Over the weekend I became obsessed with the idea of vegan Irish soda bread. And after many attempts, I finally have a recipe that ticks all the boxes. With a thick, crunchy crust, and soft middle, this loaf is designed for heaping smears of butter and your favorite jam.
My recipe for this vegan Irish soda bread uses almond milk and apple cider vinegar instead of buttermilk, which is one of the traditional ingredients. I also found that adding a cup of coarsely ground oat flour added a lovely nutty flavor, and softened the texture, yielding to a much less dense loaf.
Irish soda bread uses baking soda instead of yeast to get its rise, hence the name. After a quick stir, a few kneads to shape, and a cross sliced across the top, you’re ready to pop this vegan Irish soda bread into the oven. As with all soda breads, this loaf will dry out quickly, so wrap tightly after it has cooled, then enjoy it for toast the following morning.
Vegan Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup oat flour - coarsely ground
- 1 ½ cups unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp coconut sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Pour the almond milk and apple cider vinegar into a small bowl and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients. If you are making your own oat flour like me, then blend your rolled oats until they resemble a very coarse flour.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Once you add the milk to the dry ingredients, we want to get the loaf into the oven as quickly as possible. So give it a stir, making sure all the flour is incorporated. Then use your hands to knead into a ball, while still in the bowl. The dough will be very wet.
- Transfer the ball onto your parchment lined baking sheet. Then using a sharp knife, cut a cross on top, about half an inch deep. This allows the dough to expand and cook throughly.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees, then reduce the oven temperature to 400 and cook for another 30 minutes. Do not open the oven during the baking process.
- Once the loaf is done baking, let it rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, before moving it to a cooling rack. Give it another 5-10 minutes before slicing.
- Serve with butter, jam, honey, olive oil, nut butters, or hummus. This bread is ideal as toast or dunking in your favorite soup.
- Wrap any leftovers tightly to preserve freshness, and enjoy the next day.
I’m a vegan and I’ll definitely try this, but instead of ‘smears of butter’ which would render it non- vegan, I’ll use smears of non dairy butter, which is just as good.
I’m a big fan of Mykonos vegan butter! I think it has a great flavor. Happy baking!
This bread would look good with any type of spread. Thank you for the recipe.