Easy Fruit Soda Bread

5 from 2 votes

This Easy Fruit Soda Bread combines mixed dried fruit and a touch of spice with a classic white soda bread recipe, to create a delicious fruit bread that's super quick to make - with no kneading or proving required. Perfect for St Patrick’s Day… or any day when you need a deliciously simple fruity soda bread recipe! (Buttermilk and no buttermilk options included.)

Course Bread, Breakfast, Brunch, Snack

Cuisine Irish

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 35

Total Time 45

Servings slices

Calories 192kcal

Author Eb Gargano

Ingredients

450 g plain white flour (see Note 1)
½ teaspoon salt or to taste (see Note 2)
1 teaspoon baking soda (see Note 3)
3 tablespoons light soft brown sugar
150 g mixed dried fruit (see Note 4)
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
250 ml milk (see Note 5)
4 tablespoons lemon juice (roughly 1 lemon – see note 5)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C fan / gas mark 4 / 350F. Dust a non-stick baking tray with a little plain white flour.
In a large bowl, mix together thoroughly the flour, salt, baking soda, sugar, mixed spice and cinnamon. Add the mixed dried fruit and stir again.
In a jug, mix together the milk and lemon juice.
Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
Bring the dough together into a ball using your hands. The dough should just come together into a ball, but shouldn’t be wet and sloppy. (If it doesn’t all come together, add a splash of water. If it’s too wet and sloppy add a touch more flour.)
Roll the dough into a ball and place on your prepared baking tray. (Try to avoid having too much fruit on the outside as it has a tendency to burn before the bread in the centre is fully cooked.)
Flatten the ball a little and then cut a deep cross into it. The cross should go almost to the base of the loaf – but not quite!
Sprinkle the loaf with a little plain white flour.
Bake the loaf in your pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes, until cooked all the way through and golden on top.
Ideally, serve warm – straight out of the oven!

Notes

Be sure to use plain (all purpose) white flour NOT white bread flour or white self-raising flour.
Salt is a very personal thing. I find ½ teaspoon is about right for my own personal tastes, but feel free to adjust to suit your own personal preferences.
Be sure to use baking soda (which is the same as bicarbonate of soda) DO NOT use baking powder, which is a different thing entirely!
Hands down the best option here is to use a ready mixed dried fruit and candied peel mix. Ideally you want the dried mixed fruit to be a mix of sultanas, raisins, currants and candied mixed peel. You can usually find this in supermarkets. (I use this one or this one.) If you can't find it ready mixed, buy the ingredients individually and go for these proportions: 40% sultanas / 30% raisins / 20% currants / 10% candied mixed peel. (Alternatively you can use any mix of dried fruit you like, or just stick to a single dried fruit, such as raisins or cranberries.)
Traditionally soda bread uses buttermilk, however buttermilk can be hard to get hold of and expensive. Regular milk plus lemon juice works just as well, and means you don’t have to go out and try to find buttermilk for this recipe. However, if you prefer, you can use 300ml/1¼ cup buttermilk or natural yogurt in this recipe, in place of the milk AND lemon juice. Any milk will work in this recipe. I use regular cow’s milk, but you can use a plant-based milk, if you prefer.
Suitable for freezing.
Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

Nutrition