Whole Wheat Soda Bread

When you don’t have time to make a yeast bread why not try a soda bread. They are easy to make, hearty and quite nice with soups and stews.

Ingredients

1 cup unbleached flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teas baking powder
1 teas baking soda
1/2 teas salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 tbls butter, melted

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease a small cookie sheet.
In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients and mix well.
Add buttermilk, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Turn out on a well floured surface. Knead gently until smooth, about 1 minute.
Shape dough into a ball. Place on the cookie sheet and flatten into a 7″-8″ circle (dough should be about 1 1/2″ thick). Make an X using a large floured knife cutting almost through to the bottom.
Bake 35-45 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
Remove to a wire rack. Brush the top with butter. Cool and enjoy.

Most times I do not have buttermilk in the fridge but I have made this with yogurt thinned with a bit of water. I have also used 50% canned milk 50% water soured with vinegar or lemon. Fresh milk soured with vinegar or lemon would also do in a pinch.