Vegan Fruit Soda Bread

A delicious and quick Fruit Soda Bread recipe. It takes less than ten minutes to put together and 45 minutes to bake, so you have deliciously fresh bread ready to eat in under an hour. The baking aroma’s of fruit soda fill the house and for me the smell evokes so many happy memories. Of visits with my dear grandparents who lived in the heart of Liberties in Dublin. Nana always had a fruit soda on the go and a big pot of tea brewing, ready for chats and gossip.
The Best Vegan Fruit Soda Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 400 g Wholemeal Flour
- 175 g Plain White Flour
- 1 ½ tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp salt
- Plant based Buttermilk *
- 350 ml plant milk
- 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 4 tbsp melted plantbased butter
- 1 tbsp Maple Syrup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 C. Next, make the buttermilk by adding soya milk to a measuring jug with 1 tbsp ACV. Leave it stand for ten minutes. In the meantime melt the butter, and add maple syrup to the butter and leave to one side.
- Add all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Ensure you whisk the baking soda well into the dry mix to ensure it is evenly distributed.
- Add the melted butter and syrup to the curdled milk and hey presto it’s now vegan buttermilk. As soda bread doesn’t need yeast, it’s the acidic milk that activates baking soda which gives this bread its rise. See Notes*
- Gradually pour the buttermilk into the dry ingredients, mixing it together with a wooden spoon.
- Dust the slightly sticky dough with some flour and bring it together without kneading. Turn it out onto a dusted sheet of grease proof paper and shape into a round. Slash a cross in the middle of the soda bread.
- Place the Soda Bread on a baking sheet in the middle of the oven and bake for approximately 50 minutes. You know its done when the cross is dry. Give it a toothpick test to be sure.
- Notes*
- If you over knead soda bread it will end up chewy. Handle as little as possible and simply shape into a basic round.
- Once butter and syrup added to curdled milk you should have about 400 ml liquid.
I use plain flour for baking fruit soda, but you can always use a mix of wholewheat and plain flour if you wanted a healthier fruit soda mix. I would alter the ratios slightly to 275 g Wholewheat mixed with 175 plain flour. And continue the recipe as normal. These ratio’s always work for me.
Soda bread isn’t meant to look perfect as its rustic so don’t worry to much about appearance, its about flavour. Also, because you are using bread soda in the mix, it’s important to get it into the oven within 15 minutes of shaping so you get a good rise on your bread. Bread soda is a fast acting levener, that loses its potency the longer its left uncooked!


I love to spread a bit of plant buttery love over each slice once the loaf has cooled slightly!

I love this recipe and was thrilled to have it sent out with a care package to press and winners of this year’s Innocent Ireland Ireland Competition.
I used the Innocent Ireland Almond Milk for this particular recipe and it work’s fab with baking soda bread.
You can of course use other plant milks if you don’t have almond milk.
If you like baking, try out some of my other tasty breads and sweet rolls.
For more recipes and stories and videos follow me @theveganhoneypot on Instagram.
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