Rye Scones with Apricot

I love scones. I love baking with whole grains. I love rye flour. All of these things came together in this recipe. All of these things and more!

I got some rye flour that was more finely milled than the stone ground rye I often use, and found that it makes a delightfully soft loaf of bread, great for sandwiches or alongside a bowl of steaming soup. I decided to use it in some other baked goods, and was thinking muffins or scones. I had this Barley Four Scones recipe to start from and so I did.

I also went back to the original source of that recipe, Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce, for more ideas. In the book, the author states that rye flour goes well with fruits, especially apricots. That seemed like a good place to go for scones, so I added chopped dried apricots. On a whim, I replaced the caraway I usually put in with rye with anise seeds.

This whim had a big payoff! Well, that and following the advice of an expert. The anise and apricot are a brilliant match, and they only get better with the rye. The fruity flavor of the apricot with the gently nutty rye would be good enough, I think, but the surprisingly haunting lift and aroma from the anise is an especially warm and pleasing addition.

Whether I make more bread loaves (like this one or this one), or soda bread, or try out some cheddar-rye muffins I have in mind with the rest of the rye flour I purchased, I hope I’m smart enough to save some to make these delicious scones again. I surprised myself with how good they are. I hope something you make for yourself, especially on a whim, can make you this happy, too!

Rye Scones with Dried Apricot and Anise

You could make these scones a little bit thicker, or shape them differently cutting them into squares or using a cutter to make circles, or whatever you like. Keep in mind that a different size or thickness may require a change in baking time.

I used a food processor to make this dough, but you can certainly cut in the butter by hand and stir in the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.

1 cup rye flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon fine salt

1 teaspoon whole anise seed

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold

½ cup buttermilk

1 large egg

½ cup chopped dried apricots

Coarse sugar for coating, if desired

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. In the bowl of food processor, combine the rye flour, all-purpose flour, dark brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and anise seed. Pulse a few times to combine.

3. Cut the butter into small cubes. Add to the flour mixture. Pulse the food processor several times to mix in the butter until it is in pieces about the size of small peas, and well-coated with the flour mixture.

4. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and egg until well-combined. Pour into the flour mixture. Pulse several times until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Add the apricots and pulse just until the dough begins to come together in large clumps.

5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Pull and gently squeeze and knead the dough together to get a relatively smooth dough ball. Gently press the dough into a disk about ½ inch thick. Cut the disk into 8 equal triangles. Sprinkle each with coarse sugar if using.

6. Place the cut dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes, or until the scones are golden brown on the bottom, and appear dry on the outside. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 8 scones.

Other recipes like this one: Barley Flour Scones, Cherry Almond Scones, Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Scones, Caraway Rye Soda Bread

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Rye Soda Bread

I have come to the conclusion that I really need to make soda bread more often. Sure, I usually remember to make a loaf in March because of the whole “Irish Soda Bread” thing, but that’s not enough. A nice crunchy-crusted round loaf is such a big pay-off for the small investment of time and talent it requires. Perhaps it’s not a perfect sandwich bread, but there are more things to do with a nice loaf of bread than make sandwiches.

I recently made the Rye Soda Bread in Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson, one of my favorite blog and cookbook authors. I didn’t make mine quite as craggy and crunchy as the bread in the original recipe, but I did make a delightfully flavorful and extremely useful loaf. I ate it for breakfast alongside eggs, as a lovely accompaniment with this soup, and on its own, toasted and buttered with one of my many-cups-a-day of coffee.

This bread comes together like any soda bread recipe, more like a biscuit dough than a quick bread or yeast bread dough. It needs only a brief kneading, more to finish the mixing and to coax everything into place than to develop gluten. Slashing the loaf before baking not only gives it some room to expand as it bakes, but also creates some extra surface area for more crunchy crust.

I really like rye breads, so was excited to try this unyeasted loaf. I used a stone-ground rye flour, which is about all I can usually find. All this whole grain stuff does not make this bread crumbly, though. It’s soft, but firm enough to hold up as you slice through the crunchy crust. I added caraway seeds, which I also love, but they are not necessary if you do not like them. If you wanted to take this into a sweeter range, you may be able to add some currants or raisins, just like you might find in a white-flour version of soda bread.

 

I certainly hope to have more opportunity to make this delicious bread, especially since it’s getting difficult to fit as many yeasted loaves into my life as I would like. It’s so delicious with soups and even just all by itself. And I’m certain its whole grainy goodness is much healthier than the chocolate cake with ganache I hope to tell you about soon!

Caraway Rye Soda Bread

Adapted from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson

2 1/3 cups stone ground rye flour

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 ¾ teaspoon baking soda

1 ¼ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons caraway seeds

2 cups buttermilk

Additional flour for your kneading surface

Additional buttermilk for brushing the dough

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.

2. Combine the rye flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, caraway seeds, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together to combine well.

3. Pour in the buttermilk and stir together just until the dough comes together in a shaggy, moist ball. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface.

4. Knead the dough gently just long enough to be able to form it into a smooth ball. Place the ball of dough on the prepared baking sheet.

5. With a sharp knife, slash several deep cuts in the top of the ball of dough. Brush the dough all over with buttermilk.

6. Bake at 400 F for 45-55 minutes or until the bread has a dark, crunchy crust and is baked through (the bread will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom). Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 1 big round loaf that will last a few days. Leftovers are good lightly toasted.

Other recipes like this one: Soda Bread with Wild Rice and Cranberries, Caraway Rye Sandwich Bread, Rosemary Raisin Rye Bread, Beer and Onion Rye Bread

Basic Rye Sandwich Bread

Once each week, most weeks, anyway, I manage to bake a loaf of sandwich bread, usually this one. Once in a while, I’ll make a rye sandwich loaf instead. I’m quite a fan of rye bread, actually, and always have been. I have lovely memories of warm sandwiches made with rye toast and slices of cheddar cheese just getting soft from the residual heat from the toaster. That childhood rye was most likely store-bought (although my mom is a good baker). Now, I take a surprising amount of pleasure (and a small amount of pride, I must admit) in making my own rye bread, which I make with a somewhat coarse stone-ground rye flour and a flavorful dose of caraway seeds.

I’m sure I made rye bread years ago with a soft rye flour that was easy to acquire from any grocery store. I can’t seem to find such a thing anymore, but the stone-ground flour I can find (marketed by Hodgson Mill) is so fragrant and delicious, that I don’t really miss the more refined stuff. Rye flour is short of gluten compared to wheat flour and those bits of bran and other good stuff in the stone-ground flour can slice through strands of gluten as they form. For those reasons, I use a 1-to-2 ratio of rye flour to bread flour to give my sandwich bread the desirable texture and loft, and I add a tablespoon of vital gluten flour.

I find that it is easy to let this dough get too stiff and leaden so that the loaf ends up like a doorstop. To prevent this, I like to hold back enough flour to allow the dough to stay a little bit sticky and wet. It’s a little bit harder to handle and shape this way, but the dough rises nicely, given time, and makes a fairly soft loaf with a nice, brown and crisp crust.

This is a delicious bread suitable for just about any deli sandwich. I don’t find the caraway flavor to go quite as well with something like a peanut butter sandwich, but I do like slices of this bread toasted and spread with jam, or, even better, with a good ricotta cheese and jam. Of course, a just-beginning-to-melt slice of sharp cheddar is still rather good. And you can't go wrong with a nice swipe of butter. Not at all.

Caraway Rye Sandwich Bread

I like to use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer to mix and knead bread dough, but you can mix and knead the dough by hand if you prefer.

If you do not care for caraway, you could leave it out of this recipe.

1 cup warm water (100-110 F)

2 ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast (1 envelope)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon soft butter

1 cup rye flour

2 cups bread flour, divided

1 tablespoon vital gluten flour

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

1 teaspoon fine salt

1. Combine the water, yeast and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl if mixing and kneading your dough by hand). Let stand about 5 minutes or until the yeast is foamy.

2. Add the butter, rye flour, 1 cup bread flour, gluten and caraway seeds. Stir with the paddle attachment on low speed until a wet batter is formed. Cover the bowl with a towel and let stand 15-30 minutes.

3. After the batter has rested, it should have risen noticeably and appear slightly foamy. Sprinkle the salt over the dough. Add about half of the remaining bread flour. Using the dough hook knead the dough, adding as much of the remaining flour as possible while creating a slightly wet and sticky dough. Knead for a total of about 10 minutes. (I use setting #2 on my Kitchen Aid mixer to knead.) Alternatively, mix in some of the bread flour with a spoon and knead in the rest by hand.

4. Shape the kneaded dough into a smooth ball. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and place the dough ball in it. Spray the dough with more cooking spray and place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on top. Cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rise about 1 hour or until double in size.

5. Gently deflate the risen dough and form it into a new ball. Let stand about 5 minutes. Spray an 8-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Shape the dough into a loaf and place in the prepared loaf pan. Cover with a towel and let stand about 1 hour or until double in size.

6. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Bake the dough in the pan for 35 minutes or until the bread tests done (sounds hollow when tapped or reads about 200 F in the center on an instant-read thermometer). Remove the bread from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes a 1 ½ pound loaf.

Other recipes like this one: Beer and Onion Rye Bread, Dark Rye Bread, Wheat Sandwich Bread

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