Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
Soda bread is one of the easiest quick breads because of the lack of kneading, rising time and the simple ingredients, and even more so because the regular recipe calls for a type of flour that is low in gluten. I, of course jazzed it up a tiny bit by using oatmeal and milk.
During the early years of European settlement of the Americas, settlers and some groups of Indigenous people of the Americas used soda or pearl ash, more commonly known as potash (pot ash) or potassium carbonate, as a leavening agent (the forerunner to baking soda).
Ingredients
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal 1-1/2 cups warm milk or your favorite alternative 1-1/2 cups garbanzo(chickpea) flour
1-1/2 cups Namaste Foods sorghum flour
1 Tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum 1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt 1/4 cup cold butter or your favorite alternative 1 egg, lightly beaten raisins (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a small bowl, pour warmed milk over oats and let them stand while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
In a large bowl, combine garbanzo flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt. Using a pastry cutter, cut in cold butter until well combined and resembling wet sand. Mix in raisins if using.
Add oatmeal/milk mixture and egg to flour mixture and stir just until combined.
Grease and flour a round pan or pie plate and transfer dough into pan, smoothing out the top. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before slicing.
