Recipe: Irish Spelty Fruity Soda Bread

Good Morning All!
Just up having a lovely breakfast and watching the newly well slept lil (touch wood!) playing away with her toys. The rule of thumb in our house is that she eats first. No matter what. This will not prevent her from eating half of your breakfast as well, but it will mean that you can avoid the major temper tantrum that will ensue if somebody else DARES to eat before she does.

Eating is something my daughter does very well. She may be unsteady on her feet (but sooooo cute when she does her wobbly standing!) and her vocab may be more gobbledy gook then shakespeare, but damn, the girl can eat!

As such, it always helps to have something healthy on hand that she can munch away on and as I tend to go on mass baking sprees when pregnant, it was only a matter of time before I turned my hand to making things lil could enjoy as well.

The following bread is an adaptation I made of a traditional Irish Soda bread. Instead of wheat, it's made with spelt flour, it's also yeast free, dairy free, egg free and instead of sugar, I use molasses or honey. She loves it and so do the rest of us! I hope you do too...

Now, I'm off to have a quick peek at what the lovely mimi charmante is up to and then it' s
off to get dressed and out the door!

Irish Spelt Fruit Bread

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups white spelt flour
• 1-1/2 cups wholemeal spelt flour
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup ground flax or oat bran or anything really that takes your fancy!
  
• 1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1-3/4 cups soy milk
  
• 2 tablespoons honey (I prefer to use molasses)
• Loads of fruity bits, raisins, sultanas, dates, whatever you like!
  

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375°F. In bowl, combine all dry ingredients and fruit. If you sift the flour, it will keep you from getting uncooked pockets.

2. In small bowl, mix soy milk with honey/molasses (hint: if you add a drop of boiling water to the honey or molasses, it blends easier with milk. also, if you drizzle a bit of molasses through the dough you get yummy sweet pockets!) Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture (You don't have to use it all if the gloopiness starts to scare you. Feel free to leave a bit back); stir to combine.

3. This will not be a smooth dough, it will be sticky and mushy and kind of scary. If you oil your hands it makes handling easier. Turn dough out onto floured surface and shape into a circle. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

4. Bake 30 minutes more or until the bread sounds hollow when you tap it. Let cool 20 minutes.