Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Irish Soda Bread

"Irish Soda Bread with Golden Raisins" (page 400) puts a vegan spin on this traditional St. Patrick's Day treat. Buttermilk is normally used as the liquid, but here soymilk soured with vinegar stands in for the dairy, providing the acidic environment needed to activate the baking soda. This is a free form loaf, rounded by hand on a baking sheet and crisscrossed with a big "X" just before popping in the oven. In the quick bread category, meaning non-yeasted, this hefty loaf is still quite firm and chewy, enough so to use for sandwiches (I found it made the most wonderful bread for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in particular). Just slightly sweet from the two tablespoons of sugar and the golden raisins, this also makes wonderful bread for morning toast. It made a large loaf for just the two of us, but kept well in the refrigerator for the week we had it around.
 
Keeping it "McDougall Friendly" checklist:
 

ΓΌ To keep this completely McDougall Friendly, the all-purpose (white) flour should be replaced with whole wheat pastry flour. You might find the loaf a bit too heavy with all whole grain flour, so at the very least, try a 50-50 blend of white flour and whole wheat pastry flour.

7 comments:

  1. I wondred if keeping bread in the fridge is a common way to store the bread where you live or if it's just with this particular kind of bread. Just because I've never heard of bread being kept in the fridge (just the freezer if you plan on using it much later).

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    1. Hi Ines! I think bread purists would frown upon refrigerating bread in general, because it can tend to dry it out too quickly. Freezing extra bread you won't use within a few days is the best method, but since I don't always have room in my tiny RV freezer for a bulky loaf of bread, and we can't always eat the entire loaf before it starts to mold if left out, I often end up refrigerating bread a few days after making it, or bringing it home from the store. I'm not sure how common this is, though, but I would love to hear from others on this subject!

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    2. Ah, the bread purists! :D I see your problem as I have limited freezing space myself. I never had it mold when left out though (dry out - sure) so it might have something to do with different amounts of humitity. I don't know. I usually store mine wrapped in a kitchen towel somewhere in a cabinet. Some people store it in a bread box but I'm not that fancy (also: no room for that one either) :D.

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    3. I remember my Mom having a bread box. If I had room, that would definitely be a good option! Does your bread become very hard when you just wrap it in a kitchen towel? I'll have to try that next time I make a loaf (usually I buy our bread, I have to admit!).

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    4. Well, it does become stale eventually but it doesn't seem to become as hard as when I just leave it out. It doesn't hurt to try it I guess. :)

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  2. Yum! Becky, this looks amazing! Would not have lasted a week in this household lol. Lovely photo as always.

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    1. Thanks Jennifer! :-) It was really good, and it did go faster than normal, LOL! But it was hefty and we got a lot of slices of bread of the loaf.

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