Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Just because you're eating gluten-free doesn't mean you have to give up on traditions or celebrating holidays. With St. Patrick's day coming up I've been looking for some Irish recipes. I received this recipe for Irish Soda Bread in my email from Living Without magazine. I like how they give you suggestions on how to adjust the recipe for those with additional food allergies.

Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients:
2 cups high-protein, gluten-free flour blend (recipe below)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup gluten-free oats
1 egg or flax gel*
1 cup buttermilk or milk of choice (rice, hemp, soy, almond)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly dust a cookie sheet with gluten-free flour.
Mix flour blend, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt and oats in a bowl.
Add egg (or flax gel) and buttermilk and mix to form a soft, sticky dough.
Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead three times.
Shape dough into a 6-inch flat round. Place it on prepared cookie sheet.
Sprinkle it with gluten-free flour and score a large X on the top.
Bake in preheated oven until top is golden brown, about 30 to 35 minutes.
*TIP To make flax gel, combine 1 tablespoon flax meal with 3 tablespoons hot water. Let sit until thickened, about ten minutes.

Gluten-Free High-Protein Flour Blend
1¼ cups bean flour, chickpea flour or soy flour
1 cup arrowroot starch, cornstarch or potato starch
1 cup tapioca starch/flour
1 cup white or brown rice flour

Blend ingredients together. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator until used.

From Living Without, recipe by Rebecca Reilly.

Gluten-Free Banana Bread Recipe

This recipe is the reason that Matt no longer eats bananas. He assumes that if he lets the bananas ripen I will make banana bread. He's usually right about this.
I started using this recipe about a year ago and don't remember where I found it. It has been modified slightly along the way. One of the things I love about this recipe is that you don't need to have a bunch of different flours on hand. We usually use white rice flour but brown rice flour or a prepared GF baking mix will work as well.

Ingredients:
1 stick softened butter
1 c sugar
3 bananas
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 c rice flour
2 tsp baking powder

Directions:
Mix butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs, bananas and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix flour and baking powder. Combine dry ingredients until moist. Put batter in a loaf pan (5x9 inch)
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Gluten-Free Bread

Anyone who has tried gluten-free bread knows that it can be difficult to find a decent one. Some people compare the breads to cardboard however, I've never tasted cardboard. For convenient sandwich bread we buy the Ener-G Foods bread. Nate preferred the tapioca loaf and it was pretty easy to find at Fresh and Natural Foods or Rainbow. Now there was a trick to using this bread, he would wrap the bread in a damp paper towel and put it in the microwave for about 30-60 seconds.

One day we noticed the Ener-G Light Tapioca Loaf and decided to give it a try since it was cheaper and lighter than our usual version. It is one of their lightest breads and has less fat and calories than the regular tapioca loaf. When we went to the health food store to purchase more we noticed they were selling out of it and we'd have to special order it.

Ener-G Food's breads come in vacuum sealed packaging that gives it a long shelf life up to a year. It never lasts that long in our house even with buying it by the case at.
The light tapioca is a lot lighter and does not need to be wrapped in a paper towel. It is better in the microwave for about 30 seconds or toasted.

Look for the neon green bag of light tapioca loaf, that is if they are not sold out!