Clean Eating Irish Soda Bread

I swear by all that is holy in my life, this is THE best bread I’ve ever had.

My mom recently went on a trip to Ireland. She has never really gone anywhere, so this was the trip of a lifetime for her. She loved every second of it and is now talking about buying a vacation house over there.

Who am I to argue with such sheer genius??

Well, to say she came back inspired by Irish cooking is an understatement.

The other night, she made me some Irish Soda Bread using a recipe from this website (it’s a really interesting read on the history of Irish Soda Bread!). It was straight out of the oven, and she had put a little bit of Irish butter on it to boot.

Now, I have to tell you, I avoid butter like the plague these days. But that was just more than my willpower could withstand. So I bit into it.

Now, I could be wrong, but I think the heavens parted and the angels sang. It was really that good.

So I just had to go home and try a clean eating version of it. And you know what, the angels are singing louder than ever cause I think I outdid my mom’s recipe!!

Here’s what I did:

Clean Eating Irish Soda Bread
(Makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2  tsp. sea salt
1 cup low-fat butter milk (plus a little extra, reserved)

Note: For a dairy free version, use another milk, such as soy milk and combine in a separate bowl with 1 tsp. white vinegar. Allow to sit for 10 minutes and then proceed with the recipe as indicated.

Directions

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

Step 1 – Put the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and mix well with a whisk.

Step 2 – Make a “well” in the middle of the flour.

Step 3 – Pour your buttermilk into the well.

Step 4 – Combine slightly with a wooden spoon until…

Step 5 – … it get’s to thick to continue mixing with the spoon.

Step 6 – Then you’ve got to get in there with your hands. Go ahead… kneading dough is the fun part of making bread!

Step 7 – Knead until you have a nice firm dough. If your dough is very dry and doesn’t form a nice ball, add a little extra buttermilk, 1 tbsp. at a time. Knead well before adding your next tbsp. to be sure you don’t overdo it.

Step 8 – Form your dough into a round disk that is approximately 1  1/2 inches in thickness. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet or pizza pan.

Step 9 – Score your bread with a sharp knife. I cut mine a little deep which is why the bread separated as much as it did in the top photo. But no matter how deep you do or don’t cut it, it will bake well. The idea is to cut it so that you can easily break it into quarters when it’s done.

Step 10 – Bake it in the oven at 450 degrees F. for 25 minute, then reduce the heat to 325 degrees F. and continue baking for 15 minutes.

If your bread starts to look to brown, loosely place a piece of aluminum foil over the top of it.

Step 11 – Once it’s cooled, store it in a plastic bag. But ya… um… it just didn’t last long enough around here for me to store it. In fact, I cut into it immediately and burned my finger. But man… what that burn worth it!

Eat and Enjoy!

Munchkin Helpers:

If you have little ones, here’s how they can help (With close supervision, of course).

Bread is a FABULOUS project to get the kids involved in! Let them pour the measured ingredients into the bowl and knead to their heart’s content. I doubt you can hurt the dough by too much kneading, so let em’ at it!

RELATED READING:

• Clean Eating Corn Bread
• Clean Eating Herb Pita Bread

Nutritional Content
Data for 1/8 of the entire loaf

Calories: 168
Total Fat: 1 gm
Saturated Fats: 0 gm
Trans Fats: 0 gm
Cholesterol:  gm
Sodium: 419 mg
Carbohydrates: 34 gm
Dietary fiber: 5 gm
Sugars: 2 gm
Protein: 7 gm
Estimated Glycemic Load: 18

Nutritional Information estimated at Nutritiondata.com. Data may not be accurate.

Caution: Any time a child is in the kitchen, they will require close supervision. Munchkin Helpers suggestions should be applied with common sense to your own child, taking their own capabilities into account. Do not assume that because it says here that your child can do something, that they can, in fact do it. Please use common sense when in the kitchen with your child(ren).

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