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/

Irish Lamb Stew + Irish Soda Bread (gluten-free), #recipe from author @DarylWoodGerber

From Daryl aka Avery

Happy almost St. Patrick's Day. The Irish side of me, Traynor (or Trainor), comes from County Cork.  My grandmother was raised there and often spoke of her home country, even though she and her brother made their way on a steamer in the late 1800s to America. Okay, yes, her family was with her, but to hear her tell it, she and her brother crossed alone. They were both scrappers.

She survived the 1906 quake in San Francisco. She travelled the world. She married a man. They had a son. She lost her husband tragically, so she married my grandfather, a man 30 years her senior. They had a son, my father. Grandmother Irene was a stalwart woman. She had rules. She liked things done in a certain way. Very Downton Abbey, come to think of it. But she loved the arts. She took me to the symphony and musicals. She loved to golf. She wasn't a cook. At least I never saw her cook. But she had a cook.  I remember some grand dinners at her house. I still make Christmas dinner the way it was served at her house: roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, crisp green beans. Incredible sugar cookies for dessert.

One thing she never served was Irish lamb stew. I couldn't figure it out. Was it to peasant for her tastes? I remember having corned beef and cabbage but not stew. 

I simply had to make one for myself. I browsed my cookbook shelves for a recipe but couldn't find one. I found Irish Soda Bread in my very first cookbook, The Gourmet Cookbook, Volume I. That recipe will follow.

So I went online and searched for recipes. There were lots of choices, but none fit the bill, so I tweaked a recipe I found in a Southern Living site, of all things. And the result is tasty!  Also, gluten-free for those, like me, who need to eat that way.

So happy St. Patrick's Day. If you are Irish. If you wish to be Irish. If you simply like to eat, drink, and laugh heartily!

By the way, while cooking this stew, I came across a term in a recipe that always stumps me: salt and pepper to taste. Honestly, salt and pepper "mature" in a stew over time, so how much is too much and how little too little? Personally, I'd rather err on the side of "too little" and add more of each spice when served. So in this recipe, I give you exact amounts. If you want more, be my guest.

Irish Lamb Stew

Gluten-free

Serves 4-6

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ pounds lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1” cubes

2 large sweet onions, quartered and sliced

4-5 large carrots, peeled and sliced

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2-3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon dried parsley

2 teaspoons salt

½ teaspoon white or black pepper

3 cups beef broth (gluten-free)

10-12 small white potatoes

½ cup frozen peas

2 tablespoons corn starch

2 tablespoons water

Directions:

Peel and dice the carrots and onions. Set to one side. Trim and cube the lamb. *Note: I found this easier to do with kitchen shears. Lamb is slippery!

In a large, deep sauté pan, over medium-high heat, heat the oil. Sauté the lamb in the oil for 2 minutes. Add the chopped onion and cook, stirring, until the lamb is browned and onion tender, about 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle with thyme and add the chopped carrots, the bay leaf (I like more than most), parsley, salt, and pepper, and the beef broth.

Simmer for about 1 hour.

Add the potatoes, sliced in half if preferred, and cover. Continue cooking for 25 more minutes.

Add more salt and pepper if desired.

Add peas. Stir.

In a small bowl, stir the cornstarch and water together until smooth and no lumps. Add the mixture to the stew and stir well. Raise heat to medium low and cook for 3-4 minutes until the broth thickens.

This can be served immediately or made a day or two ahead and reheated. Flavors will meld deliciously! My husband says it's one of the best stews he's ever had, and he can be picky about stew!  So enjoy!

Serve with soda bread or crusty loaf.

Irish Soda Bread

Gluten-free

(tweaked from a recipe out of The Gourmet  Cookbook Volume 1)

Serves 6

2 cups gluten-free flour  (I used tapioca starch and potato starch)

1/8 cup sugar (2 tablespoons)

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

2 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk

1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 °F. In a small bowl, mix together the gluten-free flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt and xanthan gum. Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Add the buttermilk and egg. Combine until incorporated.  [Note: if you don't have buttermilk on hand, use 3/4 cup regular milk plus 1 tablespoon vinegar.]

Turn the dough out on a board and knead it for 2 to 3 minutes until it is smooth. [Note: mine didn’t get “smooth” but was fully incorporated.]

Shape the dough into a round loaf. Put the loaf in an 8-inch cake pan. Press down [you might need to moisten your fingers] until it fills the pan. Using sharp scissors, cut a diagonal slit in the center of the loaf.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

My notes: I think I would have used a ½ teaspoon more of baking powder to make this fluffier. I’m not sure I needed the xanthan gum in a recipe that baked so fast. And my pan was a 9-inch cake pan. The bread came out rather flat. It cooked faster than the recipe called for. Therefore, it might have been puffier in an 8-inch cake pan.

No matter what, the flavor was lovely!

Savor the mystery!

******************

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