Gluten-Free Irish Soda Bread Recipe
Sunday, July 5, 2020
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Irish Soda Bread Love, Y'all
For bakers using wheat, 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 old school 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 quinoa flours have better taste, more protein, and a superior texture than the old school stand-by 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 texture, that rice flour imparts. 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).
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 texture, that rice flour imparts. 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
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