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Recipes

Yes, Irish Soda Bread, gluten free, from someone who grew up on soda bread.

My appearance today on NH's ABC WMUR Cooks Corner (pre taped) was pre empted with our 27 inches of snow. What's the bet they air it Saturday 17 March as I'm on the way to Boston to be featured chef at Boston Flower Show at noon, prime time.

I keep playing with the recipe for Irish soda bread trying to get a taste even closer to what I grew up with. Both my parents were born in Southern Ireland so soda bread was almost a daily bread growing up, even in London, England. I like a crusty outside, my mother's was always softer. My wheat eating husband will go looking for this in preference to wheat bread.

For those of you who haven’t met me or seen me on ‘Cooks Corner’, I have a very British accent, so it always comes as a surprise when I tell people that both my parents were born and raised in Southern Ireland and only moved to London, England as Adults. My mother never made yeast raised bread only soda bread. Baking powder was only invented in the mid 1850’s so baking soda (bicarb) raised bread was the way ordinary people in Ireland made bread. Baking soda has to be carefully measured otherwise you get a bitter, metallic flavor in your mouth, similar to when you get blood in your mouth from biting your tongue. You need far less baking soda in a recipe than baking powder.

gluten free irish soda bread www.kenwphoto.com

In London, it was possible to buy buttermilk at the local dairy for making the bread to give it the authentic flavor. Nowadays I tend to mix together sour cream (lite) and milk (fat free) in equal quantities. The sour cream gives the acid needed to help the baking soda rise. I also find one can buy an 8 oz carton of sour cream which is sufficient for the bread, but you can only buy liquid buttermilk in a 1 quart carton which is too much unless you make buttermilk pancakes or other dishes needing buttermilk. - I still don’t think this tastes as good as the fresh buttermilk we used to get on the farm or from the dairy. Buttermilk today is made in a factory with a chemical/lactic acid culture. Nothing wrong with it, I just don’t think it gives as good a finished product. In NH we can get ‘Kate’s’ Real buttermilk from Maine in regular grocery stores.

On my aunts farm in Ireland we would make this bread fresh every day. We would have to feed all the men breakfast after the early milking and they would eat fresh bacon, eggs, sausages, black and white pudding (blood pudding - boudin) and mushrooms picked fresh from the river field (the cow pasture) while the milking was going on. I recognize those mushrooms as the portabella mushrooms available here. We would then mix the soda bread fresh for lunch, bake it in square biscuit (cookie) tin lids in the Aga stove and serve any leftovers to the farm dogs with table scraps and milk. While we made the bread fresh every day, I find it still tastes good nuked in the microwave the next day or toasted and served with butter and marmalade for breakfast. For special occasions an egg would be added and perhaps some raisins but never caraway seeds.

gluten free irish soda bread www.kenwphoto.com

We always called it either white or brown bread and referred to flour as white or brown flour. In America it’s all purpose flour and either whole meal or whole grain flour. I would never eat brown bread growing up so my mother would make white bread for me. Now I far prefer ‘brown bread’ soda bread. Also remember that ‘brown’ flour was the flour commonly available. Only the wealthy could afford the finer product of ‘white’ flour, which has far less nutritional value than ‘brown’ flour.

For a special start to your St. Patrick's day meal or anytime, serve slices of the soda bread with imported Irish smoked salmon. It's a match made in Heaven, loved by everyone who's tasted it and served at both my wedding and our son's Christening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5jAMajm-Vs0

clip from 2009, when they said my son was only gluten intolerant and that I could still eat wheat. Now we are both celiacs.

Baked, hot loaf in clean dishcloth so steam is trapped and softens crust. It is nicest when freshly baked. I have never eaten soda bread with either raisins or caraway seeds and I have been eating soda bread all my life, but if you want to add them, go ahead and do so.

gluten free irish soda bread

old picture but cute - like my Irish Beanie baby?

Remember that it is very difficult to reproduce the tastes of these original dishes since they were prepared at a time when all food was extremely fresh. We had our own butter and milk, the flour came from a local mill, and your meat and vegetables were from your own land, particularly in the country.

You must use sour cream and milk mixed and not just milk, and be very careful measuring the baking soda as too much can make the soda bread bitter and metallic tasting. Too much baking soda is why so many people don’t like Irish soda bread. I don’t like a strong soda taste so my soda bread is only lightly soda tasting. Some people might want to add a little bit more soda to get a more assertive soda taste.

one loaf cooked in skillet 10"/25 cm across the top.

1 c (5+3/4 oz, 160g) the brown rice, potato starch, tapioca starch mix (King Arthur, Annalise Roberts, Authentic Foods)

OR 1c (5oz, 140g) my gf blend and 1/3 c (1oz, 28 g) almond flour.

½ c Teff Flour (2+1/2 oz, 70g)

½ c Millet Flour (2 oz, 60g)

1 tsp (5 ml) baking powder - I use Rumford’s labeled gf

½ tsp salt

½ tsp 93ml) xanthan gum

1 tbsp (15ml) sugar

2 tbsp (30ml) butter

1+1/4 c (10 fl oz, 300ml) buttermilk or 1 c ( 8 fl oz, 240ml) milk and ¼ c (2 fl oz, 60 ml) sour cream mixed together. Fat free milk and lite sour cream work.

1+1/4 tsp baking soda ((aka bicarbonate of soda in UK)

1. Preheat oven to 400*.

2. In a wide shallow bowl mix flours, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum and sugar.

3. Rub butter into flour mix until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Or in food processor and then turn into mixing bowl.

4. Stir baking soda into buttermilk or sour cream milk in 2 c jug. Many older English recipes have you stir baking soda into liquid ingredients so it dissolves. Otherwise you can taste nasty, metallic flavor in your mouth from too much baking soda or baking soda left in lumps. That metallic taste is why so many people don't like soda bread.

5. Stir buttermilk mix into dry mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until mix resembles quite a sticky dough, not a dry dough. I described it as looking like concrete as you mixed it due to color of flours. Very wet to start. Depending on how carefully you measured ingredients and brands used, the flour mix might suck up liquid and be quite dry, needing more of the buttermilk. Weather conditions, humidity all make a difference to dryness of flours. If you think mix is too wet, wait a moment or two. I find that baking powder and xanthan gum almost immediately thicken dough so it is scoopable. You do want it to be sticky, so it is not dry on baking. This dough is dark colored so it is difficult to see if it needs more liquid. Stir to the very bottom of the mixing bowl. You can see on WMUR that flours seem covered by liquid (looking like concrete as I said), and then slurps it up.

6.Scoop dough onto greased skillet that is roughly 10” across top. You can bake in smaller skillet for thicker loaf. Remember gluten free tends to spread so I always cook it in a ‘container’.

7. Bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Even though bread might look cooked, if you break off a piece and it still tastes a bit grainy and bitter soda, it needs more cooking. When thoroughly cooked there shouldn’t be a soda aftertaste. Cook until bread is well risen, hard on top to the touch and sound hollow if you tap the bottom of the bread.

8. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Rub with butter if you want. Wrap in clean cloth to soften crust if you want. I love the crunchy, nutty crust so I prefer it crisp.

9. Serve with egg and smoked salmon torte or toast for breakfast with marmelade, or straight from the oven hot with butter melting.

If you are used to a high salt food, then you will probably want to add more salt to the recipe.

My gf mix:

I use for one cup of GF mix.

½ cup potato starch http://amzn.to/2Czv7dc

¼ c tapioca starch from Asian market or Goya or Yoki brand in supermarkets. http://amzn.to/2EW8jta

2 tbsp amaranth or millet flour: Bob’s Red Mill (millet is roughly one third the price of amaranth, is not so nutritious, but is more readily available.) http://amzn.to/2BGJVK4

2 tbsp sorghum flour: Bob’s Red Mill. http://amzn.to/2CA1A32

Larger quantity:

1 x 14 oz bag potato starch, which is 3+1/2 cups - that's the size I can buy.

1+3/4 c of Tapioca Starch is 7 oz

Just under 1 cup of Amaranth or Millet (actually ¾ c plus 2 Tbsps is 4 oz)

Just under 1 cup of Sorghum (actually ¾ c plus 2 Tbsps is 4 oz)

Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum where needed. http://amzn.to/2CA3Bw8

Making about 7 cups total of mix.

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