It’s time to get your green on! Everyone’s a little Irish on St. Patty’s day-right? This Einkorn Irish soda bread is definitely a St. Patrick ’s Day staple. Soda bread gets its name from baking soda being used as the leavening agent, instead of yeast. The dough rises due to the reaction ...between an acidic liquid, like buttermilk, and a base, like baking soda. This reaction forms tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide that cause the dough to rise. Soda bread has four basic ingredients: flour, buttermilk, baking soda and salt. Other ingredients can be added, such as butter, egg, raisins, caraway seeds or nuts. Soda bread is fairly dense, moist and hearty. Although the Irish didn’t invent soda bread, it is a traditional Irish specialty. Baking soda found its way into Irish kitchens in the mid-1800s. This was a big change for the bread baking in Ireland because, unlike many other European countries, the country did not produce much of the high-protein flour necessary for making good yeasted breads. As a replacement to yeast, baking soda produced a reliable rise and worked well with the softer Irish flours. Soda bread is quick and simple to prepare and tastes just fabulous when made with jovial’s all-purpose einkorn flour. For a moister texture, we recommend wrapping the freshly baked loaves in a clean tea towel while they cool. The characteristic cross marking, cut into the dough before baking, allows room for the loaf to expand in the oven and provides four sections, also known as “farls.”