rye soda bread

The easiest and quickest bread I've ever made. And on top of that, it's healthy and delicious. At the first try, my kids were skeptical. I think it was because they were not used to rye flour (which has a strong taste) and also because they ate it when it was still warm. You should wait until the bread cools down completely before eating it. The second time, they loved it. And so do I, needless to say...

rye soda bread

(supernatural every day, p.96, by heidi swanson)

2 1/3 cups rye flour

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (+more for dusting and kneading)

1 3/4 ts baking soda

1 1/4 ts fine-grain sea salt

2 cups buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 400F with a rack in the middle of the oven

2. Sift the flours. baking soda, and salt into a large bowl.

3. Make a well in the flour and pour in the buttermilk. Stir just until everything comes together into a dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured countertop and knead for 30 sec or so, just long enough for the dough to come together into a cohesive, slightly flattened ball without many cracks or fissures.

4. Lightly flour a baking sheet and place the ball of dough on the flour. Brush all over the top and sides with buttermilk and sprinkle generously with flour, 2 tbs or so.

5. Slice 4 deep slashes across the top of the dough, 2/3 the way through the loaf, as if you were slicing a pie into 8 edges, just be careful not to slice all the way through.

6. Bake for about 30 min, then quickly (without letting all the hot hair our of the oven), move the rack and the bread up a level, so the top of the bread gets nice and toasted. Bake for another 20 minutes, or until a hard crust forms and the bread is baked through. It will feel very solid and sound hollow when you knock on its base. 

table.etc: I bake my bread for 40 minutes (instead of 30 min) and skip the second part.

7. Cool on a wire rack.