The Kitchen Alchemist: GF Irish Soda Bread

"In which I try to make healthful, affordable, easy meals:

in other words, throwing together ingredients in hopes of creating gold."

It's a blessing that I've converted to gluten-free for my health at a time when the GF movement is picking up and running.  There are plenty of recipes to be found online, and special ingredients are becoming available even in your run-of-the-mill grocery store.  So to celebrate Saint Paddy's Day, I was able to whip up an {easy gluten-free Irish soda bread}.

I picked this recipe because it had the least ingredients, and the ones most readily available to me.  I followed the directions, but it was a little undone inside after the allotted time baking and cooling.  Still, it was quite delicious.  I just wish GF breads didn't look so grainy.

Here's the markup:

Time // A

Ease // A-

Presentation // B

Affordability // C

Health // A

Taste // A

Good scores, overall!  The only thing is that almond flour is pricey, and if you add butter to this like is traditional, you significantly bump down the health grade.

We are Catholic, and my children's great grandfather (husband's father) was named Paddy and worked as a docker in Cork, where my mother-in-law was born and raised.  My children are somewhere between a half and a quarter Irish.  But Saint Patrick's Day isn't about nationalism for us; though that is the main allure for people in Ireland and America.  For us, it's a special day to commemorate the British saint who peacefully converted the entire land of fierce and loyal people; who, in turn, preserved civilization in the so-called "dark age" abbeys and became missionaries to the rest of Europe when it was plunged into true spiritual darkness.

I love Saint Patrick's Day.  In Wales, where we live on and off, it is a high feast which calls for a break of the Lenten fast.  One day, I would like to make a pilgrimage up Saint Patrick's Mountain, or {The Reek}.  Maybe when the children are older and can come along.  But today we are keeping things low key, with this traditional bread, corn beef and cabbage, some {Irish folk songs}, and maybe a movie (I recommend {The Secret of Kells}-- more on that later--or The Secret of Roan Inish).

Saint Patrick's Day links:

• The Secret of Kells and the Art of Making at Everything to Someone
• The Kitchen Alchemist series at Everything to Someone
• Great Films for Kids: The Secret of Kells, at Ignatius Press
• 11 Irish Movies at Catholic All Year
• All Their Wars Are Merry at Everything to Someone