Irish Soda Bread (traditional, gluten free and dairy free options)

Well, St. Patrick’s Day is upon us. It’s time for all things green, leprechaun, or made with Guinness. I thought I’d give you a somewhat traditional Irish treat for the occasion. Now normally I don’t care for soda bread…too much baking soda for my taste buds most of the time. But my son and his class made soda bread this week in school using a recipe from allrecipes.com called Irresistible Irish Soda Bread.  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/irresistible-irish-soda-bread/ He brought home a piece for me to try and it was quite good. So, I thought I’d alter it and see how it came out.

I made it last night and tried it this morning (it is recommended that you eat it the next day or several hours after cooling for best flavor). I really liked the flavor and could see making this as a savory bread or muffin to go with dinner. My son loves it and has already had 3 pieces (so have I)! If you made muffins I would guess the baking time would be around 25 minutes give or take 5 minutes. Also, if you DO prefer a more soda-y soda bread you may want to increase the baking soda to 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 tsp. I chose to use white rice flour instead of my usual brown rice to keep it closer to the white flour used in the original recipe, but feel free to use the brown rice and I probably will next time.

This bread would also be great with select herbs added. Erin go bragh!

Irish Soda Bread (traditional, gluten free and dairy free versions)

3 cups all purpose flour (tweak for gluten free: 1 1/2 c. sorghum flour and 1 3/4 c. plus 2 TBS white rice flour and 1 tsp xanthan gum…as you can see I increased the total flour by 6 TBS )

1 TBS baking powder

1/3 c. white sugar (I used organic cane sugar)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp. baking soda (increase by 1/4 tsp -1/2 tsp if you want to taste more of the soda)

1 egg lightly beaten

2 cups buttermilk (tweak for dairy free: 2 c. rice milk less 4 tsp of vinegar…meaning: place 4 tsp of vinegar in a cup then add enough rice milk to equal 2 c.)

1/4 c. melted butter (tweak for dairy free: use grapeseed oil or oil of choice…I think grapeseed has a somewhat buttery flavor)

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Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease a 9X5 loaf pan or muffin tins.

Combine all dry ingredients and stir together using a wisk. In a separate bowl beat the egg then add the rest of the wet ingredients together. Pour wet ingredient mixture into the dry ingredients stirring to combine. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for about 10-15 min then remove from pan to completely cool on wire rack. Once cooled wrap bread in foil for several hours or overnight for best flavor.