Cathy Katin-Grazzini
Cathy's Kitchen Prescription LLC
www.cathyskitchenprescription.com
 
A Wee Irish Soda Bread
 
Cool, rainy weather makes baking yeasted breads a challenge, so long ago clever Irish bakers devised an easy, reliable alternative leavened with bicarbonate of soda.  Typically made with flour, buttermilk, and salt, soda bread can be savory or lightly sweetened with raisins. This delightful remake, while a bit untraditional, is quite delicious, healthier and far more eco-friendly. It sidesteps the dairy, uses whole grain, and is plant-based, and sodium-free. Lightly sweetened and scented with orange and rosemary, this aromatic loaf has a crisp crust and tender crumb. It’s particularly delicious with creamy, homemade soy buttermilk (see note below).  Serve it with or without jam for breakfast, teatime, or dessert.
 
Prep About 4 hours to culture buttermilk, plus 15 minutes   
Bake About 1 hour
This small loaf makes about 10 thin slices
 
Notes
Making a plant-based buttermilk is so simple to do but make extra: It’s thick, delicious, and a fabulous, probiotic beverage in its own right. However, if time is tight, you can still make soda bread with a store-bought plant-based yogurt or activate the baking soda with soymilk curdled with lemon juice instead. 
Because this bread uses 100% whole white wheat, the dough will be denser, moister and stickier than a traditional soda bread to produce a light, open crumb and delicious results.
 
1 ½ to 1 ¾ cups minimally processed soymilk, either homemade or simply using organic soybeans and water.
3 capsules ultra-strength, broad spectrum probiotics
3 cups white whole wheat flour
¾ teaspoon potassium bicarbonate (a sodium-free alternative to sodium bicarbonate)
1 ½ tablespoons fresh orange zest
1 ½ tablespoons rosemary needles, chopped finely
1 cup raisins, soaked and drained
A full 1/3 cup date paste, or to taste
¾ teaspoon shiro (white) miso paste
 
To make Better Buttermilk, warm the soymilk to body temperature and pour into a jar. Open the probiotic capsules and stir them into the soymilk. Cover tightly and shake for a minute to dissolve the cultures into the milk. Set in a proofing oven setting, in a yogurt maker or an Instant Pot set on its yogurt setting, or in any warm corner where the temperature can be maintained at 85-100°F.   Note: Heating beyond this level risks killing the culture.  Stir the jar after 2 hours, and again after 3 hours.  Test its thickness and taste. It may require another hour, depending on the ambient temperature. The buttermilk is ready when it develops a viscosity that is slightly thinner than yogurt and the taste is rich, sweet, and creamy with a slight tang. 
 
Preheat the oven to 400°F or 375°F for a convection oven and put the rack in the middle shelf.
 
Cut out a parchment paper circle to fit the bottom of a small 2-quart cast iron round covered pot.  Place the parchment in the pot, cover, and insert it in the oven as it comes to temperature, and you prepare the dough.
 
To rehydrate the raisins, place them in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Or cover with water and heat in a microwave for 30 seconds. Soak until softened, in about 15 minutes. Drain well.
 
To make date paste, place pitted, chopped dates in a bowl, cover with water. Microwave for 2 minutes. Cool. Purée the softened dates and only as much of its soaking water as required in a high-speed blender or food processor.
 
In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour and potassium bicarbonate.  Add the orange peel, chopped rosemary, and raisins, stirring them well to combine.
 
In another bowl, whisk together 1 cup only of the buttermilk, date paste, and shiro miso. 
 
Working quickly, scrape only the amount of wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients that you need to create a sticky — but not overly wet — dough. Use a mixing spoon or silicone spatula to quickly moisten all the flour but do not overwork the dough. (I find a Danish dough hook mixes dough ingredients quickly and efficiently.) It will be a shaggy, sticky dough.
 
Transfer to a board and use your clean hands to roughly shape into a round. 
 
Carefully remove the hot pot and take off the cover. Use a large spatula to scrape the soft, sticky dough off the board and transfer it to the hot pot. Quickly correct the shape, if need be, with a silicone spatula. Press the spatula deeply into the dough to make a cross. The deep indentations in the dough helps the bread rise and give Irish soda breads their classic appearance.  
 
Cover the pot and place it in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, covered. Remove the cover and bake for an additional 25 to 35 minutes.  Check it for doneness at 20 minutes, however, in case your oven runs hot.  The bread is ready when its exterior is nicely browned, and the loaf is quite fragrant.
 
Remove the pot from the oven but leave the oven on.  Cool the bread in the pot for 15 minutes. If the bread has adhered in places along the sides of the pot, as it cools it will be easy to detach the adhesions with a flexible silicone spatula. 
 
Transfer the bread to a cooling rack. Turn the loaf upside-down, placing the parchment paper now underneath to cradle the top of the bread, now inverted. 
 
Place the inverted bread with paper back in the oven for 10 minutes to firm up the bottom. 
 
Transfer the bread back to the cooling rack, inverting it so it is right side-up and discard the parchment paper.  The bread should sound hollow when knocked on the bottom.
 
The structure of the bread will still develop as the loaf cools, so resist the urge to cut it prematurely. When fully cool, slice it thinly and enjoy it plain or with a thin smear of jam.