High altitude Irish brown bread is dense and hearty, made with whole wheat flour and wheat germ, and a subtle hint of sweet molasses. This is a simple brown bread recipe, and you’ll love it warm from the oven, toasted and buttered along side a hot bowl of soup, or for breakfast with scrambled eggs. If you know what’s good, slather slices of the bread with soft Irish butter and a drizzle of honey.
You might also love these recipes for Irish soda bread, cheese and herbs buttermilk quick bread, and rustic no knead bread.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Quick and Easy. If you’re new to bread making, today’s easy brown bread recipe is a good one to start with. You simply mix up the batter in a bowl, spread it into a pan, and bake. This is a wonderful recipe to make for St. Patrick’s Day, served with steaming bowls of soup or stew.
No Yeast, No Kneading. This is a quick bread, meaning it’s leavened with a chemical leavener such as baking soda or baking powder, rather than yeast. It rises beautifully, nearly doubling its height in the center of the loaf.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Flour. You’ll be using a combination of flours, both bread flour (although all purpose flour is also fine) as well as whole wheat flour (preferably stone ground, if you can find it), to give the bread structure and strength.
- Oats. A handful of oats in the bread adds more nutrition and structure. Do not use steel cut oats, although you can use either old fashioned rolled oats or quick oats. I like to pulse them in my Ninja to coarsely grind them into sort of an oat flour, although this step is optional.
- Wheat Germ. This adds more nutritional value and a hearty texture. You can also use wheat bran if you don’t have wheat germ.
- Salt. Adds flavor.
- Baking Soda. Leavening agent, so the bread rises.
- Buttermilk. Adds moisture and acidity, to react with the baking soda and make the bread rise.
- Egg. Adds moisture and strength.
- Molasses. Adds a hint of sweetness and a rich flavor, as well as contributes to the deep color of brown bread.
- Butter. You’ll need butter to grease the pan, as well as a little melted butter in the bread, for more flavor.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Brush the bottom and sides of a 1 lb bread loaf pan (or a standard 9×5 inch loaf pan) with butter.
- In a bowl, whisk together the bread flour, wheat flour, ground oats, wheat germ, salt and baking soda.
- In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and egg. Add the buttermilk, egg, molasses and melted butter to the dry ingredients, then stir together with a spatula just until moistened, and you have a thick, sticky batter.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan, then use the edge of the spatula to drag a line lengthwise down the center of the batter. This gives the bread’s crust a place to split open and expand as it rises. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of oats over the batter.
- Bake the bread for about 55-65 minutes. After 40 minutes, turn the oven temperature down from 400 F to 350 F, and continue to bake the bread until it has a deep golden brown crust, and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the bread reads 195 F. Do not under-bake your bread, or it may be damp and doughy in the middle.
- Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack. The bread should lift right out of the pan. Let cool for about an hour before slicing. Spread pieces of bread generously with softened Irish butter and a drizzle of honey, if you know what’s good.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t have buttermilk, pour 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar into a liquid measuring cup, then add whole milk up to the 1 3/4 cup line. You can also replace the buttermilk with kefir.
The molasses adds a subtle hint of sweetness, but this is not a sweet tasting bread. If you want a sweeter flavor, feel free to add 2 tbsp honey, pure maple syrup or dark brown sugar to the batter with the liquid ingredients.
Store leftover bread in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3-6 months. Leftover brown bread is best toasted and slathered with butter.
While this is a more dense, hearty bread, you can certainly use it for sandwiches if you slice it thinly. It would be particularly good for grilled cheese sandwiches. Note that the whole wheat flour and wheat germ naturally make this bread a bit more crumbly, and it will not have the soft, flexible texture of store bought sandwich bread.
I used the nonstick USA 1 lb Bread Loaf Pan.
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High Altitude Simple Irish Brown Bread
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Digital Instant Read Thermometer
Ingredients
- 2 cups bread flour or all purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (preferably stone ground), fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup old fashioned rolled oats, pulsed several times in a small food processor or Ninja until coarsely ground
- ¼ cup wheat germ or wheat bran
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 ¾ cups buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tbsp molasses (not blackstrap)
- 2 tbsp melted unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the pan
- 2 tbsp old fashioned rolled oats, for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Brush the bottom and sides of a 1 lb bread loaf pan (or a standard 9×5 inch loaf pan) with butter.
- In a bowl, whisk together the bread flour, wheat flour, ground oats, wheat germ, salt and baking soda.
- In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and egg. Add the buttermilk, egg, molasses and melted butter to the dry ingredients, then stir together with a spatula just until moistened, and you have a thick, sticky batter.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan, then use the edge of the spatula to drag a line lengthwise down the center of the batter. This gives the bread's crust a place to split open and expand as it rises. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of oats over the batter.
- Bake the bread for about 55-65 minutes. After 40 minutes, turn the oven temperature down from 400 F to 350 F, and continue to bake the bread until it has a deep golden brown crust, and a digital instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the bread reads 195 F. Do not under-bake your bread, or it may be damp and doughy in the middle.
- Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack. The bread should lift right out of the pan. Let cool for about an hour before slicing. Spread pieces of bread generously with softened Irish butter and a drizzle of honey, if you know what's good.
This bread was very tasty, especially with butter as suggested. Also great as avocado toast.
It was a bit crumbly and pieces fell off when I toasted it.
I appreciate any whole grain recipes, as I am pre-diabetic, and am overall trying to eat healthier!
The slight crumbliness is the nature of this type of bread, due to the whole wheat flour and wheat germ. It just won’t have the flexibility of a store bought soft sandwich bread. Just be sure though that you didn’t pack too much flour in when you measured it, which would make the bread dense and dry, leading to more crumbles. So glad you enjoyed it!
Can you use a bread machine?
Also I’m at 8300 feet. Do I need to make any adjustments?
TIA!
Maybe less leavening and more liquid, but this one might also work without any adjustments. You might try it first as is, and then tweak from there based on the results.
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/baking-faqs/
Exactly what I was looking for, quite close to the ubiquitous and delicious bread I remember from Ireland. I’m at a lower altitude and didn’t make any adjustments (except soured milk for buttermilk because I didn’t want to buy buttermilk). Thank you!
This is a keeper. Best Irish soda bread recipe I’ve tried so far. Amazing and easy!