Irish Brown Bread Recipe

4.73 from 18 votes

Irish Brown bread is dark, moist, and slightly sweet, flavored with real Guinness Irish stout. Delicious with soft butter, dipped in soup, or topped with jam. Bake a loaf for your St. Patrick’s Day celebration.

Prep Time10

Cook Time1

Resting Time30

Total Time1 40

Course: bread

Cuisine: Irish

Keyword: Guinness Irish Soda Bread, Irish Brown Bread

Servings:

Calories: 423kcal

Author: Karrie

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 -1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
11.2 oz bottle Guinness beer
1/4 cup additional old fashioned oats for topping

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.
Grease a Dutch oven or a round 2 quart oven-safe bowl. You can use cooking spray or butter.
In a large bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt using a whisk.
In another bowl, combine wet ingredients including melted butter, vanilla, buttermilk and Guinness beer. Whisk together to combine.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until you get a well-blended batter. This will not look like a typical bread dough, but more of a batter.
Pour batter into greased baking dish or Dutch oven. Sprinkle with additional oats.
Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 400 and bake another 30 minutes. Lastly, turn the oven off, crack the oven door open, and keep the Irish brown bread inside to cool for 30 minutes. (If using a Dutch oven, take the entire Dutch oven out, set it on a heat-safe surface, and remove the lid so the bread can cool.) Remove and enjoy!

Notes

Substitute ginger ale for the Guinness (or forgo the beer altogether and just double-up on the buttermilk). I have not tried either of these methods, but have heard this Irish soda bread recipe was delicious with it!

Freezing your Irish brown bread wrap your room-temperature bread in plastic wrap, then seal tight in a freezer bag. Freeze for up to 4 months.

For short-term storage (less than a week) keep bread at room temperature in a loosely sealed paper bag or a bread box.

If you use a Dutch oven to make this Guinness bread, cook with the lid on. I use a 6-quart Dutch oven, which gives me a nice, wide “disc” of bread that plates very well and invites sharing. Cooking in a narrower dish creates a taller loaf and thicker slices – but tastes equally delicious!

Nutrition