Irish Brown Bread: A Must-Try Family Recipe

Name: Irish Brown Bread
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h
Cuisine: Irish
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups all purpose flour; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 2 teaspoons salt; 1 cup whole wheat flour; 1/2 cup oat bran (see note); 1/2 cup wheat germ; 1/2 cup rolled oats oatmeal; 1/2 cup steel cut oatmeal; 2 cups buttermilk; 1 egg; ¼ cup honey

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Hearty and substantial, this Irish brown bread recipe is perfect with soup, stews, or all by itself with a slathering of soft butter.

Irish brown bread on a green dish cloth.

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Why we love this recipe
Ingredients you need
Ingredient notes and substitutions
Here’s how to make Irish Brown Bread!
Recipe FAQs
What to serve with this recipe
Other bread recipes we love! ❤️
We want to know what you think! 🤔
Irish Brown Bread

Why we love this recipe

OH THIS BREAD.

This is a hearty, chewy, dense and delicious loaf of Irish wonderfulness, with a nutty flavor and full of things that are good and good for you. It’s the perfect partner to a cup of Irish breakfast tea, a bowl of steaming Irish stew, or all by itself, slathered with homemade butter and jam.

And while I am usually the one who cooks up all the things you see on this blog, I need to give credit where credit is due on this one, and that is to my beautiful Irish mother.

And whenever I ask her to make me a loaf of her magical Irish Brown Bread, she makes two.

One for me and one for whomever was the next lucky person who walked into her kitchen, and as a result, the recipe below makes two loaves.

I don’t think my mom knows how to cook for less than a crowd of hungry people, and you’re not going to have any problem dispensing with two loaves of this wonderfulness anyway.

Ingredients you need

Ingredients needed to make Irish brown bread.

Ingredient notes and substitutions

Whole Wheat Flour: You can find this in the baking aisle.
Oat Bran: You can use any of the following in place of the 1/2 cup of oat bran: King Arthur Harvest grains blend, Malted Wheat flakes, Barley flakes, Organic Oat Bran, Whole flaxseed or any combination of these. The King Arthur website is a great resource for all these ingredients.
Oatmeal: Rolled oats are the kind you use for regular oatmeal. Steel Cut oats are the firmer oats that have a coarser texture. You can find both of these in the breakfast aisle.
Buttermilk: Either full fat or low fat is fine.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities and nutritional information

Here’s how to make Irish Brown Bread!

This is going to look a little complicated but I promise it’s not…it’s just a lot of magical ingredients, and no bread rising shenanigans will be happening.

Irish brown bread flour mixture in a mixing bowl.

STEP 1: Preheat your oven to 350.

Combine 1 cup white flour, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, one teaspoon of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 cup of whole wheat flour, ½ cup of oat bran, ½ cup of wheat germ, ½ cup of steel cut oats and ½ cup of rolled oatmeal in a large bowl.

STEP 2: In another bowl, mix together 2 cups of buttermilk, 1 egg and ¼ cup of honey.

Irish brown bread mixture ina mixing bowl.

STEP 3: Pour buttermilk mixture into flour mixture and stir together as lightly as possible just to combine.

Irish brown bread dough about to be kneaded.

STEP 4: Turn out on floured board (if you have a silicone baking mat that is a great surface to put the dough on). The dough will be very sticky.

STEP 5: Fold the dough over on itself a few times, adding as much of the remaining white flour as needed to make a dough that is not too sticky.

STEP 6: Divide the dough in half. If you have a bench scraper (like in the picture above 👆) that is perfect…otherwise a regular old knife is fine.

Irish brown bread dough on a cookie sheet.

STEP 7: Form the dough into two rounds, tucking the dough under to form a taut rounded top. Place on a parchment or Silpat lined cookie sheet.

STEP 8: Cut a deep cross in the top of each loaf. Very Important: Prick each quarter once to let the fairies out. 😀 🧚🏻🧚🏼‍♀️🧚🏾‍♂️

Baked irish brown bread on a cookie sheet.

STEP 9: Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes, rotating the pan after 20 minutes. Internal temperature should be about 190 degrees. Remove to a rack to cool before cutting.

Definitely eat a piece while it is still a little warm. I don’t even bother cutting it, I just tear off chunks and scarf it down.

Recipe FAQs

Can this be made ahead?

As with all bread, it is at its most scrumptious when it is brand new, but it will still be lovely for another day or two. If it lasts that long.

Where can I find buttermilk?

Buttermilk usually hangs out next to the cream in the dairy section of your supermarket. You can use either low-fat or full fat buttermilk.

Where can I find all those exotic grain ingredients?

I promise they aren’t too hard to find. Look in both the baking and the organic/health food sections of your store for the flours and oat bran, and the cereal section for the wheat germ and the oatmeals. The King Arthur website is also a great source for these flours and grains.

What is the difference between Irish brown bread and Irish soda bread?

Irish brown bread is denser and nuttier than Irish soda bread, which is milder and has a softer texture. Irish brown bread uses several different flours and grains to get that hearty flavor, while soda bread uses white flour alone and has a milder, sweeter taste.

Have a question I didn’t cover?

Pop your question in the Comments section under the recipe card and I will answer pronto!

And with that, my mama’s Irish brown bread, made with love.

What to serve with this recipe

Well obviously this goes perfectly with an Irish themed meal ☘️ so a corned beef supper with colcannon and carrots and trifle for dessert are just the ticket!

Other bread recipes we love! ❤️

We want to know what you think! 🤔

If you try this recipe, we would love to hear how it came out for you! I’d be super grateful if you could leave a star rating (you pick how many stars! 🌟 ) and your thoughts in the Comments section below the recipe.