This Pumpkin Seed and Rye Soda Bread is ready in just 40 minutes and requires no kneading or proving – hooray!! Perfect for when you want the deliciousness of homemade bread, but haven’t got much time.
I really enjoyed watching the Great British Bake Off this year: fabulous recipes and brilliant inspiration. One of the things I was most inspired by was the week when the contestants made soda bread. I love the idea of a loaf of bread that can be made in under an hour – that’s my kind of bread! I was also tremendously inspired by the sheer number of different and exciting flavour combinations the contestants put into their breads: there was Dorret’s Walnut and Stilton Bread, Alvin’s Prosciutto and Manchego Bread and even a Chocolate Bread!
I really wanted to make my own soda bread and had a good think about all the possible flavour combinations I thought might work: I wanted to make it simple to make, but super tasty. I decided on a 50/50 mix of plain white and rye flour with added flavour and crunch from a few pumpkin seeds. I tested it on the family and, amazingly, it worked first time round. My little boy couldn’t get enough of it! In fact, he the hoovered up all the leftover pumpkin seeds too! My daughter however picked out all the pumpkin seeds…but hey managing to please one out of two children ain’t bad!
I made it again for the photographs and it worked like a treat the second time too. It is such a straightforward recipe. If you follow the instructions below, I really can’t see how you could go wrong. It’s super quick to make too. It only takes 40 minutes from start to finish and only 10 minutes of that is hands-on time. There’s no kneading or proving to do at all, you just mix together the ingredients, shape into a loaf and bake – easy peasy!
I used Doves Farm Wholemeal Rye Flour, but if you don’t fancy (or can’t get hold of any) rye flour, this works fine with half wholemeal and half plain flour (and I’m pretty confident it would work with 100% white flour too). If you don’t like (or haven’t got) pumpkin seeds then substitute with any other nut or seed you love or just leave them out completely.
This bread would go brilliantly with my Sweet Potato and Red Lentil Soup or my Creamy Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup, but I made this bread specifically to go with my Butternut Squash, Chilli and Coconut Milk Soup, which I will be posting on the blog tomorrow! Alternatively you could serve this bread up with a board of cheese, cold meats and olives for a rather scrumptious picnic tea.
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Pumpkin Seed and Rye Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 175 g plain white flour plus a little extra for dusting your baking tray
- 175 g rye flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 25 g pumpkin seeds plus extra for decoration
- 285 ml buttermilk (see notes)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 220C/200C fan/gas mark 7/425F . Dust a baking tray (I actually use a pizza tray) with a little plain flour.
- Mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly. Tip in the buttermilk and stir to combine.
- Keep stirring until the ingredients come together as a dough, then squidge together to form a ball.
- Place the ball of dough on your baking tray and cut a deep cross in the centre. This is really important as it helps the centre of the bread to cook properly – so cut nice and deep, almost to the bottom.
- Decorate the loaf with a few extra pumpkin seeds and place the loaf in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- Serve with soup or cheese, olives and cold meats.
Notes
- Instead of buttermilk you can use 200ml / 7oz regular milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar stirred in to sour it. Alternatively you can use a 50/50 mixture of yogurt and milk.
- You can make this recipe dairy free / vegan by using dairy free milk instead of regular milk, plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice, apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar.
- Baking soda is the same as bicarbonate of soda, however it is not the same as baking powder. Make sure you use baking soda/bicarbonate of soda in this recipe. Baking powder will not give the same result!
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Charlotte Oates says
I haven’t made soda bread in ages, seeing this has made me want to get up and make some (although it’s 11pm so I probably shouldn’t start now). I suspect that my boys would pick out the seeds as well, they’re OK with “bits” if they’re chopped quite small but they get fussy if they’re whole.
Eb Gargano says
I’m pretty lucky with my two: usually they are willing to try everything I make – even the slightly offbeat things I do sometimes! But quite often the bits get picked out – especially if it’s olives or sun-dried tomatoes!! Sometimes I strike it lucky, though – like with my little boy and the pumpkin seeds – and they’ve both gone a bit mad for pecan nuts and brown rice lately!! Thanks for commenting! x
Honest mum says
Soda bread is my number 1 bread ever and this looks DIVINE! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays x
Eb Gargano says
Aw, thanks Vicki! Soda bread is so great, isn’t it? Love how quickly it can be made and how easy it is! Thanks for hosting. x
Alison says
I love soda bread, one of the first breads I leant to make. Love the combination you used
Eb Gargano says
Thanks, Alison! I’ve been making bread since I was about 3 – taught by my mum – but for some reason I had never made soda bread before!?! I will definitely be making more though. I love how easy it is and super tasty! Eb x
Kirsty Hijacked By Twins says
Mmm delicious! I love homemade bread and I love how easy soda bread is to make. Last week I successfully made a gluten free soda bread which I am over the moon with. Thank you for sharing with #CookBlogShare x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks, Kirsty. I know it’s just so easy, isn’t it? Well done on your gluten free soda bread. I’ve just popped over to your blog to take a look at it – looks delicious! Eb x
Cat | Curly's Cooking says
This looks so tasty and as you said it would be delicious with soup x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Cat! It’s so perfect with soup 🙂 Eb x
Corina Blum says
It sounds fantastic! I love homemade soda bread with soup. In fact, I really need to make it more often. Thanks so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice x
Eb Gargano says
Thanks Corina 🙂 Homemade bread with homemade soup really is the best combination and with soda bread you can have both done in well under an hour – yay! 😀 Eb x
angie says
I plan to keep this recipe around for a bit as we will all want soda bread in a month or so thanks for sharing
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Eb Gargano says
Thanks Angie – so pleased you like it 🙂 Eb x