An Irish Soda Bread Experiment

This recipe is vegan, gluten free, rice flour free, lactose free, and yeast free.

So I can't have yeast, wheat flour, or milk in a typical Irish Soda Bread Recipe. (Well, wheat, rice and yeast pretty much eliminates most store-bought breads.) So I had to improvise. It's currently in the oven; I'll note the results when it comes out and cools.

For flour I substituted oat flour, amaranth and buckwheat flour, all which I showed to be negative for an IgG or IgE reaction. I don't know how this will affect the quality of the bread; different flours behave differently during cooking. But I'm hopeful.

Try this experiment with any types of flour. I did this with the flours I had on hand; you can try this with any other flours, so long as it's about 3 cups. (I think.)

• 2 cups oat flour
• 1/2 cup amaranth flour
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg substitute (1 tbsp flax seed, 3 tbsp water, soaked until gelled)
• 2 cups soy milk
• 1/4 cup butter substitute. (I used Earth Balance brand.)

Combine, bake for 65-70 minutes at 325°F.

We'll see how this works.

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Two hours later: The verdict? Meh.

Pros: It has a good flavor and will work very well once I tweak the recipe as a sandwich bread. I plan to use the results this week for lunch.

Cons: I think I need to increase the baking soda to 1 tbsp; the recipe resulted in a very dense bread that, even after letting it cook for an additional 15 minutes, was still underdone. I think I also will need to increase the cooking time to 350°F, and perhaps use a lighter flour, such as potato flour, in a 50/50 ratio with the other flours above.

Next time I'm going to try increasing the cooking temperature up to 350°F, use a 50/50 mix of potato flour and oat flour, and increase the amount of soda to 1 tbsp. (I wonder if the 1 tbsp was a typo?)