This easy gluten-free soda bread without buttermilk is super flavorful, soft, and ultra moist with a crispy outer crust! You are going to love how easy Irish soda bread is because you don't have to wait for the bread to rise. Make this recipe a holiday favorite for St. Patrick's Day!
Do you find you don't use buttermilk often enough to buy it? This is my favorite healthy Irish soda bread without buttermilk, because I really never have buttermilk around either.
Instead of using buttermilk in this soda bread I use a combination of dairy-free milk with lemon juice. The acid of lemon juice combined with baking soda helps the bread to rise.
You can also use regular milk too if lactose is not an issue. All the details are below to help you make a successful gluten-free soda bread without buttermilk!
[feast_advanced_jump_to]What to love about this soda bread
- What makes Irish soda bread… well… different than other breads? There is no yeast or waiting hours for the bread to rise. You can make this quick bread super fast!
- If you have too much Candida (yeast growth) in your body and can’t have breads with yeast or gluten then this is the perfect gluten-free soda bread for you!
- Lactose a problem or you don't have buttermilk on-hand? We show you how to make gluten-free Irish soda bread without it!
Key Ingredients
- gluten-free flour, natural sugar such as coconut sugar or monk fruit, baking soda, and salt - These are the dry ingredients for soda bread that come together to sweeten the bread and make it rise. This works best with Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour 1-to-1.
- butter or vegan butter, milk of choice or non-dairy milk, lemon juice, and egg - are the liquid ingredients that help to bind the bread together and keep it super moist! Lemon juice mixes with the baking soda to help it rise.
You can also use the "buttermilk" in this recipe for pancakes and any other baked goods cup for cup.
How to make this recipe
Let's get started making this delicious easy gluten-free Irish soda bread! Full instructions are in the recipe card below.
Mix milk and lemon juice. Combine the butter and sugar to a large bowl with an electric mixer, then add egg and milk and lemon juice mixture in a mixing bowl. Whisk with an electric mixer to combine.
Add in the dry ingredients.
Combine the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix to form a dough. It will be sticky. Transfer to a floured surface and knead the dough for 2 minutes using your hands.
Place on iron skillet on parchment paper. With a knife, cut an "X" on top.
Bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes. The outside will be lightly browned and sound hollow when you tap it.
Let cool almost completely then slice and top with butter to serve!
Hint: The Irish soda bread dough will be sticky. Use plenty of flour to knead it. When you roll it into a ball, make sure the sides are evenly smooth or else the bread will split during baking.
Pairing
These are a few of my favorite dishes to enjoy for St. Patrick's Day with Irish soda bread:
Make it sugar-free
Use Monk fruit or Swerve sugar-free sweetener for a sugar free version of Irish soda bread. Coconut sugar works great too and is a raw sugar that is much healthier than white sugar.
Variations
- Savory - add ½ teaspoon of onion powder, 1 teaspoon dry basil, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder for a more savory soda bread recipe.
- Sweet with dried fruit - try adding ½ cup of dried raisins or currants for a little more texture.
FAQs
Yes! Buttermilk makes baked goods extra rich so you can substitute buttermilk for milk in most baking recipes. It is a 1 to 1 ratio, for example if a recipe calls for 1 cup of milk, you can use 1 cup of buttermilk. And if you use buttermilk then make sure the recipe calls for at least ½ teaspoon of baking soda. This helps it to rise properly.
We often use vinegar in all our gluten-free dough recipes. Vinegar helps to lighten the dough of gluten-free flours. In gluten-free soda bread, we use lemon juice as the acid in place of vinegar to make the dough soft and ultra fluffy!
The acid in buttermilk helps to bread down gluten and makes the bread more tender and soft. In gluten-free baking it is different. For gluten-free soda bread we still use an acid with milk to fluff up the bread, just like we do for all other gluten-free bread recipes. It acids like vinegar and lemon juice always make for a softer baked good.
Related Recipes
- Homemade Baking Powder (Paleo) - If you run out of baking powder for a recipes then you can make it easy homemade with baking soda!
- Butternut Squash Flax Bread (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free) - This is a winning recipe at every gathering I have ever brought it to!
- AIP Pizza Crust - Without yeast and egg!
- How To Do A Sugar Detox and Eliminate Sugar Cravings - It is so good to start a cleanse any time of the year!
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Gluten-Free Soda Bread Without Buttermilk
Ingredients
Buttermilk
- 1 ½ cups milk any kind, we use almond milk for dairy-free
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ cup butter vegan or regular, softened
- ¼ cup monk fruit or coconut sugar
- 1 egg
- 4 cups gluten-free flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven 375 degrees F. Line baking sheet or iron skillet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl combine the milk and lemon juice. Let it set at least 10 minutes to thicken.
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With an electric mixer, whisk together the butter and sugar. Then add the egg and milk/lemon juice mixture.
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To the wet ingredients add the flour, baking soda, and salt.
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Using a spatula mix together to form a dough ball. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and using your hands knead it together for 2 minutes.
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Place the dough ball on the parchment paper lined iron skillet or baking sheet. Using a knife, slice an "X" in the center about ½ inch deep.
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Bake in a preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. About 50-55 minutes. The top will be lightly browned, hard, and sound hollow to tap. Let it cool on a cooling rack before slicing.
Notes
- Savory - add ½ teaspoon of onion powder, 1 teaspoon dry basil, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder for a more savory soda bread recipe.
- Sweet with dried fruit - try adding ½ cup of dried raisins or currants for a little more texture.
Nutrition
St. Patrick’s Day is an official public holiday in Ireland, always on March 17, as the death date of Saint Patrick. Countries all around the world celebrate with festivities, parades and traditional foods.
Popular St. Patrick's day foods are Irish stew, Irish soda bread, Irish potato candy, cabbage, corned beef and dark Guinness beer to name a few. We wear the color green to celebrate as Saint Patrick used the three-leaf shamrock as a symbol of the Holy Trinity.
I hope you celebrate with this gluten-free soda bread!
The post Gluten-Free Soda Bread Without Buttermilk appeared first on Delightful Mom Food.