Albanian Soda Bread (Kulaç)

Albanian Kulaç (pronounced kulach) is a traditional bread recipe in my native country. We mostly make it with plain yogurt. If you love baking bread, you’ll love this soda bread because you won’t need yeast, starter dough or a lot of ingredients to make it:).

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Kulaç, Legends & Modern Usage

Albanian Kulaç is so easy to make. If you’re afraid of baking bread because most chefs on TV make it look like it’s a science, don’t worry. We have been baking this bread for centuries in my native country and I assure you people didn’t have scales to weigh everything or measuring cups.

In Northern Albanian cities and villages baked this bread for weddings, engagements and big family celebrations.

Several Albanians households bake kulaç on January 1st for breakfast and mix a coin inside the dough. The bread is cut into 8 slices similar to pizza shape and whoever finds the coin in his slice it is said to have a lucky year.

In the City of Korca there’s also a religious tradition related to kulaç bread. It’s called the Day of St. Vasil (dita a Shën Vasilit).

Currently, Albanian homes use bread from local bakeries and grocery stores but homemakers like to bake their own bread occasionally as a way to keep traditions alive. A lot of Albanians live abroad and sometimes we bake this bread to remind us of our homeland and our cuisine.

My mom and I baked a lot of bread in 1997 when we had to stay home during a Civil Unrest situation. We learned how to bake several types of bread from our neighbors and I have listed some of them all the way at bottom of this post. Kulaç soda bread is one of my favorites because of how easy it is to bake.

Tips & Notes

1. This soda bread doesn’t have yeast, sourdough or any other leavener. Thus, the bread is not light and airy. It can be dense on the inside which can cause the bread not to bake well. This is where you come in!! Here are some tips to help you with this issue:
   • let the dough rise on its own at least an hour before baking. Make sure it is in a warm environment.
   • if oven is too hot, the outside of the bread will cook faster than the inside. You still need to let the bread bake thoroughly. But you can cover it with aluminum foil or if using a dutch oven cast iron like I did, cover the dutch oven with its lid. This will prevent the outside from getting burnt and the baking will still continue on the inside.
   • Once bread is baked, resist cutting it for at least an hour. You can place the bread in a cooling rack and cover it with a kitchen towel.
2. Baking dish – traditionally this bread is baked on a round baking dish. I chose to use a Cast Iron Dutch Oven because I feel I can control how the bread is baked on the outside by using the lid and cover the pot to ensure even baking inside out.
3. Flour – you can use All Purpose Flour or Bread Flour for this bread. I tend to prefer bread flour, however AP would work as well.
4. Salt – I don’t add a lot of salt to this bread so on its own it might be a little plain but I also serve it with feta cheese and kalamata olives which are very high in salt content. If you plan to serve this bread with something else, then maybe add a pinch more salt.

If you would like to save this recipe for later, please save the below image to your boards in Pinterest. Feel free to ask me questions in comments below or tag me in social media with your kulaç pictures:). Thank you!

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More Bread Recipes

I love baking bread, feel free to check out some more bread recipes from my blog:

• Albanian Home Bread
• 5 Ingredient Bread
• Mediterranean Rosemary Cornbread
• Keto Bread
• Cheese Breads