Oat Soda Bread Recipe
A rustic oat soda bread you can make in less than an hour. Seriously. Made from a simple ingredient list of rolled oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk.
I love making soda bread. Homemade bread slathered with butter in less than an hour? Hard to beat. There are a million directions you can take soda breads, but the rye version I bake is a long-running favorite. I've never posted it here, but I include it in Super Natural Every Day. So, here's where things start to get interesting. One of the things I love about the internet is the ping-pong culture of ideas. Here's an example. Ten Speed sent out advance copies of the book to a number of food writers/editors a few weeks back. One of them was Jennifer Perillo. I follow Jennifer on Twitter. And last week she mentioned baking an oat soda bread based on the soda bread recipe in my book. Her bread looked beautiful. It's like I threw out a polka-dotted boomerang, and it came back to me plaid. So I decided to bake oat soda bread, based on Jennifer's version, adding a few twists of my own.
I'm not sure why I've never done an oat-centric soda bread, but the minute I saw Jennifer's it made perfect sense. The ingredient list is impossibly short: rolled oats, flour, buttermilk, baking soda, and salt - and some seeds if you like. I normally bake soda breads free-form, but I decided to try this one in a loaf pan. As I was making it, Wayne finished off a container of crackers, the only thing left was a couple of tablespoons of seeds, so I sprinkled those across the top of the bread, just before baking, to give it a crunchy crust.
The bread bakes up fragrant and a touch sweet from the oats. It is fantastic sliced and toasted along with a bowl of soup. Or slathered with jam and butter. Or with a creamy cheese and a sprinkling of herbs. I know I say it nearly every time I post a recipe like this, if you've never baked bread before, give it a go. Or if this doesn't look up your alley, you might find some ideas on Michael Ruhlman's blog right now. It's a great time of year for bread baking. Thanks again for the inspiration Jennifer :).
Premium Ad-Free membership includes:
-Ad-free content
-Print-friendly recipes
-Spice / Herb / Flower / Zest recipe collection PDF
-Weeknight Express recipe collection PDF
-Surprise bonuses throughout the year
Oat Soda Bread Recipe
I'm more likely to have rolled oats on hand than oat flour. So, like Jennifer, I instruct you to make your own oat flour below. But you can skip that step if you actually have oat flour in your pantry. As far as storage goes, loosely wrapped in parchment paper, this bread is great for a couple days.
butter, to grease pan
2 cups / 7 oz rolled oats10 ounces / 285 g / ~2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting and kneading
1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons fine-grain sea salt1 3/4 cups / 415 ml buttermilk, plus more if needed, and 2T. for brushing
mixed seeds - sesame, caraway, poppy, etc.
Preheat the oven to 400°F / 205°C with a rack in the middle of the oven. Butter and line a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan (or one with ~8 cup capacity) with parchment paper and set aside. Alternately, you can bake this bread without a pan, shaped like this, on a lightly floured baking sheet.
To make the oat flour, use a food processor to pulse the rolled oats a few times. Then process into a fine powder - another minute or two. If you are buying oat flour, not making your own, measure out 7 oz / scant 2 cups.
Sift the flours, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. 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 seconds or so, just long enough for the dough to come together into a cohesive, slightly flattened ball without many cracks or fissures. If your dough is on the dry side, add more buttermilk a small splash at a time. Now ease the dough evenly into the prepared baking pan - see photo if you need a bit of guidance.
Brush all over the top and sides with buttermilk and sprinkle generously with mixed seeds or flour, 2 tablespoons or so. Slice a few deep slashes across the top of the dough. Bake for about 30 minutes, then quickly (without letting all the hot air out 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 it. Carefully lift it out of the pan, in a timely fashion, and allow to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy with a good slathering of salted butter.
Makes one loaf.
Prep time: 10 minutes - Cook time: 50 minutes
Comments are closed.
Apologies, comments are closed.
Comments
Soda bread is one of my favorites; always turns out delicious, doesn't it? I love your version, Heidi....have a great night!
I love making soda bread, it's so easy! This sounds like a fantastic version.
I LOVE soda bread, but have been using the same recipe forever. This looks like the perfect chance to change it up, thanks!
So simple and delish. There is nothing like fresh warm homemade bread. The healthy oat flour balances out the butter I slather on, right?
I can almost smell it baking right now!
Can you make this bread with finely ground whole wheat flour? I don't usually have all-purpose flour at home, but I do have the other stuff. Does anything change if I change the flour?
I'm so happy that you posted this bread recipe. It seems like bread baking is a dying habit.
...and I was just wondering what to do with some leftover buttermilk in my fridge! yum, this is happening tonight...
I can't wait to try this recipe! I absolutely love bread, but I don't have the patience or the skills to bake yeast recipes! I've been baking beer bread but I'm ready to move onto soda bread!
I have this in the oven right now... had a big jar of gorgeous homemade cultured buttermilk to use up and this fit the bill perfectly! (see foodiewithfamily.com to make this amazing buttermilk!) My son helped sift and stir and knead... can not wait to try it! And looking forward to your new book!
That looks very good! We will make that for shore!
I've wondered this before when you mentioned your favorite crackers...what kind are they? Those seeds look like the generous leavings of the Dr. Kracker ones that we buy -- which I usually mop up with a licked finger when the package empties out. Thanks!
This looks so good. I look forward to making it. I do make my own oat flour. I don't often have white flour in my pantry. I am going to give this a whirl with white whole wheat flour. I hope it works as well.
Heidi, I love the look of this. Is there a way to turn this into a vegan recipe (e.g., any substitutions for the buttermilk)?
I had a lovely soda bread (bought) at a friends dinner before Christmas and have been thinking about it ever since but not been game enough to make one. Until now!!! A quick question - would I need to change the cooking time or temp if using baking in silicone?
This looks great! Would love to make it this afternoon. However ... I'm all out of oats. Do you think ground organic Kumat flakes would work in it's place??
This oat soda bread sounds truly amazing! Probably going to give it a try this weekend for the football games.
Well that looks easy enough, and delicious! I love the internet for sharing ideas, riffing on recipes and pretty much declaring that everyone has the ability and the right to cook for themselves!
I keep dried buttermilk in my fridge, and reconstitute it as needed. It is a terrific item, lasts awhile, and allows you to make delicious things, like this bread, just about anytime, without running to the store for buttermilk!
This looks really nice and wintery. I can't wait to try it. I just love you're site. I just pre-ordered your new book the other day and I can't tell you how excited I am! Thanks!
Comments are closed.
Apologies, comments are closed.