This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
This Irish Guinness Brown Bread is a quick bread that just needs to be stirred together and baked! Perfect for breakfast or serving alongside stew!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase the items I recommend through the links I provide, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more info, please see my disclosure policy. Thanks for supporting Fox and Briar!
Who are your cooking heroes? As a self taught cook, I learned how to cook from lots of people, from my mom, friends and family, and of course from some of the more famous cooks that influenced so many of us. Martha Stewart, Alton Brown and Ina Garten are a few of the heavier influences on my cooking style, and their recipes are often the ones I turn to when I want to learn something new. That was why I was so excited to get my hands on Ina Garten’s latest cookbook “Cooking for Jeffrey”.
After flipping through the cookbook, I had a few recipes I wanted to try right away. I was especially excited about the Irish Guinness Brown Bread, with St. Patrick’s Day coming up! This recipe is so quick and easy. It doesn’t produce a traditional soda bread, but the texture is that of a quick bread – soft and moist. It would be perfect for breakfast or for serving along side some Irish Beef Stew (recipe coming soon!).
Do you have any “must make” recipes for St. Patrick’s day?
Irish Guinness Brown Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup quick cooking oats not instant, plus more for sprinkling
- 2 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 11-12 ounces Guinness beer 1 bottle, room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter melted, plus more for the pan
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F and butter a 9 x 5 bread pan, set aside.
- In one bowl, add the oats, whole wheat and all-purpose flours, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine.
- In another bowl, add the beer, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla. Whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stir until fully mixed. Batter will be wet.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bread pan, sprinkle more oats on top. Place in oven and then turn oven temperature down to 400°F. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove bread from pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack completely before slicing.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
It didn’t turn out good for me, the flour combination here resulted in a soda bread kind of a bread. Other recipes online had treacle in it which gives a hint of sweetness.
So easy. So delicious. I’ve made it a couple of times and plan on making it more often.
I’m so glad to hear that!
Hear*
The bread is NOT anywhere near traditional Irish soda bread so aside from the Guinness, the name should be changed. It’s a cross between cake and pumpkin bread, fairly crumbly, and I did not like it with my Irish stew at all. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either.
Hi, this isn’t a soda bread recipe.
No, it’s not aa soda bread. As the title indicates, it is an Irish brown bread,
this was great we will make again soon
So happy you loved it!
Should the Kosher salt be finely ground?
Hi Patti – no, just regular coarse kosher salt.
Should you let the beer go flat before adding? Or is the foam ok?
Hi, the foam is fine! No need to let it go flat.
This was THE best brown bread I have ever made !!! Went out and bought a case of Guinness just so I can make this bread all of the time ! It’s is truly the closest brown bread I have ever made since having brown bread in Ireland- thank you so much for this recipe ☘️
So happy to hear that!
You can replace Guinness with any beer
Great tip, thanks Trevor!
Wow tasted just like the bread we had in Ireland I will b making this again.
So happy to hear that!
Finally a recipe for St Patrick’s that doesn’t look to difficult to make. my family almost always has corned beef, although I did make Guinness strew once. This bread would be good with both or just for breakfast too.
I hope you love it!
Easy to make and so good. The oats made for a good chewy bite to the bread. I would reduce the salt though, as it turned out too salty.
So glad you enjoyed it! For the saltiness, did you use unsalted butter and kosher salt? If you ended up using regular salt instead of kosher it would definitely be too salty, and same for salted butter.
Does it matter which Guinness stout is used, i. e., Guinness Extra stout vs. Guinness Draft?
Hi John, I have not tried different types, but I imagine they would all work!
Am I the only one who thought this bread tasted way to much like baking soda??
Hi Laura – that shouldn’t be the case. Are you use you used teaspoons and not tablespoons?
Is there anything we can use in place of the beer
Hi Pat – beer is one of the main ingredients, so I don’t know how easy it would be to substitute something. If you give it a try, let me know!
They do make nonalcoholic beer
I love the way you showed your bread, etc…makes me want to get rolling on it NOW! This sounds SO delicious and I think I need a trial run before St. Patrick’s Day!
Ina Garten is the best and I can envision myself dipping this into soup so easily, my stomach is growling. I don’t really have anything special to eat on St. Patrick’s Day-it always sneaks up on me. So usually I just pop open a dark beer. I love that plate by the way!
She really is the best, thanks Meg!
looks good, getting me in the mood for St. Pat’s Day!
Thanks David! It’s getting to e that time of year!
Growing up, we got one food channel and there was always and Ina Garten show on it. Like the simplicity of her recipes. This is so perfect now especially in soup weather.
She is the Queen! Thanks Jenny!