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

Carrot Cake

Luckily, carrots are delicious, since, as I mentioned in the previous post, I have a lot of carrots. They’re delicious and really, really useful. Utilitarian, even. But for some unfathomable reason, I can’t remember that I’ve ever made a carrot cake. Not in this year of beautiful carrots nor any other day, month, or year. What the heck is wrong with me?

I’m happy to say that at least some problems are easy to fix. I did eventually make carrot cake. While I didn’t go for a fancy, double layer beauty, I happily stirred together a sheet cake, or perhaps I’d call it a snack cake, since it was in a 13 x 9-inch pan rather than a sheet pan. Armed with trusty resources, I wasn’t even worried that this wouldn’t be good, and I wasn’t disappointed. 

There were two recipes for frosted, single layer carrot cake printed side by side in Pillsbury: The Complete Book of Baking, one with a coconut frosting that I knew my husband wouldn’t eat, and one that was lightened up to such a level that it even called for a cholesterol-free product instead of whole eggs. I sort of combined the two, picking the lower oil level of the lighter cake as well as it’s cream cheese frosting (well, a similar frosting, anyway), and leaving in the eggs and the nuts from the other version.

This is a delicious carrot cake, perhaps more traditional than innovative. There is probably room for some variation, though, if you want to change things up. I love this the way it is, moist and durable, loaded with quite a few healthy things despite it’s unflinching dessert quality. Cake is a great place to put carrots, but I also like all of the other accompaniments in this recipe, the pineapple bits giving a burst of fruit to every bite, sweet raisins, and nuts.

Of course, the cream cheese frosting makes it all even better. I’d eat that stuff on a stick. 

 

Carrot Snack Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from Pillsbury: The Complete Book of Baking

For the cake:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup canola oil (or other neutral tasting oil)

2 eggs

8 ounces crushed pineapple, undrained

2 cups shredded carrots

½ cup raisins

½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

For the frosting:

3 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray or grease it as you like. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Whisk together to combine well. Set aside.

3. In a medium-size bowl, combine the sugar, oil and egg. Wisk together until very smooth and fluffy. Stir in the pineapple and vanilla.

4. Pour the sugar mixture into the flour mixture and mix well. Stir in the carrots, raisins, and walnuts or pecans.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake at 350 F for 35-40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with just a few wet crumbs attached, no wet batter.

6. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.

7. To make the frosting, combine the butter and cream cheese in a medium-size bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer until very smooth. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla. Continue beating until very smooth. Spread over the cooled cake.

Makes about 16 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, Zucchini Multigrain Coffee Cake, Beet and Orange Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Curry Carrot Soup

My winter CSA subscription has had my kitchen looking like Bugs Bunny’s Apocalypse bunker. There are so many carrots! But they’re absolutely fabulous carrots, wonderfully sweet, super fresh, consistently the best carrots I’ve ever had. It’s been a pleasure to collect them, really.

Back in January on a deep, dark, very cold evening, I invited friends for an informal gathering, complete with soup, biscuits, cookies (a version of these and some of these, unfrosted), and a viewing of a particularly stunning Rifftrax episode. I made gigantic batches of a basic vegetable soup and this delightfully orange, thick and creamy Curry Carrot Soup. To my very pleasant surprise, the Curry Carrot Soup was gigantic hit, and it disappeared rather quickly.

Since I followed my usual habit of just “throwing something together” without writing anything down, I had to try to piece together what I did later, and I think I came pretty close. I also put a few twists into the official recipe that were things I had meant to do, but couldn’t, like squeeze in some lime juice (I used a lemon originally, because it was all I had) and add more spice (I wasn’t sure what my guests would like.)

This soup is actually rather simple in construction, and really is mostly made of carrots. It is quite thick and very smooth and creamy if you blend it well, and you could adjust the consistency with more broth or water. It is vegetarian as it is, but you could use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth if you like. You could also increase the oil and omit the butter, and replace the cream with coconut milk or leave it out to make it vegan. I love the warm, earthy spice of lots of curry powder in this, but if you have a favorite homemade spice blend, so much the better. The seasonings and spice level can be adjusted to taste.

I had the absolute honor and pleasure of making several people happy with a big batch of this soup, and they will never know that this creation was inspired by a need to clean up a huge bunch of carrots. Oops, I guess the cat is out of the bag now. Or the carrots. The many, many carrots.

Curry Carrot Soup

Adjust the seasonings to your personal taste, or make this vegan by leaving out the cream and butter. You could replace the cream with coconut milk.

This recipe can be doubled. Just make sure you have a large enough pot to cook it in.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

2 teaspoons coarse salt

3 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons curry powder

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

4 cups vegetable broth or water

Juice of 1 lime

½ cup heavy cream or half and half

Sour cream or plain yogurt for serving, optional

1. Combine the butter and olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Heat over medium heat until butter is melted.

2. Add the onion, celery, and salt and saute about 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent, but not yet browning. Stir in the carrots, curry powder and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook and stir 8-10 minutes, or until the carrots are beginning to get softer around the edges.

3. Pour in the water or broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and cook at a low boil for 30-40 minutes, or until the carrots are very soft.

4. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. In batches, carefully transfer the mixture to a blender. Blend until very smooth. Return the pureed mixture to the pot on the stove.

5. Reheat the soup gently over low heat. Stir in the lime juice and heavy cream. Taste the soup for seasoning, especially for salt and curry, and adjust as desired. Serve with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt if desired.

Makes 6-8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Cream of Carrot and Parsnip Soup, Creamy White Onion Soup, Spicy Carrot and Apple Soup with Coconut Milk, Creamy Cabbage and Potato Soup, Potato and Garlic Scape Soup with Chives

Coming soon: Carrot Cake and Rye Soda Bread