Dairy Free Irish Soda Bread #dairyfree #irishsodabread

With St. Patrick's Day around the corner and social distancing in place due to the COVID-19 virus spreading, it seemed like an appropriate day to make some Irish Soda Bread.  I have a few Irish cookbooks and ended up choosing the recipe from The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook.

Here's the recipe I adapted to be dairy free so I can eat it too.

vegetable oil
3-2/3 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar (I added this)
1-3/4 cups dairy free buttermilk (1T+2t white vinegar and oat milk)
raisins (I added this, could do currants too)

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 425, oil a baking sheet
2. Make the DF buttermilk by pouring 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons white vinegar into a measuring cup, then filling with oat milk to the 1-3/4 spot.  Stir and let sit 1-2 minutes.
3. Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and sugar together into a large mixing bowl, making a well in the middle
4. Pour in a bit more than half the DF buttermilk and mix with your hands, add more buttermilk until the dough is soft but not wet
5. Flour the raisins, then mix into the dough
6. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and kneed lightly - this is where I didn't do so well which is probably why it was dense
7. Shape into an 8-in circle and cut a cross into the top to let out the fairies
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
9. Let cool on a wire rack, serve warm.

Verdict:

It's ok.  Way too dense which could be from the lack of kneeding (what does kneed lightly actually mean?) plus the fact that I kneeded mostly in the bowl, or it could be from the oatmilk buttermilk.  Guess I'll need to make another loaf to try 😁

Happy St. Patrick's Day!