This wonderfully easy and convenient no yeast bread is also known as soda bread. Adapted from my Irish Soda Bread, this dense loaf is made from just 6 ingredients and ready in about 1 hour. There’s no complicated shaping or kneading necessary and I offer plenty of flavor suggestions. We love this with oats and/or coarse salt sprinkled on top!
Highly requested and majorly convenient if you (1) don’t have yeast and (2) crave bread, this no yeast bread comes at the perfect time! I adapted this recipe from my Irish Soda Bread, a recipe straight from my late grandmother’s kitchen. I made 3 loaves just this past week and am thrilled to share the simple process with you today.
This No Yeast Bread Is:
- Ready in 1 hour
- Made with 6 ingredients
- Convenient if you don’t have or don’t want to use yeast
- Dense, satisfying, and crusty
- Delicious toasted or warm with honey butter
- Made with buttermilk for extra flavor and richness
- Wonderful plain or with optional flavors
The Exact Texture to Expect:
My no yeast bread has a crumbly golden brown crust with a dense, tight crumb inside. Since there’s no yeast, don’t expect an airy, light, or bouncy bread. If you want an airy yeast bread, I recommend my sandwich bread, artisan bread or even whole wheat bread.
These Ingredients Are Crucial
This section is important to review if you’re wondering about ingredient substitutions or why certain ingredients are used.
- All-Purpose Flour: All-purpose flour is best for this loaf, though the same amount of bread flour may also be used without any changes to the recipe. See my recipe notes about whole wheat flour. I have not tested this recipe with gluten free alternatives.
- Salt: I use 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of fine sea salt for flavor, but have also tested this recipe with the same amount of regular table salt. Both are excellent.
- Baking Soda: This is a quick bread, so the bread rises without the use of yeast. Baking soda is our leavening agent and if you remember from my baking soda vs baking powder page, baking soda requires an acidic ingredient. Do not use baking powder—you will need an excessive amount in order for this bread to rise and that much baking powder will leave a chemical aftertaste.
- Butter: You’ll notice that I use melted butter in this loaf while my Irish Soda Bread uses cold butter that you cut into the flour. I played around with this dough A LOT and found that I could successfully use melted butter and skip the cutting step (in conjunction with leaving out the egg). The bread isn’t quite as heavy and rich as my grandmother’s recipe, but it’s still plenty flavorful.
- Honey or Sugar: Either work with zero changes to the recipe required.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk, an acidic ingredient, adds richness and flavor. Just like it does for no yeast cinnamon rolls, it also aids in the loaf’s rise. If you don’t have buttermilk, see my recipe note about a DIY version.
A sprinkle of oats, seasonings, and/or coarse salt on top is optional!
No Yeast Bread Video Tutorial
Now that you understand why each ingredient is imperative to the recipe’s success, let’s watch a super quick recipe video. Yes, the process really is this easy!
Overview: How to Make No Yeast Bread
While the full recipe is written below, let’s quickly walk through the process with step-by-step pictures. I want you to be confident and have instant success!
- Combine the dry ingredients.
- Mix the honey and melted butter, then stir into the dry ingredients.
- In 2-3 additions, fold in the buttermilk to create a shaggy and slightly moist dough.
- Turn dough and any flour crumbles at the bottom of the bowl onto a work surface. Using your hands, bring the dough together into a ball then flatten into a 2 inch thick, 7-8 inch disc. These measurements don’t need to be totally accurate.
- Place onto a lined baking sheet or your baking pan of choice. (See next section.) Brush with a little more buttermilk and, if desired, sprinkle with some oats and/or coarse salt.
- Using a very sharp knife, score the top of the dough with an X that’s about 3/4 inch deep. This allows the center to bake.
- Bake until golden brown. Tent with aluminum foil halfway through baking to prevent the crust from over-browning before the center cooks through.
Best Baking Pan to Use for No Yeast Bread
- I usually use a half baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- You can also use a seasoned 10-12 inch cast iron skillet—feel free to pre-heat the skillet in the pre-heating oven, though that’s not necessary.
- Greased 9-10 inch cake pan or pie dish.
- A dutch oven large enough to fit the loaf. Line with parchment paper before placing the dough inside. Feel free to bake the bread with the lid on, which helps develop a crispier crust. Remove the lid for the last 10 minutes of baking. The bake time may be longer since the bread is in a closed pan for most of the oven time.
- Any square or rectangular pan large enough to fit an 8-inch round loaf.
See all of my quick bread recipes. Excited for you to try this easy bread!
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Homemade No Yeast Bread (Soda Bread)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This dense, chewy, and satisfying no yeast bread rises with baking soda and buttermilk. Before beginning, review the blog post above, recipe notes below, as well as the video tutorial.
Ingredients
- 4 and 1/4 cups (531g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more for hands and surface
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 4 Tablespoons (1/4 cup; 60g) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 Tablespoons honey (43g) or granulated sugar (25g)
- 1 and 3/4 cups (420ml) buttermilk, plus 1 Tablespoon for brushing the dough
- optional: 1 Tablespoon whole oats and/or a sprinkle of coarse salt for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). There are options for the baking pan. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, use a seasoned 10-12 inch cast iron skillet, or grease a 9-10 inch cake pan or pie dish. Set aside. Feel free to pre-heat the skillet in the oven too, though that’s not necessary.
- Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk the melted butter and honey/sugar together. Pour into the flour mixture and toss to combine. (The mixture won’t fully combine yet since there’s so little wet ingredients and so much flour.) In 2-3 additions, pour in the buttermilk mixing for 15-20 seconds after each addition. After all of the buttermilk has been added, mix gently to form a shaggy, stiff, and slightly moist dough. If you used honey, there could be little specks of honey/butter in spots. That’s ok! Those will be extra flavorful specks in your bread.
- Pour the shaggy dough and any flour crumbles that haven’t been incorporated onto a lightly floured work surface. With floured hands, work the dough into a ball and flatten into a (approximately) 7-8 inch disc as best you can (make it about 2 inches tall). If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour.
- Transfer the disc to the prepared skillet/pan. Brush the whole loaf with 1 Tablespoon buttermilk. Using a very sharp knife, score a 3/4 inch deep X into the top. (Without scoring, the bread can’t bake properly in the center.) Sprinkle optional oats and/or coarse salt on top of the loaf.
- Bake until the bread is golden brown and center appears cooked through, about 45 minutes. Loosely cover the bread with aluminum foil halfway through bake time to protect the crust from over-browning before the center has a chance to cook.
- Remove from the oven and allow bread to cool for 5 minutes before slicing. For best taste, though, let the bread cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving. If you made a plain loaf, the slices are delicious spread with honey butter or your desired spreads. Slices taste wonderful toasted, too!
- Cover and store bread at room temperature for 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Baked and cooled bread freezes well up to 3 months. Freeze the whole loaf or individual slices. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature, then reheat as desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Cast Iron Skillet, Round Cake Pan, or Pie Dish | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Wooden Spoon or Spatula | Pastry Brush
- Buttermilk: Using cold buttermilk is best. Buttermilk is key to the bread’s flavor, texture, and rise. The bread will not rise without it. If you don’t have any buttermilk on hand, you can make a homemade “DIY” version. Whole milk or 2% milk is best, though lower fat or nondairy milks work in a pinch. Add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup. Add enough milk to make 1 and 3/4 cup. Whisk together, then let sit for 5 minutes before using in the recipe.
- Alternative Flours: Instead of all-purpose flour, you can use the same amount of bread flour with no other changes needed to the recipe. If you’d like to use all whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour, expect an extremely dense and heavy loaf. Instead, I recommend using half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. Still, the bread will taste pretty heavy. If you’re interested, here are all my recipes using whole wheat flour. I have not tested this bread with any gluten free alternatives, so I’m unsure of the result. Let me know if you do! If you’re interested, here are all my gluten free recipes.
- Optional Flavor Additions: Feel free to add flavor to this bread by mixing any of the following or a combination of them in with the flour in step 2: 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary or other chopped fresh herb, 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese or other shredded cheese, 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1 diced jalapeño, 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning or other ground seasoning/herb, 2 cloves minced garlic, or 1 cup dried cranberries, raisins, or other small dried fruit. Sometimes I add 1 extra Tablespoon of sugar/honey, 1 cup raisins, and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon.
- Best Baking Pan to Use: I like using a regular sheet pan because it’s easy, convenient, and universal to most kitchens. I do not recommend a loaf pan because the loaf may not bake evenly inside. This dough is best as a flatter loaf. See blog post above for different pans.
I made this bread for the first time today. It baked up beautifully and tastes delicious, but the crumb has a slight yellowish/brownish tint to it. Any idea where I goofed up?
Hi Mark, every loaf can vary a bit in color. If it tasted great, it sounds like you did everything right! It could simply be the brand of ingredients you used, particularly the honey and butter, that are giving it more of a yellow color. Thank you for giving this bread a try!
It’s in the oven. We’ll see♀️
Could I try this in an air fryer?
Hi Dani, we haven’t tested baking this bread in an air fryer.
I tried the bread and irt was great!!!
Hello! I see that this recipe was adapted. What was the original one? The dough was too wet (I tried it twice) and weighed the wet and dry ingredients with a scale. I ended up adding more flour to make it work. thank you! 🙂
Hi! I used this family Irish Soda Bread as the starting point. A few small differences. Adding more flour may be necessary, like if you were making a yeasted dough.
SPELT flour worked great! Dough was a bit wet at end of recipe process so I added a bit more flour for the desired consistency.
After I mixed my ingredients together, I had issues getting it to form a ball. It stuck together, but seemed very crumbly and wasn’t smooth. You could see a lot of creases and folds in the dough after I shaped it. Are there any tips to prevent this from happening in the future or something I missed? The bread still tasted delicious, even though it was quite crumbly from my having trouble shaping it though!
Hi Tara! It sounds like there could have been too much flour in your dough. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
I made this recipe last night and it was sooo easy and yummy. Added 3 different grated cheese, basil and garlic with dried tomatoes and olive oil. A friend ask for my recipe after posting on Facebook how good it was. Love all your recipes.
It’s just too good for bread and my waist line. I’m afraid I’ll make it again and again (repeat).
Can I use skim milk and butter? I don’t have buttermilk
Hi Claire! See recipe notes for details on a DIY buttermilk substitute.
Hi Sally, would pastry flour work in this recipe? I have some to use up. Thank you
Hi Donna, pastry flour may be a little too light for this recipe. I’d recommend sticking with all-purpose or bread flour to keep the dough structure for this bread.
Can’t wait to try this recipe. I also would love whole wheat and gluten free recipes
Hi Julie! We specialize in traditional baking recipes, but here you can find our Gluten Free Recipes and Healthier Recipes (with lots of whole wheat options!).
Very good but I have a question on fast rise yeast. When making your bagel recipe can I use this or the regular yeast. Are the amounts the same.
This bread is very good and was gobbled up in a short amount of time. If people have problems it’s because their ovens are running too hot or too cold. Buy a 15.00 hanging thermometer for your oven. Mine runs hot by 25 degrees. I also set the time at least 10 mins under the stated time. My bread was done just under 40 minutes. Perfect
Hi T.G. we’re so glad you’re enjoying this no yeast bread recipe. For our homemade bagels, use instant or active dry yeast. If using active dry yeast, the rise time may be up to 2 hours.
I am making this bread recipe for an upcoming dinner party.
8 guests. Having Irish stew and Colcannon potatoes. How many loaves do you think I need to make? Thank you!
Hi Patty, it really depends on how big/small you slice your bread. The bread keeps well at room temperature for 3 days or in the refrigerator for a week, so perhaps make two batches (we recommend separate batches rather than doubling), and enjoy any leftovers throughout the week!
This recipe is absolutely amazing! I made 2 loaves. One was rosemary and parmesan , the 2nd one was dried cranberries and walnuts with cinnamon. Omg! So simple, yet so wonderful. Love the rustic presentation. Thank you for this recipe. I just may be making my own bread from now on.
I make this bread every St. Patrick’s Day, and my family loves it. I need to make it more often and try some of the flavor additions. I just made a batch today to go with corned beef, roasted potatoes & carrots. Everyone is looking forward to dinner!
Can I make this using only whole wheat flour? or any amount of whole wheat flour?
Hi Sarah, see recipe Note. If you’d like to use all whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour, expect an extremely dense and heavy loaf. Instead, I recommend using half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour.
Thank you for no yeast bread
Could sesame or poppy. Seeds work on top? Could this become cheese bread ? What about herbs like rosemary?
Hi Sandra, See the recipe note about adding different flavors. We add it directly to the dough with the flour.
I cannot wait to make this Bread, it looks delicious
Will half a recipe work?
Hi Suz, half the recipe should work for a smaller loaf. Enjoy!