular in Ireland, so named because it uses baking soda rather than yeast as a leavening agent. It's dense with a crispy crust and can be made sweet, savory, or, our personal favorite, with tea. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here are four variations on the traditional recipe, one for each leaf on your luckiest clover!

The Basics

For our recipe, we started off with this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, but you can start with any recipe that you like. We also had to find a recipe for homemade buttermilk to stand up to the higher temperatures we used in one variation, so we used the formula found here.

In addition to the regular ingredients you'll need for soda bread (swapping out milk and vinegar for regular buttermilk in variation three below), you'll also need our Irish Stout Tea (for variations 1 and 4), matcha (for variation 2), and chocolate chips or other add-ins (raisins and seeds are popular, but you could also do green sprinkles, food coloring, or other fruit or nuts) per your preferences. Please note that for all recipes, any add-ins such as tea or chocolate will have specific measurements listed, but are really to taste. You can also swap out the chocolate chips for any other add-in.

Once you've gathered all of your ingredients and found a recipe that you like, you're ready to start baking!

Variation One: Tea as a Dry Ingredient

For this version, you'll need your usual ingredients for soda bread, as well as two tablespoons of Irish Stout tea and one cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Find this featured on TeaChef for full recipe and instructions in one place!

Instructions

To begin, crush your Irish Stout tea using your gritTEA grinder, a mortar and pestle, or a rolling pin. The tea doesn't need to be dust, (particularly if you want little sparks of green in your bread from the sprinkles) but should be broken up fairly well, about as fine as large pepper flakes or sea salt.

Mix your wet and dry ingredients per the recipe, adding the tea in with your dry ingredients.

Cut your butter into the dry ingredients, then mix in your chocolate chips.

Add wet ingredients and mix, knead, shape, and bake per the recipe.

Variation Two: Matcha as a Dry Ingredient

For this version, you'll need your usual ingredients for soda bread, as well as two tablespoons of matcha, and any additional add-ins such as white chocolate chips, nuts, or berries.

Mix your wet and dry ingredients per the recipe, adding the matcha in with your dry ingredients. To avoid clumps, we suggest sifting the matcha when you add it, making sure to mix well to ensure even coloring. The color will also get more intense when you add in the wet ingredients.

Cut your butter into the dry ingredients, then mix in any add-ins.
Add wet ingredients and mix, knead, shape, and bake per the recipe.

Variation Three: Plain Soda Bread with Tea on the Side

For this version, you don't need anything special to add to your recipe unless you want to. A quick google search on soda bread will help you find all kinds of variations, not only for add-ins to the bread itself but also for toppings like flavored butters and jams.

But of course, if you ask us, the best thing to combine with soda bread (or most things, really) is tea. And if you're looking to get into the St. Patrick's Day Spirit, we suggest either our Irish Stout or Irish Breakfast, which comes in both hot and cold brew varieties.

Variation Four: Tea as a Wet Ingredient

For this variation, you will need two tablespoons of Irish Stout tea, milk, white vinegar (in place of the buttermilk), and one cup of chocolate chips.

Start by scalding the milk, steeping the tea directly into the milk as it heats. Because buttermilk will curdle from too much heat, you must use regular milk for this step. We also suggest rounding up however much milk your recipe calls for to the nearest cup or half-cup to make the vinegar measurements in step three easier. Make sure to add the tea early as well so that it has time to steep without burning the milk.

Once the milk is scalded and the tea has steeped long enough, strain the tea out of the milk and put the milk in the fridge to cool. You can also use a tea infuser or bag, just make sure to clean everything well when you're done to remove any leftover milk inside.

Once the milk has cooled, turn the milk into buttermilk using the homemade buttermilk recipe here.

Mix your wet and dry ingredients per the recipe, using the tea-infused buttermilk in place of regular buttermilk.

Cut your butter into the dry ingredients, then mix in your chocolate chips.

Add wet ingredients and mix, knead, shape, and bake per the recipe.

Tips and Tricks

While soda bread is a quick and easy bread for beginners, like all baked goods, there is some precision involved. Here are some tips and tricks we learned along the way.

Make sure to turn your milk into buttermilk before mixing in any eggs, as adding the eggs beforehand can mess up the measurements in your recipe.

When making the homemade buttermilk, roundup on your cup or half-cup measurements to avoid odd conversions with your vinegar. You can always use a little less buttermilk than you made if need be.

Add chocolate chips in between cutting in butter and adding the wet ingredients. If you add the chocolate chips first, they can get in the way once you start cutting in your butter.
If you want stronger tea flavor, use fewer chocolate chips, as the chocolate can be an overpowering flavor.

Other Variations

Not a fan of baking, or really want to amp up the party with even more Irish tea recipes? Check out our selection on Teachef.com by searching on 'Irish.' You'll find anything from smoothies to side dishes, desserts, breakfast foods, and even more breads.

Last Steps

Get creative. These are just a few of the flavor combinations we came up with, but with such an easy and versatile recipe, we're sure you can come up with more. Look online for traditional variations or come up with one all your own.

Enjoy. Once your bread is done, make sure to get some tasty tea, butter, or jam to pair with it. We have suggestions on the former in variation three above.

Share. If you've made the lastest great culinary creation (or enjoyed trying some of ours), we want to know! Make sure to take pictures of your favorite St. Patrick's Day celebrations and share them with us online @adagioteas.