Paleo Irish Soda Bread

 

The traditional Irish Soda Bread is made from just 4 ingredients - Flour, Baking Soda, salt and soured milk ( buttermilk). It is a simple bread that was baked daily to go with meals. 

The search for a good Paleo bread leads to this recipe from Elana's Pantry (<= click). I made a few modification to the recipe. I omitted the raisins and caraway seeds for the simple reason "If your "soda bread" has raisins, it's not "soda bread!  It's called "Spotted Dog" or "Railway Cake"!  If it contains raisins, eggs, baking powder, sugar or shortening, it's called "cake", not "bread."  All are tasty, but not traditional Irish Soda Bread!"

This is a real simple bread. Easy to bake and yet very tasty. The hubby and I agreed that this is probably the best paleo bread we ever bake.

Ingredients ( my adapted version)

2 ¾ cups blanched almond flour
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
2 tablespoons agave nectar or honey
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Direction
1. In a large bowl combine almond flour, salt and baking soda
2. In a smaller bowl combine eggs, agave and apple cider vinegar
3.  Mix wet ingredients into dry Place dough on a piece of parchment paper and form dough into a large, flat circle that is 8 inches across and 1 ½ inches tall
4.  Using a serrated knife, score top of dough about an inch and a half an inch deep in shape of a cross
5. Transfer dough and parchment to a baking sheet
6. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes, then turn off oven and leave bread in for 10 more minutes.

~bel~

Bread- No Machine

I have been trying to look for a recipe which does not require the use of machine. I came across a bread recipe form Allrecipes.com and decided to try it. Quite a challenge here as it require making bread from scratch...no bread mix, no machine.. just flour yeast and hands ( to knead, of course).

I changed the recipe slightly. Instead of vegetable oil, I used olive oil. I also reduced the sugar from 2/3 cup to 1/2 cup

My apartment smells of freshly baked bread now ... ;)

Ingredients :

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup Olive oil
• 6 cups bread flour

Direction :

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam

2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until mooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour

3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.

4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.


~bel~