Soda Bread Buns Recipe (2024)

Analisa, sugar does more than sweeten - it tenderizes and adds flavor. Maybe you try should making the recipe as directed? Since others haven't had the problem, it could be the sugar, which is not a large amount anyway.

Sugar also acts as a humectant (attracts moisture). When you remove sugar the recipe tends to taste tough (hard) and stales faster. It is very difficult to remove the sugar from baked goods without causing huge textural changes. For some dense baked goods, like dense muffins, you can substitute things like fruit purees but remember that they have sugar also and help keep the texture.

I've made these 4 times now, and have settled on a recipe our family likes. First, no caraway seeds. Yes to pastry flour (regular whole wheat turned out a pretty stiff roll), with golden raisins in lieu of dried currants. Yes to weighing ingredients. Flour your hands well and don't be afraid of wet dough. The resulting rolls are too soft to hold the X carved into the top, so I don't bother. Twenty-one or 22 minutes in 350-degree oven. Result: our new favorite dinner quick bread.

Used ground oats/ground flax seed in place of wheat pastry flour, & substituted plain yogurt & milk for buttermilk. Smelled great, looked gorgeous, tasted better, with nice tender crumb & golden crust - love this recipe!

These were AWESOME! Thanks for the tip to use ground oats instead of the whole wheat flour which I did not have on hand. Always have goats milk Kefir on hand so I used that instead of the buttermilk.And golden raisins were also a good substitute for the currants since I had run out of those. Quite decadent despite only having 3 tablespoons of butter. Yumm!

Great recipe. Not too sweet and very light and fluffy. They were very easy to make and even easier with a scale. I would suggest using a dough scraper to create the wedges so that the buns are symmetrical.

Have made this twice in 2 weeks! 1st time used imperial measurements bc my scale needed a new battery. 2nd time I used my scale, measuring by weight and the dough felt more right. Also 2nd time made 12 rolls instead of 8. Used half currents and half Himalayan golden raisins. Baked for 18 minutes. Perfect! Measuring by weight is the way to go! They are much lighter and more tender.

We’ve probably made these 30 times since the recipe appeared in the paper in 2013. Serve for a special breakfast with butter — plus jam if you want. We don’t modify a thing. No need to measure the currants and caraway precisely. If you think you might not like the caraway seeds, divide the dough and add them to half. Give the caraway a try at least. Here they’re a favorite aspect. If baking away from home, mix the dry ingredients (minus currants and caraway) ahead and transport in a plastic bag.

I make these every year around St. Patrick's Day. I use weight measures, and they turn out just fine. If anything, they can lean towards the salty side, so there's opportunity to scale back on salt. I sometimes freeze the remaining buns and reheat them individually, when I want one. They are a great breakfast accompaniment with coffee or tea.

wonderful! Not too sweet, the currants and caraway work well together. Easy to make. My co- workers love them.

"moist dough" is the understatement of the century. This was a sopping wet dough. Cutting a cross in the top was no more possible than cutting a cross in hot cereal. I had expected the consistency of scones but the rolls ended up more like flat cookies.

Perfect! Liked making this as buns instead of a huge bread. What a difference weighing your ingredients makes, too.

Super recipe. Easy to make, thanks to Melissa's video. Currants and caraway are inspired. Next time, I'll use a tad less sugar.

Easy, wonderful recipe. The currants give it sweetness without a ton of sugar.

In the video, Melissa says you can. Just bake for 40-50 minutes as a loaf.

I don’t know if it’s the dry weather in the northeast, but I needed closer to 4 tablespoons of butter to get the nice coarse flour & butter mixture. Tasty though!

Good but too salty for me. I did use unsalted butter as per the recipe. I will cut back on the salt next time.

These were fantastic - I'm not sure why you dust with flour before they go in - I'd suggest a little extra flour on your hands when rolling them. My mom loved them, and these will definitely go into the rotation!

Can make the dough ahead of time...then baked when ready to serve the meal! Also, soaked currants in Irish whiskey and added the whiskey to the dough!

Really good recipe, they came out perfectly. Didn't use the caraway seeds, and substituted Californian raisins for currants. Melissa mentions chopping the raisins in her video but it was definitely not necessary.

Best soda bread I ever made...nice texture...soft and moist on the inside ...very flavorful...I did not add the caraway and used sweet dried cherries instead of raisins

I had a very good experience with this recipe. Measured the ingredients by weight, and the dough was very easy to work with. Used plain kefir (Kalona) mixed with some milk because I didn’t have buttermilk. Added only 1/2 tsp salt because a full tsp seemed like too much… Used Trader Joe’s dried blueberries because I don’t have black currants. The buns came out delicious and they look and smell beautiful!

Great, although I would reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon next time.

Substituted buttermilk for 1/2 cup Liberte Mediterranee vanilla yogurt milk Reduced sugar to 2 tbsp (still sweet, due to vanilla yogurt, reduce to 1.5 tbsp next time?)1cup ww flour, 1/2 cup oat flour, 1/2 cup white flourAdded orange zestSubstitute dried cranberries for currentsAdded pecansOmitted caraway seeds400 F

Resiliant recipe, and tasty. This size (7) fills a baking sheet for countertop oven. Made this by accident with 2tsp bkg soda and 2tsp bkg powder, which didn’t seem to hurt anything. They really puffed up. Recommend soaking dry currants in Irish distilled spirit a while ahead; drain excess spirit before adding currants to batter, drink some, mix some with buttermilk used to brush the tops!

Delicious and easy! Per the comments, I subbed ground oats for the pastry flour and it worked great. Nice texture, tastes amazing with butter and jam.

Great recipe, I use every year, replacing my usual Soda bread.

I used this recipe as a jumping off point for a gluten free version. They turned out great! I subbed 1c quick cook oats, pulsed in food processor, but still left some texture, + 1c of Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF mix ( + 2 tsp of xanthan gum. I also subbed 1/3 cup coconut milk and 1/3 c rice milk + 2 tsp apple cider vinegar for the buttermilk, since I was out, but would use the real thing next time, or maybe try all coconut milk and white vinegar.

Delicious! So easy. I love the bun size idea. Makes for a perfect texture. I can't ever seem to find currants so I use Dried Wild Blueberries from Trader Joe's and the combo with the caraway seeds is devine.

I've made this several times now as a single loaf. It's a nice small one for our family of three. Needs to bake about 40 minutes instead of 20, but is otherwise lovely. I use regular whole wheat flour too, since that's what I had, and reduced sugar by about 10 grams.