Gluten Free Soda Bread
Last year I made an Irish soda bread for St. Patrick’s Day using the usual gluten free all purpose mix flour with xanthan gum, but it was crumbly and dry, so I wasn’t happy with it. This year I tried the soda bread recipe from my new cookbook: Gluten Free Baking with the Culinary Institute of America. I changed a few things (as usual), but it is awesome! Here’s the recipe, but first they instruct you how to make your own flour blend in a large quantity, to keep on hand for future baking.
Flour Blend
1 1/2 cups white rice flour
1 3/4 cups tapioca starch
2 1/4 cups soy flour
Soda Bread
3 cups Flour Blend mixture from above
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp cold butter
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp sugar
2/3 cup dried currants
1 Tbsp caraway seeds
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk/soymilk mixed with 1 Tbsp white vinegar)
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together the flour blend, baking powder, and salt. Cut the cold butter into pieces and use a pastry cutter to cut into the flour mixture. Add the sugar, currants, and caraway seeds to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Make a well in the center and set the bowl aside.
In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, egg, and baking soda. Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the dry ingredients bowl and stir to combine. Using flour-coated hands or spatula, transfer dough to a greased round cake pan and shape into an 8″ round loaf without kneading the dough (the dough will be quite wet, but you can add a little more of the flour blend if needed). Score the top of the loaf with an X mark for traditional soda bread (mine seemed to disappear while baking, so next time I may try this scoring after it has been in the oven for 10 minutes first).
Bake for 40 minutes or until the top is nicely browned. Best served still warm for the first slice, then dipped in soup/stew for dinner later on.