Irish Soda Bread - Two Ways

We just visited Ireland in October, and, oh-my-word, it was a dream come true! I had been wanting to visit Ireland since I was a little girl. My uncle Pete (Mom’s brother) married my aunt who is from Ireland and thus my dream for wanting to visit the country that she was from was born.

We had a wonderful time in Ireland, and our cab driver (who we used more than once) was so incredibly warm, funny, friendly and welcoming. We stayed in Dublin for 2 days and then took the train down to Cork for a few days. The food in Ireland was so delicious! Our favorite meal was at The Brazen Head, which is the oldest pub in Ireland (it was established in 1198)! We had the best Irish Stew ever! It was a meal that we pretty much ate all throughout our trip to Ireland. Mom always got the mussels and my hubby and I alternated between the Irish Stew or Shepard’s Pie.

One thing that we ate every single day and pretty much every single meal was Irish Soda bread. My mom even took a few slices in a ziplock bag to our next stop: Disneyland Paris.

The bread was so good all throughout our trip, but I can tell you this much: my mom and I definitely shouldn’t have been eating so much of it! My mom is highly intolerant to eggs and dairy, and I am highly intolerant to cane sugar and yeast, plus I don’t eat white flour or basically 90% of whatever was in the bread.

I knew that when I got home I wanted to make my own with ingredients that I could eat… sadly my mama can’t eat this recipe since she is also intolerant to almonds, so I will have to work on a recipe that she can eat, too.

It was once again confirmed that my absolute favorite Simple Mills product is the Artisan Bread Mix. I have already known that this was my favorite (though I truly love all of their products and swear by them), but after making this Irish Soda Bread, I can hardly contain my excitement! I think I have made this maybe 8 times since mid November.

I used a recipe that I found on the Simple Mills website. This recipe is not my own, but belongs to Nora from A Clean Bake. (You can find the original recipe here). I switched out and added some things that reminded me of being in Ireland and that tasted like the Irish Soda bread that I loved on my trip.

I decided to make a second version of this awesome bread when I posted a picture and my friend said that Irish Soda Bread was her dad’s favorite. But he didn’t like currants and fennel in it, or raisins… he loved plain Irish soda bread. I made a plain version of this awesome bread and my friend and her dad loved it. His eyes literally lit up when I told him I brought some and it made me so happy that he loved it.

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INGREDIENTS

Irish Soda Bread With Currants & Fennel

1 Box Simple Mills Artisan Bread Mix

2 TB coconut sugar

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup currants

1/2 TB dried fennel seeds

1/2 cup cashew milk

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

2 large eggs

1 TB olive oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 and line an oven safe loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix the cashew milk with the lemon juice and set aside.

In a larger bowl, mix the Artisan Bread Mix with the coconut sugar, coconut flour, currants and fennel.

Add the eggs and oil to the cashew milk and lemon juice and mix.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir. The dough will be slightly sticky, so let it sit for 2-3 minutes, which will allow the coconut flour to absorb any excess moisture in the dough.

Put the dough into your parchment prepared loaf pan and place it into the oven. Immediately turn the oven down to 350 and bake for 45 minutes.

Plain Irish Soda Bread

INGREDIENTS

1 Box Simple Mills Artisan Bread Mix

2.5 TB coconut sugar

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup cashew milk

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

2 large eggs

1 TB olive oil

Follow the same steps above, leaving out the fennel and currants.