Traditional Irish Blaa - Seasons and Suppers (2024)

Traditional Irish soft buns, made famous as Waterford Blaa. Light in texture, but sturdy enough for any use, they are sure to become a favourite. These buns are also Vegan.

Yes, it’s an interesting name, but it’s a fabulous bun! And while I’m sharing this today in recognition of St. Patrick’s Day, this is a bun that is worthy of being enjoyed year round.

The Irish Blaa is typically a soft, tender and floury white bun, most well known as Waterford Blaa. (Apparently, you can only call them that if they are actually made in Waterford, Ireland though, so I’ll just call them Irish :)

By any name though, these delicious buns are both light in texture and sturdy, making them a perfectly versatile bun.

Three great ways to enjoy your Irish Blaa

1. Toasted with butter and jam.
2. As a great sandwich bun. (These buns are so light enough in texture that they won’t feel heavy eating them, but they are also sturdy enough to hold all your favourite sandwich fillings.)
3. As a burger bun! Yes, these soft, squishy buns make great burger buns.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Flour – You can use either bread flour or all purpose flour, with bread flour being the preferred option. You may need to use a bit more flour to bring the dough together, if using all purpose flour.

Yeast – You can use either Active Dry or regular Instant Yeast (such as SAF Brand Instant Yeast) for these buns. Quick or rapid-rising yeast is not recommended.

Shortening – This would be the solid, vegetable shortening, such as Crisco™ I know there is still a lot of hesitancy about shortening, but there really shouldn’t be and in this case, it contributes to the lovely light texture of these buns. I recommend shortening if possible. If you don’t have or want to use shortening, you can replace with the same amount of softened butter, though it will have some effect on the texture of the finished buns.

You will also need – water, salt and just 1 tsp of sugar.

Step-by-Step Photos

1. Irish Blaa start with a quite moist dough, so resist the urge to add too much flour in the mixing bowl, to keep the wonderful light texture. That said, it should be kneadable, so add a little flour on the bench if dough is too sticky to knead. Form into a ball and place to rise until doubled.

2. Once the dough has risen, portion out into pieces. I went with 6 here, to make a bit larger buns, that work nicely for sandwiches or burgers, too. Go for 8 if you’d smaller buns.

3. One of the things that characterizes Blaa is a square-ish shape, so once you have formed the dough into balls, flatten and press into a bit more square-ish shape. I didn’t square mine up too much here, but if you want yours really square, you can stretch a bit more into a square by tugging on opposite corners a bit, if you like. The other thing that characterizes Blaa is dusting in flour, so don’t skimp on that, both on the work surface and in the pan.

4. Place the formed rolls into a pan that will just hold them, with only a bit of space between each one, so that they will rise into each other first, and then rise up. If the pan is too large, they will continue to spread out and not up. Once risen in the pan, bake until just lightly coloured. Blaa are generally quite light in colour and not golden.

How to Store

Irish Blaa are best within 24 hours of baking, though they will keep at room temperature for a couple of days. They do freeze beautifully, so you may want to freeze what you can’t eat up right away and enjoy them from the freezer as needed.