Gluten-Free Goddess Irish Soda Bread- Updated
Irish Soda Bread Love
For bakers using standard wheat flour, Irish soda bread is one of the easiest no-fuss breads to throw together. The gluten in the wheat works its magic to bind the quick-rising dough without yeast. But if gluten is no longer in the equation, creating a tender loaf of Irish soda bread is a tad more complicated. Gluten-free quick breads can be crumbly and dry. Especially if you use the 90's white rice flour and starch combo. Lucky for us, we now have lots of newer, more nutritious, alternative flours to choose from. Millet, sorghum, buckwheat, coconut, brown rice, GF oat flour, almond and cassava flours have superior texture than gritty rice flour.
What do I have against white rice flour? It might simply boil down to personal taste. After baking gluten-free for awhile, one develops personal preferences. I don't like the 'cooked rice' taste, or the sandy texture, of rice flour. Ditto for bean flour which tastes vaguely metallic to me (and no, I just don't care how much protein and how few carbs a raw bean has, okay?).
So I experiment and tweak my recipes. I try a new flour combination and entertain intuition. I start thinking about how a recipe crumbles a bit, so I add some honey because honey is a humectant (attracts moisture). And Hello! The bread bakes up tender and moist (agave does the same thing, by the way).
This whole process of gluten-free baking is a process.
And as an artist, I cultivate a deep affection for process. So even though I have a perfectly acceptable gluten-free Irish Soda Bread recipe on the blog, I felt the need to try again this week and experiment with a new formula. And I came up with a slightly sweet and tender loaf that is rice-free. (And works really well with no eggs, and no milk if you bake vegan- see recipe for subs we tried.)
And guess what?
And guess what?
It's better than better. It's scrumptious.
My husband declared it his favorite gluten-free bread to date (as he chowed down on a wedge of this soda bread grilled in a dab of olive oil). So why do I tweak recipes? Why do I make it complicated? Why add a touch of honey when I already use sugar? Why do I add millet flour when I have sorghum?
This is why.
Because there's always room for improvement in gluten-free baking. Recipes aren't precious. They're not written in stone like a commandment.
A recipe is more like a poem. Set to music. And the music?
A recipe is more like a poem. Set to music. And the music?
Jazz, baby.
Happy Spring Baking-
Karina
xox
Happy Spring Baking-
Karina
xox
By Karina Allrich March 2009.
This soda bread sports a mildly sweet and complex flavor. The potato starch gives it tenderness, moisture and lift. If you don't like the taste of caraway, try a touch of finely grated orange peel. Make sure your source of millet flour is truly gluten-free. See here.
This soda bread sports a mildly sweet and complex flavor. The potato starch gives it tenderness, moisture and lift. If you don't like the taste of caraway, try a touch of finely grated orange peel. Make sure your source of millet flour is truly gluten-free. See here.
Ingredients:
1 cup gluten-free millet flour (or try certified GF oat flour if you avoid millet)
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch (not potato flour) or cassava starch
2 tablespoons raw sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons xanthan gum or gelatin
5 tablespoons Earth Balance Stick, butter, or Spectrum Naturals Organic Shortening
3/4 cup plain milk or non-dairy milk with 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
2 free range organic eggs or Ener-G Foods Egg Replacer
1 tablespoon honey or raw agave nectar
1 to 3 teaspoons caraway seeds, to taste (or use grated orange peel zest)
1 cup currants or raisins
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lightly grease an 8-9 inch round cake pan and dust it with gluten-free flour.
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lightly grease an 8-9 inch round cake pan and dust it with gluten-free flour.
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the shortening with a whisk, fork or pastry cutter.
Whisk the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the non-dairy milk, beaten eggs and honey, gently mixing as you go. I use a soft silicone or rubber spatula to do this. If you need a little more non-dairy milk to moisten the dough, add a tablespoon at a time and stir in.
When the dough is evenly moist- like sticky biscuit batter, add the caraway and raisins. Stir only briefly to mix them in.
Scrape and spoon out the dough into the prepared cake pan; and use wet hands to flatten and smooth the dough into a round loaf.
Using a sharp knife, slice a criss-cross into the dough and wiggle it a bit from side to side to make a wider dent. [According to Irish folklore, the criss-cross discourages the mischievous fairies from messing with your humble loaf of bread. In case you were wondering.]
Place the pan into the center of a preheated oven. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the loaf is golden and crusty and sounds hollow when thumped. Insert a wooden toothpick into the center to test for doneness.
Cool on a wire rack for five minutes; and turn the loaf out of the pan to cool to room temperature on the rack.
This sweet and tender bread is fabulous warm from the oven, even if it tends to crumble a bit. It gets a bit sturdier as it cools.
Yield: 8 servings
Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com
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GFG Notes:
We freeze our leftover slices (wrapped in foil and bagged), then reheat the thawed pieces in a warm iron skillet with a drizzle of light olive oil. Heaven.
