Category: Lifestyle
Vegan Soda Bread
March 11,2022
Ingredients
- 3 cups All-purpose Flour or spelt
- 3/4 cup Wholemeal Flour or whole spelt or more all-purpose white flour or oat flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt optional, can be made salt free
Vegan buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar or lemon juice or any vinegar
- 1 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons Soy Milk or oat milk or almond milk
To knead the bread
- 4–6 tablespoons All-purpose Flour
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 220°C (430°F). Line a baking tray with a lightly greased piece of parchment paper. Set aside.
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In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk soy milk with apple cider vinegar. Set aside for 10 minutes until it thickens to a buttermilk-like consistency.
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In another large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, and salt.
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Make a well in the center and pour the vegan buttermilk.
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Stir the dough with a spatula at first. Then, when it becomes difficult to work the dough with the spatula, use your hands to knead the dough, adding more flour if needed to form a ball.
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Knead the dough for 1 or 2 minutes maximum until you are able to make a ball. If the dough is very sticky, simply add white flour (up to a maximum of 1/3 cup) but be careful! You don’t want dry dough, or the Irish bread will be very dense and dry. A stickier dough results in moist, elastic bread, and that’s what you want.
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Transfer the dough ball onto the prepared baking tray and flatten the dough into a thin disc of a maximum of 3 cm (1.5 inches) in height. This is extremely important, or the bread won’t rise at all.
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Cut a deep cross (1 cm deep, 0.4 inches) on top of the bread and sprinkle/pat some extra white flour on top of the bread.
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Bake at 220°C (430°F), middle rack, for 20-30 minutes or until the outside is crusty.
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Transfer to a cooling rack for 1 hour before slicing.
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Store the bread at room temperature for up to 3-4 days, wrapped into a clean towel to keep its moisture.
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Can be eaten plain or toasted with jam or mashed avocado. Or it can be served as a quick side to soup and salads.
Notes
Plant-based milk: This recipe reaches the best bread texture using regular soy milk rather than low fat or any other plant-based milk.
White whole-wheat flour: you must use fine white whole-wheat flour, not coarse whole-wheat flour. Coarse whole-wheat won’t absorb the liquid enough, and the bread dough will be very sticky, and you will have to add a lot more white flour to achieve the same result.
Seeds and nuts: you can add up to 1/2 cup of seeds or chopped nuts in the bread dough like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, linseeds, sesame seeds, chopped walnuts, pistachios, or almonds.
Sweetbread: you can also add up to 1/3 cup of dried fruits like apricots, cranberries, raisins, or dates to this bread.
