Baking & Breads Bread

Seeded Rye Soda Bread

Name: Seeded Rye Soda Bread
Prep time: 12 min
Cook time: 38 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 1 loaf
Cuisine: Irish
Ingredients: 300 g rye flour; 100 g wholemeal flour; 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 1 tsp fine sea salt; 1 tbsp caraway seeds; 2 tbsp sunflower seeds; 400 ml buttermilk; 1 tbsp treacle or molasses

Bicarbonate of soda reacts with the acid in the buttermilk to create carbon dioxide.

By Dana Reyes

Tested at least twice · Updated September 2026

Seeded Rye Soda Bread — No yeast, no waiting — just a dense, nutty loaf that slices beautifully while still warm.

12 min

Prep time

38 min

Cook time

Serves

4.9

1,176 RATINGS

Why soda bread rises without yeast

Bicarbonate of soda reacts with the acid in the buttermilk to create carbon dioxide. The reaction starts as soon as the wet ingredients hit the dry, so you need to work quickly and get it into a hot oven.

Rye flour has less gluten than wheat, so the crumb is naturally dense and moist. The caraway seeds are what make it taste like rye bread rather than brown bread.

Ingredients

Makes 1

Instructions

About 50 min from start to finish

Preheat the oven to 200°C and dust a baking tray with rye flour.

Mix the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, caraway and sunflower seeds in a large bowl.

Whisk the buttermilk and treacle together and pour into the dry ingredients. Stir until a rough dough forms. Do not over-mix.

Tip onto the prepared tray and shape into a round, about 5 cm high. Cut a deep cross in the top.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing.

Testing notes & substitutions

Three rounds of testing turned up three things worth knowing before you start cooking.

Buttermilk substitute

Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to 400 ml whole milk and let it sit for 5 minutes. It will not be as tangy but it works.

Do not knead

Soda bread needs no kneading and no proving. Overworking makes it tough.

Storage

Best eaten within 24 hours. It also freezes well sliced and toasted straight from frozen.

Questions we get a lot

Can I use all rye flour?

You can, but the loaf will be very dense. A mix of rye and wheat gives a better texture.

Why the deep cross?

It helps the heat penetrate the centre and makes the loaf easier to break into quarters.

Can I add cheese?

Yes — 50 g grated cheddar folded into the dough is excellent.

Dana Reyes

Dana has cooked professionally for eleven years and has been testing recipes for Hearth & Thyme since 2019. She writes about weeknight cooking, slow breads, and the small techniques that quietly change a dish. Every recipe she publishes is cooked at least twice, in an ordinary home oven.