Irish Soda Bread (Gluten Free & Standard) Recipe

Around 18 months ago I decided, for medical reasons, to change to a gluten free diet.  However, I was unprepared for the expense and the total lack of quality and taste in the ready made products.

Naturally, being a cooking from scratch addict, I have been making my own gluten free food, but had been struggling with finding or creating a really nice gluten free Irish soda bread recipe, that doesn't fall apart when you look at it.

But miracles do happen, and yesterday I made a delicious Irish soda cake/bread, which stayed in one piece when I cut it !  It even looks real !

Gluten Free Irish Soda Bread - fresh from the oven

Irish Soda Bread Recipe

includes instructions for both gluten free and normal options

Ingredients

(I made this bread using American 'cups', which do make for a quick and easy measuring method !  This was because I used 3 recipes from various places, to base my recipe on, all of which were in US cups)

2 cups     Doves Farm gluten free plain flour  (or ordinary plain flour if you are                     not gluten free)
3 tblsp    Butter
1 cup       Buttermilk
2 tblsp    Buttermilk - extra  (exchange this for 1 med free range egg for a richer                     loaf)
1/4 cup   Caster sugar
1/4 cup   Xanthan gum - gluten free  (omit if you aren't using gluten free flour)
1/4 tsp    Sea salt
1 tsp         Baking powder - gluten free  (normal if you aren't gluten free)
1 1/2 tsp  Baking soda

Method

1.    Pre-heat the oven to 200C or 400F.

2.   Flour the base of a cookie sheet, or similar flat baking sheet or tray.

3.   Put the flour (gluten free or otherwise) in to a mixing bowl, then add the xanthan gum, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Stir it to mix all these dry ingredients evenly.

4.   Using an electric mixer with the cake beaters (not the bread/dough hooks), mix the butter and sugar together, until it is light and fluffy (probably at least a couple of mins).  This can also be done by hand in a mixing bowl.

5.   Gradually add the flour mixture, a bit at a time, whilst adding small amounts of buttermilk at the same time. Mix well in between the adding of the mix.  Use all the flour mix and all the buttermilk, including the extra 2 tablespoons.
If you would like an extra rich Irish soda bread / cake, then exchange the 2 extra tablespoons of buttermilk for a medium free range beaten egg.  Add it in to the mixture the same way as the buttermilk, with the flour mix.

6.   Sprinkle a small amount of extra flour onto a clean work surface.

7.   Lift the bread mixture carefully from the bowl, trying to keep it in one lump or 'ball'.  Place in onto the floured work surface.

8.   Knead the bread just a few times, maybe 5 or 6, certainly no more.  Do this very gently.

9.   Shape the bread dough in to a circle shape, then pat it down gently to around 1.5 inches high (that's about 4cm).

10.  Using a floured knife, cut a cross into the top of the bread, going about half an inch deep.  This allows it to 'open up' and cook in the centre evenly.  And it looks cute !

11.  Place the baking sheet with the uncooked loaf into the middle of the pre heated oven.  

12.  Cook at 200C (400F) for 6 or 7 mins and then reduce the oven temperature to 175C (350F) for a further 25 minutes, or until it sounds hollow when tapped.

13.  Allow to cool before slicing, otherwise the slices will crumble and break.  Once cool, my loaf when sliced didn't crumble or break at all, which is a miracle for gluten free bread of any kind !

14.  The loaf I made is pictured above.  It kept really well for about 2 days, at which point I had eaten it all.


And if you want to try out some other Irish traditional recipes, 'The Best of Irish Breads and Baking' has a lovely collection.  The author, Georgina Campbell, is known here for great recipes.
Click here to see pages from 'The Best of Irish Breads and Baking: Traditional, Contemporary and Festive' by Georgina Campbell

Soda Bread Storage

As a quick note to add to my previous post - I mostly use the unbleached cotton cloth shopping bags you can buy from many supermarkets (cheapest are in Lidl and Aldi) to cool and store all my soda bread in.

They are perfect in shape etc and easy to wash.

Irish Fruit Soda Cake (Bread)

I have recently been entering a few agricultural shows with my cooking, for fun. Although when it came down to it, it was a lot of hard work to get perfect items ready for a certain time ! Bread, and most cakes, are at their best the same day that they are cooked, which means you end up trying to make perfect versions of everything within a few hours of the show and not sleeping !

I was lucky enough to win with at least 50% of my entries - so I recouped the cost of everything, as well as my petrol to the shows. It was a very interesting experience to be on the receiving end, instead of the one organising everything! I learnt a lot.

Here is my recipe for Fruit Soda Cake - Irish of course, what other kind is there ?

Brown and white soda bread is in fact called white soda cake and brown soda cake in Ireland, not bread. Even though it is bread. This is the same for the Fruit Soda Cake, aka Fruit Soda Bread...

I have noticed that most 'Irish Soda Bread' recipes on the internet, aren't in fact that, they are recipes for Fruit Soda Cake (really a bread), which is a very different beast. Many Irish Americans (and people from other countries too with Irish ancestors) give lovely stories about how the recipe was passed down to them by their great great great great granny who left Ireland many years ago - in another world. They then reel of the ingredients for Fruit Soda Cake (bread), not the real day to day brown soda cake (bread). Their great (x3) granny wouldn't have had eggs for cakes (unless they had a smallholding and some land), let alone raisins. They were extremely poor and were lucky to even get salt.

Actual Irish Soda Bread contains simply wholewheat flour, bread soda (baking soda), real buttermilk and a bit of salt. And this is all it contains to this day. The only exception would be that some people now prefer white flour to the brown four.

Having said all that, todays recipe is for Irish Fruit Soda Cake (bread).

Irish Fruit Soda Cake
(Bread)

Ingredients
1lb white plain Flour
2.5 tablespoons Caster Sugar
4 tablespoons normal salted Butter
1 large egg (beaten)
1 & 3/4 cups of real Buttermilk
1 cup Raisins
1 teaspoon Baking or Bread Soda
1 teaspoon Salt

1.     Put the flour, salt, sugar and baking soda all together into a large bowl and mix them in together well with your fingers.

2.     Add in the raisins, having made sure that there are no stalks etc left attached to them. Stir them in well so that they are coated with the flour mixture.

4.     Beat the egg in a small bowl.

5.     Add the buttermilk to the beaten egg and mix it together well, until blended.

6.     Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture, then pour the buttermilk and egg into the middle.

7.     Using your fingers (and not a wooden spoon) in a claw like action, mix the buttermilk mix into the flour. With the claw shape with your fingers, use a circular motion from the sides of the bowl to the middle and back, continuous and circular around the bowl.
Do this until the ingredients are all well blended and the mixture is quite sticky, yet one lump.

8.     Clean your hands.

9.     Dust a good baking tray with flour.

10.    Lift the lump of dough onto the baking tray, making sure that it is a circular shape on the outside and raised a bit in the middle.

11.    With a serrated knife cut a 1/2 inch deep cut across the dough in the shape of a cross.
This allows the insides of the cake (bread) to cook at the same time as the outside.

12.    Bake in the middle of an oven, covered with tin foil, at 200C for 40 minutes.

I used a sponge tin for this one,

as all my baking trays had scones on them at the time !

13.    When cooked the bottom will sound hollow, just like when you cook yeast bread.

14.    Let the fruit soda cake/bread cool on the tray for 15 minutes. Then take it off and wrap it in a clean tea towel or a cotton towel to cool completely.

Eat this while it is very fresh, with a good butter and maybe some blackcurrant jam !

I store all my soda bread in cloth, rather than in a tin etc.

Traditional Wholemeal Soda Bread Recipe

I was at a friend's house yesterday and made some soda bread for the family. Unfortunately the oven I used there burnt everything on the bottom ! But the rest of the bread was ok... just a solid bottom.

Never mind... I know a good cook shouldn't blame her tools, but it really wasn't my fault !!

I thought I would share my recipe. It's very old and basic. So if you want the real thing, don't change anything, apart from maybe use 100% wholemeal flour as many years ago that's all normal people would have had.

Especially don't use baking power instead of baking (or bread) soda. The bread will taste yukky and metallic, and really isn't good.

Personally I prefer it 50/50 with the flours. Having said that soda bread isn't my favourite as I'm a yeast bread fan myself, or nan bread, or pitta bread MMMM.

Wholemeal Soda Cake (Bread)

2 cups Stoneground Wholemeal Flour
2 cups plain White Flour
1 teaspoon Baking (bread) Soda
1 pinch Salt
1.5 cups Buttermilk (Sour Milk is available in the states I think)

1. Heat the oven to 400F, 200C or gas mark 6.

2. Mix the 2 flours, the salt and the bread/baking soda in a large bowl.

3. Make a well in the middle (a hole) and pour in the buttermilk.

4. Stir in and mix very well. Until you have a good thick dough, but not wet.

5. Flour a work surface and put the dough on it.

6. Make the dough into an even circle. Flatten to about 1.5 to 2 inches thick and about 6 to 8 inches diameter.

7. Using a knife, cut a deep cross across the middle from side to side.

8. Bake in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes.

9. Remove from the oven and wrap in a clean towel. Cool in the towel for 5 to 6 hours.

Eat !!!

My fav would be with unsalted butter and smooth blackcurrant jam... or marmalade. Oh my.

In case you are wondering why no baking powder, the action of the acidic buttermilk (sour milk) on the bread soda releases the leavening carbon dioxide, and that is all you need to raise the soda cake.

My First Post ! Thoughts on Tea Brack

Well here I am... without a clue as to how all this works, making my very first blog post. I think that's what it's called...

I've been snacking on my Tea Brack today as I need sustenance after a weekend of stress and fun at the local agricultural show... This is a very traditional Irish bread/cake, which you eat sliced like bread and smothered in butter. There is also an English version called Tea Bread, which is very similar.

I have a habit of changing recipes around a bit to make them into exactly my fav food, so here is my version of Irish Tea Brack - which to me is heavenly.

Most Tea Brack recipes have Irish whiskey in them. This is totally unneccessary when you use demerera sugar, as demerera gives it that same taste.

Irish Tea Brack

Ingredients
1 lb Golden raisins (dried)
0.5 lbs Sultanas (dried)
0.5 lbs Currants (dried)
1 lb Demerera sugar
2 Cups of cold milkless strong black tea
1lb Plain flour
3 Eggs - beaten
3 teaspoons Baking powder
5 teaspoons Mixed spice

1. Soak the dried fruit for 3 days in the cold tea. You will need a large bowl for this. Make sure it's covered well to keep out keen and hungry insects. (Most recipes say to soak overnight - but if you want this to be amazing, stick to the 3 days).

2. Then add all the other ingredients and beat it to mix it well.

3. Coat the sides of 2 loaf tins with butter and then shake some plain flour around their insides. This stops the loaves from sticking. Use 2lb loaf tins.

4. Spoon the mixture into the tins, dividing it equally between the 2.

5. Bake for 1.5 hours at 160c, or gas mark 3.

6. When they are cooked and you take them out of the oven, immediately coat the tops with honey and then place them back inside the oven to dry. Remember to turn the oven off first !!

7. When they are dry, take them out and allow to totally cool before trying to remove the loaves from the tins.

Tea Brack is best kept for at least 3 days before eating (wrap it in tin foil). The taste improves in this time, as does the texture.

I hope you love this as much as I do... it is especially incredible with unsalted butter Mmmmmmm...