Gluten Free Soda Bread

 

Now, this is very definitely a soda bread and not a yeast bread - I don’t want to give anybody the wrong idea of what you’re making! - but it is an excellent gluten free soda bread, and rose all the way to the top of the loaf pans! I have already made three loaves.

The recipe as called for below makes ONE LOAF. The picture above has two loaves; I made the recipe twice, in two bowls, and cooked them together. (Don’t double the cooking time!)

I got the recipe off Fearless Dining’s blog, The Fluffiest Gluten Free Bread Recipe (No Yeast!), where she goes into some detail about the different flours and substitutions and things. I’m just going to tell you how I made it, with the implements I have in my kitchen. If you want to know about substitutes or want to use a stand mixer (you don’t need one), go to her link.

GLUTEN FREE SODA BREAD

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour

2 T baking powder - she calls for aluminum free. I never know whether my baking powder is aluminum free or not. Just make sure it’s gluten free.

1 t salt (MEASURE IT)

5 tablespoon butter (do not soften! You want your butter cold for this recipe!)

2 eggs

1 1/2 C milk

Preheat your oven to 350. Put your oven rack in the middle of the oven.

Add the 2 1/2 C flour, 2 T baking soda, and 1 t salt to a large mixing bowl. Use a whisk to blend the dry ingredients.

Here’s where the recipe starts to differ. I have a pastry blender, so I cut my 5 T butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender. If you’ve got a cheese grater, you can cut it in with that; you can try cutting it in with two knives, but I personally have never had much luck with that method. However you do it, get your butter cut in nice and small.

Add your two eggs into the bowl, and mix those in. I switched to a stiff silicon spatula at this point.

Add the 1 1/2 C milk to the bowl, and mix it all into a dough with a stiff spatula or large spoon.

I used a regular sized loaf pan coated in pan spray and had no trouble. She talks about parchment paper. I’m not sure why. I did not need it.

Use the spatula to get your dough from the bowl into the loaf pan. It is sticky! It should be soft and thick, sticky as I said, but not pourable. Smooth the top out with your fingers if you need to.

Bake at 350 on the middle rack for 30-35 minutes. I never did achieve a nice golden brown crust, and I didn’t want it to dry out, so I took it out at about 33 minutes, when a knife stuck in the deepest part of the loaf came out clean.

I disobeyed my instructions, because I see now you’re supposed to remove it from the loaf pan to cool. 

I cooled it IN the loaf pan until it was cool.

Apparently either way works.

Don’t try slicing it until it’s cool, in either case!

*A serrated bread knife works best for slicing, and thicker slices hold up better if you’re planning on picking them up. 

(…yes, I have a pink serrated bread knife. 😊)