This is a simple and delicious wheat-free Irish Soda Bread.
Because I try to minimize my wheat consumption, I used half spelt flour and half oats (some of which are whirred in a blender to create a fine oat flour) in place of white/wheat flour in this recipe. You are welcome to make this with regular flour if that’s what you’ve got, though. I baked this soda bread in a pie dish and sliced it “scone-style”, but you can bake it into another shape if you like.
This recipe is only slightly sweet (a small amount of organic sugar and raisins do the trick), so it’s nice with any kind of high quality (preferably homemade) jam or marmalade. I like it for breakfast with some organic cottage cheese on the side.
Spelt and Oat Irish Soda Bread
adapted from the Classic Irish Soda Bread Recipe in A Taste of Old Ireland by Andy Gerald Gravette
Serves 8
Ingredients:
*2 cups sifted organic spelt flour
*2 cups organic rolled oats (1 cup of which you should whir in the blender for 1-2 minutes until it’s finely ground)
*1 teaspoon baking soda
*1 teaspoon fine sea salt
*2 tablespoons organic sugar
* 2 tablespoons very cold unsalted organic butter
*1 1/2 cups buttermilk, organic if possible (or 1 1/2 cups organic milk mixed with 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice or apple cider vinegar and allowed to stand for 10 minutes)
*1/2 cup organic raisins
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix spelt flour with the rolled oats (both ground and regular) in a medium bowl. Add the baking soda and salt and mix well. Using clean fingers, “rub” the butter into the flour.
2. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk. Mix well; the batter may still be pretty “wet”, but don’t worry.
3. Butter a 8-9 inch deep dish pie plate (or other similar round baking dish). Sprinkle some rolled oats into the pan and then spread the batter out over the oats. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden and fragrant. Allow to cool slightly before cutting into wedges. Serve with additional butter, if desired.
This post is linked to the March 19th edition of Fight Back Friday over at Food Renegade!
