Spiced Holiday Bread

Prepared with a few simple ingredients, like flour, baking soda, sugar, buttermilk, and traditional holiday spices, this Spiced Holiday Bread is so delicious when smeared liberally with butter and served with a cup of hot tea. It’s really good toasted too!

I’ve made this Spiced Holiday Bread a few times and it always turns out perfectly. It’s a traditional Irish Soda Bread recipe that I re-invented to make it more suited to Christmas rather than St. Patrick’s Day. It’s so easy to do, it tastes great, and it makes a lovely holiday hostess gift as well!

If you’re new to baking bread, you should certainly start with this one! There are a few reasons why. First, there are very few ingredients. Second, those ingredients are cheap. And, third, you can practice your kneading skills.

Spiced Holiday Bread consists of only five ingredients and a few additional ingredients easily found in most spice racks. First, you will need flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. Now, in most homes, the only ingredient you’ll need to buy is the buttermilk. Most homes will already have the other ingredients in the pantry. From your spice rack, you will need cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice.

SUBSCRIBE NOW AND NEVER MISS ANOTHER RECIPE!

So, welcome, Dear Reader, to the start of my annual holiday-themed recipes. Traditionally, every year I share a series of recipes that you might already be familiar with. For example, I’ve previously shared 12 Holiday Trifles, 12 Holiday Bars & Squares, and even these 12 Edible Holiday Wreath recipes! Also, some of my favourite recipe collections from previous years are my 75 Homemade Gifts from Your Kitchen, my 50 Make Ahead Freezer Friendly Christmas Recipes, and my 30 No-Bake Christmas Recipes post.

This year I’m doing it differently. Rather than sharing multiple back to back series, I’m sharing a new holiday-themed recipe almost every day from now until Christmas Eve. For those of you who have followed my annual Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas series, don’t worry, you will still get lots of new cookie recipes this year too. I will not, however, be publishing the cookies back to back in a 24-day series. This would have been my 8th year running the series and it becomes very exhausting, so this year, I’m spreading the recipes out so that I’m not sharing the same type of recipe every day.

You really don’t want to miss one of these recipes, so if you have not yet subscribed to Lord Byron’s Kitchen, I encourage you to do so. That way, a new recipe will be emailed to you every day. You won’t have to bother to come looking for it! And, just in case you’re curious, you can see previous annual posts for my 24 Cookies of Christmas Series here!

SERVING YOUR LOAF

Here’s the thing about breads and loaves – they both come from humble beginnings. Even looking at it, you can tell that it isn’t pretty, it isn’t spectacular, and it surely isn’t show-stopping. But, that certainly doesn’t mean that your bread shouldn’t be served with style!

Like scones and biscuits, I think breads lend themselves quite well to what most people would call English Tea. I like to think of English Tea as an afternoon snack. And, afternoon snacks are terribly underrated! I like to partake whenever time permits. Hot coffee and a slice of this Spiced Holiday Bread, or any other sweet treat, is a great break from the 9-5 routine.

With the cooler weather approaching, I can’t think of a better way to serve this bread than putting out a full set of tea. Sure, it might seem I have too much time on my hands, but life is short, folks – enjoy it! Take the tea set out of your cabinet, dust it off, and take a well-deserved afternoon break!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Flour – No need for anything special. Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Sugar – Sugar will caramelize when baked, which will help with browning. 
• Baking Soda – Commonly known as sodium bicarbonate, or just bicarb, it is a baking ingredient that’s activated by a liquid and an acid to help with leavening or rising.  In most cases, you will see baking soda in recipes with lemon juice or buttermilk, but that’s not always the case.
• Salt – This is a common ingredient in baking It helps to enhance and balance sweetness. 
• Buttermilk – Store-bought is best for this recipe, because it’s already much thicker than homemade, but this recipe will work with homemade buttermilk too. I find that store-bought has more authentic buttermilk flavour.
• Spices – You will need cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice.
• Non-stick Cooking Spray

HOW TO MAKE SPICED HOLIDAY BREAD

Step 1: Preparation

Start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a bread pan with non-stick cooking spray and set it aside for now.

Step 2: Mixing the Dough

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice. Pour in the buttermilk and stir together with a fork until buttermilk has been absorbed into the flour mixture.

Step 3: Kneading and Baking

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Knead together to form a rustic oval shape. Do not knead more than 30 seconds! Place the oval into the greased bread pan. Bake for 40 minutes.

Step 4: Cooling and Slicing!

Remove the bread from the oven and allow it to rest for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a wire cooling rack to cool. Wait 20 minutes before slicing. Bread can be served warm, at room temperature, or toasted.

FOR BEST RESULTS

For the past few years, I’ve always followed this recipe. I’ve tried others, but this was the best one for me. There are some other great recipes out there. You can even try to follow the original  soda bread recipe from 1836 if you want!

Before you get to the recipe, there’s just one more thing. Spiced Holiday Bread is meant to be eaten right away. Don’t think about making this bread a day or two in advance. It will dry out and become hard. For best results, bake it the same day you plan to eat it. The recipe does not make a large loaf, so it won’t be hard to finish it in a day or two at the most.

On the second day, the bread is perfect for toasting. I’ve used day-old Spiced Holiday Bread in a breakfast french toast casserole and it was delicious!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

• Can I freeze this bread? Yes, you can, however, this bread is best when enjoyed the same day it is prepared. If you have leftover bread, or if you must freeze it, it would be best toasted and eaten while warm. Leftover Spiced Holiday Bread is great in a breakfast casserole too!
• I don’t have all of those spices on hand. Can I substitute? Yes! If you don’t have one or the other, you can increase the amount of another spice flavour that you like. I tend to lean toward using cinnamon to replace the other spices because the others are quite strong in flavour. Optionally, if you don’t have any of the spice and don’t want to buy them all, you can just purchase a pumpkin spice seasoning blend. It makes a great substitute!

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!