In its home country of Ireland, soda bread is typically made using wheat flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk.
What if you have gluten issues or are grain free for a period of time while healing your gut? Must the pleasure of consuming Irish soda bread be avoided completely?
Fortunately, no!
Emily Duff, New York City Chef and writer of all things Real Food related, shares with us how to make delicious Irish soda bread using blanched almond flour instead of wheat in the recipe below.
Chef Emily used the Irish Soda Bread recipe from Elana’s Pantry as her inspiration for this unique grain free version.
Irish Soda Bread Recipe (grain free)
Delicious, grain free Irish soda bread recipe that will satisfy your yearnings for bread without the carbs using nourishing, whole ingredients.
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/2 cup Fruit of choice (raisins, dates, figs, apricots) chopped
- 2 eggs
- 2 Tbl raw orange blossom honey
- 2 Tbl apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 pinch caraway seeds
Instructions
In a large bowl combine almond flour, salt, baking soda and raisins.
In a smaller bowl combine eggs, honey and apple cider vinegar.
Mix wet ingredients into dry.
Form dough into a large, flat circle that is roughly 7 inches across and 1 ½ inches tall.
Using a serrated knife, score top of dough about an inch deep in shape of a cross.
Sprinkle top of the dough with caraway seeds.
Bake at 350° F/177 C for 20 minutes, then turn off oven and leave bread in the oven for 10 more minutes.
Cool Irish soda bread for ½ hour then slice and serve with lots of raw butter (and jam if desired).
Recipe Notes
Heating honey isn't ideal for baking. If you would prefer not to cook this raw sweetener, use date syrup instead.
Chef Emily Duff has been cooking professionally in NYC since 1988. She worked for farmers Wilklow, Bradley and Dent from 1989 — 1991 at the Tribeca Washington Farmers Market and Brooklyn, Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket. Her café Henrietta’s Feed & Grain (1993) was one of the first eateries to employ a completely seasonal menu based on the bounty of local growers from NY and NJ. The Feed & Grain earned her a reputation of being a chef true to flavor and respectful of ingredients while creating and serving honest, delicious, healing food. She retired in 2002 to continue her work in private catering. As Mother of 2, Emily follows a dedicated path of learning in the field of Traditional Nutrition and Natural Healing.
Grassfed Bait and Switch
I’ve been making my own almond meal by using Sally Fallon’s crispy almonds. Is this better than buying almond flour from the store or are the extra steps not necessary? I also have been using almonds with skin on.
Yes, making almond flour from crispy almonds is more nutritious and digestible than the almond flour from the store.
Do you have a video or a post on how to make blanched almond flour?
Would this recipe work well with a GF blend, or just brown rice or amaranth flour or something like that? Almonds are so expensive – we eat a lot of crispy nuts but I would rather use cheaper alternatives in a bread. Would it be doable?
SO I have been baking with almond flour lately and have enjoyed the outcomes.
I was wondering for variation, if I could substitute any other nut flours in place of almond flour.
I am so glad you’re doing more grain free stuff. Ever since I read Life Without Bread (given a positive review by Sally Fallon), I’ve cut 80-90% of the grain out of my diet and I’m feeling much better. And, I’ve lost (and I’m still losing) the explained weight/inches I had gained. I love the book! Great thesis … the body runs best on fat, not glucose (from grain/carbs)! 🙂
Thanks!
Lynn
I seem to get more rise if I soak the flour in whey overnight and bump the amount of soda some. This changes the method somewhat, since the flour is no longer a ‘dry’ ingredient. Also, experimented with chestnut flour.
So far no explosions. Baking powder is so yesterday!
Ciao,
Pavil
Pavil,
Would you mind sharing the amount of whey you used to soak the flour in overnight? Also, the amount of soda you used? I’ve never done this before and not sure how to “change” the recipe. I do not want to eat unsoaked almond flour!
Thanks!
I never measured it, but I just cover flour with whey and check in half an hour if I need to add more. You should not see whey pooling on top of the flour. It should be just wet. I would not use apple sider vinegar since there’ll be whey instead. I usually use 1 to 1 1/2 tsp of baking soda. I did not make this bread yet, so can’t say for sure how this changes will effect the final product.
Thank you so much!
I’m curious, is there a reason for not adding a fermented milk product into the soda bread, seeing as the original has buttermilk in it?
This sounds very good and quite sweet. This is a problem I find in grain-free recipes. They often use a fair amount of sugar or sweetners. Tough for people who go grain free to reduce carbs overall.
Just made this..amazing! I only waiting maybe 10 minutes for it to cool down and it was delicious! Added a little bit of chocolate chips on top (I know, bad me…) 😉
Doesn’t heating honey renders it toxic?
Yes it does. I never use honey for baking. This is Chef Emily’s recipe, but if you do not wish to use honey, substitute date syrup. That’s what I do. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/date-sugar-syrup/