Gluten-Free Cinnamon Irish Soda Bread #Recipe by @LibbyKlein #St.Patrick'sDay

Libby Klein Irish Soda Bread is on the the easiest breads to make in my opinion. Due primarily to the fact that all the rise happens in the bake. I've made this a few times before with the traditional recipe - changing it to gluten-free of course. But this is the first time I've added cranberries and cinnamon. I think they work beautifully with the recipe and I hope you will too. It's also a bit weird to bake the soda bread in a glass bowl, but it is the perfect vessel to get that traditional round loaf. It's important to use a probe thermometer to make sure the inside is fully baked before you remove the loaf from the oven. Go by temperature here over time. I have taken it out too early more time than I care to admit. If you don't have a thermometer, try testing the loaf by inserting a butter knife and seeing if it comes out clean. 

Are you a fan of Irish Soda bread? Or have you never tried it? And have you tried it with cinnamon? Leave me a note in the comments and let me know.

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Irish Soda Bread

Yield: 1round loaf

Ingredients:

¾ cup+ 2 Tbs. buttermilk -or- milk with 1 Tbs. apple cider vinegar added

2 cup Gluten Free Flour blend with xanthan gum included

¼ cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp. salt

3 Tbs. butter

1 tsp. baking soda (which goes in the milk before adding to the bread)

1 egg

1 ¼ cup seedless raisins and or cranberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375° F.

If not using buttermilk (I never have buttermilk, so I always use the milk/vinegar trick) mix milk with 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar. Set aside to curdle. It happens very fast.

In a food processor - or by hand, blend together gluten free flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles a pebbly, course meal. I went old school this time and used the two knives.

  

Add baking soda to milk mixture (weird, right?) whisk to combine, then add to the flour with the egg. Pulse (or mix with a spatula) until a ball of dough forms. Remove from the food processor and fold in raisins and cranberries.

Scoop dough onto a floured counter and roll into ball then transfer to a lightly oiled and floured 7-inch heat proof glass bowl or small cake pan. Make a shallow X in the top of the loaf with a large knife.

Bake for 35 minutes at 375° F., then drop the temperature to 325° F., (so it doesn't get too brown) and bake until the internal temperature reaches 200° F. It took my loaf another 40 minutes to get there. I like to use a probe thermometer that stays in the loaf and alerts me to when temperature has been reached. Let it cool completely before you try to cut into the loaf.

Are you a fan of Irish Soda bread? Or have you never tried it? And have you tried it with cinnamon? Leave me a note in the comments and let me know.

Gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister and her aunt Ginny are looking forward to a quiet, homey Christmas at their B&B in Cape May, but unfortunately, death isn’t taking a holiday this year . . .

Ever since Thanksgiving, Poppy and her pals have been left with an unsolved mystery of the romantic kind. But at least this mystery isn’t the kind that involves murder. That all changes when the body of a fish supplier is discovered in the kitchen of her ex’s restaurant—and he’s frozen, not fresh.

For once, it’s not Poppy who tripped over the corpse, yet she can’t escape being drawn in since the victim has a note taped to him reading Get Poppy. Figures—an engagement ring isn't labeled, but the dead guy is addressed to her. Now, while Aunt Ginny plans a tree-trimming party and pressures Poppy to decode a mysterious old diary, the amateur sleuth is asked to “unofficially” go undercover at the restaurant to help the police. Until then, the only crime Poppy had been dealing with was Figaro’s repeated thefts of bird ornaments from the tree; now it looks like it’s going to be a murder-y Christmas after all.

 

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the '80s. Her

classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/