I made an amazing Gluten Free Irish Soda Bread for dinner tonight. Wow.

I’m trying to learn to cook and especially to bake gluten-free, so I can avoid spending an arm and a leg every time I want something bready. The banana bread last week was not so good as I blended the bananas up too much in the bread. It didn’t really seem like banana bread at all. As one person said, “So…it’s just more like ‘bread.'” Yeah, that was it.

For the banana bread, I used a recipe off a box, but this time I used my new cook book, Gluten Free on A Shoestring. One big “Yay!” for this cookbook.

Here’s the recipe I used:

3 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 cup sugar {but I used a scant 1/2 cup instead}
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
6 TBSP unsalted butter diced and chilled
2 cups raisins {I used golden raisins}
2 TBSP caraway seeds (optional) {I didn’t use these. Not my favorite!}
1 1/2 cups milk (low-fat is fine, nonfat is not) {I used unsweetened soy milk}
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 extra-large egg

Mix the dry ingredients well.

Cut in the butter, so it’s like cornmeal texture. (I used my food processor for this, which was  a dream!)

Mix the milk, vinegar, and egg together, then add to dry ingredients. Mix only until the mixture starts coming together. Don’t over mix it.

Bake in a skillet or ceramic pie plate with two-inch high walls, at 325 for 40 minutes, then 325 for 30 more minutes.

Let it cool for 30 minutes in the pan, then turn it out to cool completely. It does cut more cleanly when it’s cool, but it sure tastes good when it’s hot!

(You can find more of my cooking posts over at Nanette’s Kitchen!)