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

Minne-soda Bread

Bakers all over the blogosphere are making Irish Soda Bread in anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day. Soda bread, which is much like a giant biscuit, is a good choice for this holiday, since it has the word Irish in the title, but it also has a more universal appeal than some other dishes for this holiday. It’s pretty quick and easy, tastes good, is non-alcoholic, and doesn’t involve corning beef.

I remember really liking the soda bread I made ages ago from my Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (which is now getting kind of old), but I don’t think I ever made it again, not even for St. Patrick’s Day. Maybe it was because I don’t really know that much about being Irish or the connections of soda bread to being Irish. Sure, I’ve read Frank McCourt, but I don’t think his memoirs touched the least bit on soda bread. Anyway, it was time for me to jump on the blogosphere bandwagon (blogowagon?) and get back to soda bread. I still don’t know much about being Irish, but I now know a little about being Minnesotan, so I made my soda bread with a little Minnesota spin. A Minne-soda bread, if you will.

And a quintessential Minnesota ingredient is wild rice, so I put some in my bread in the form of cooked wild rice grains and wild rice flour. It may be difficult to find wild rice flour, which is just ground wild rice, much the way wheat flour is ground wheat grains. It is also somewhat expensive, so if you don’t think the quest for it is worth your time and money, you can replace it with more whole wheat pastry flour. I was lucky enough to find my wild rice flour locally. (It came from this place, although, as I am writing this it seems to be out of stock.) If you like wild rice and are a little adventurous in the kitchen, I recommend trying to get some.

The flour adds the wonderful grainy, grassy, slightly tea-like taste of wild rice to the whole loaf. Since it is gluten free, however, it needs the wheat flours (I used both all-purpose and whole wheat pastry flour here) to make a biscuit-like quick bread that holds together. It is still slightly dense and just a little crumbly, but that is the nature of whole grain baking, and I’ve come to love that nature. I think you could probably add wild rice flour to a gluten-free mix if you like the flavor and I’ve been thinking of adding it to the multigrain flour mix I like to use (from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce).

The cooked wild rice gives the soda bread even more flavor and a pleasant texture. When the loaf is fresh, the wild rice grains are lightly crispy, which was a nice surprise. As the loaf softens upon standing, the grains also soften to a chewier texture. The dried cranberries, which could have come from Minnesota, but more likely came from just over the river in Wisconsin, add their delicious, fruity sweet-tartness and chewiness. This soda bread is not sweet, since the only added sugar is that which went in to sweetening the dried cranberries. I loved it this way because the taste and aroma of the whole grains is wonderful, but I’m thinking a sweetened version might have to include some Minnesota maple syrup. I stirred some of that very syrup into some softened butter and spread it on my Minne-soda bread to test the theory, and it was quite fantastic.

Folks may think of Minnesota as a place where mostly people from Scandinavia and Finland settled, but if I understand it correctly, the Irish had the idea before they did. And of course, the Native Americans, had the idea first, as well as the idea to harvest the wonderful wild rice, or Mahnomin, so perhaps this recipe is a combination of ideas. No, it doesn’t make up for the errors of the past, but it does make up a mighty fine soda bread. A Minne-soda bread.


Soda Bread with Wild Rice and Cranberries
Based on an Irish Soda Bread recipe from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 1989 edition.

You can use more whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour instead of the wild rice flour.

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup wild rice flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup cooked wild rice
½ cup sweetened dried cranberries (Craisins)
1 egg
¾ cup buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper or by greasing it with oil or cooking spray.

2. In a medium-size bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, wild rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir together with a whisk to mix well. Stir in the wild rice and cranberries.

3. Lightly beat the egg in another bowl. Whisk in the buttermilk until well combined.

4. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir together until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Gently knead the mixture in the bowl to form a rough ball and ensure all the dry ingredients are moistened.

5. Shape the dough into a slightly flattened ball, about 6 inches in diameter. Place the loaf on the prepared baking sheet. Cut a cross-shape into the top of the loaf about ¼- ½ inch deep. Bake at 375 F for about 35 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12-16 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Grandmama’s Buttermilk Biscuits, Cranberry Walnut Cornbread

Two years ago: Beef and Guinness Pot Pie