The Great British Bake Off is one my favorite shows, inspiring new bakes, new flavors, and new techniques! Join me on my journey to bake through all the Season 8 Challenges.
Total Cooking Time: 1 hour and 5 minutes
The Great British Bake Off is a classic show for bakers and those looking for a friendly competition. All the bakes on the show look delicious and I often want to try baking them myself! I finally got off the couch and into the kitchen to recreate some of the recipes from Bake Off! I chose to start with season eight of Bake Off as it is my favorite season and the one with some of my favorite challenges!
This is it! I finally made it to the finale! This has been a long and tiring journey and I feel so close to the ending. But to drag it out a little further, I’m going to do something a little different for this signature challenge. The original signature challenge was to make four loaves of three different types of bread. One loaf needed to be shaped and one loaf needed to use an alternative flour
While I didn’t want to stray away from the challenge, I did split the three recipes into three different posts. And this is the final post of the three! It’s time for the Rye Soda Bread! I wanted to give myself a bit of a challenge by making a bread that did not require yeast. On the plus side, I didn’t have to wait for the dough to rise. On the negative side, I don’t have the yeast to make sure the texture of the bread is right!
Check out the Season 8 Great British Bake Off Page to see other bakes from the series or the Make section for more recipes!
Ingredients
Since this is a soda bread, I went off the normal bread script when it comes to the ingredients. I used rye flour as well as some all-purpose flour and a bit of salt. The two ingredients that make this recipe a classic soda bread is the baking soda and the buttermilk!
Process
01
Making the dough
Making the dough for a soda bread felt a lot quicker than making the other two loaves. Mainly because I wasn’t waiting for the dough to rise. I whisked together all of the dry ingredients before pouring in the buttermilk. The buttermilk is the only “wet” ingredient going into the bread so now it’s time to knead!
This type of bread doesn’t require much kneading. Just enough to bring the ingredients together! I kneaded for about one to two minutes because I can’t help myself. I really like kneading bread; it just feels so good. Once the kneading was done, it’s time to start getting this bread into shape.
02
creating a shape
Making the dough for a soda bread felt a lot quicker than making the other two loaves. Mainly because I wasn’t waiting for the dough to rise. I whisked together all of the dry ingredients before pouring in the buttermilk. The buttermilk is the only “wet” ingredient going into the bread so now it’s time to knead!
This type of bread doesn’t require much kneading. Just enough to bring the ingredients together! I kneaded for about one to two minutes because I can’t help myself. I really like kneading bread; it just feels so good. Once the kneading was done, it’s time to start getting this bread into shape.
03
baking
The loaves took about thirty minutes to bake. I baked them on a sheet tray for about 30 minutes until they sounded hollow when tapped on the bottom. One of the biggest disadvantageous from Rye is the color starts out dark. Which makes it very difficult to detect when the bread has fully cooked based off of color alone.
After the bread it’s finished baking, allow it some time to cool before enjoying!
Reflections
This bread has become my absolutely favorite. While it does have a denser texture than I typically enjoy, the flavor of the rye is amazing. It’s dark and earthy and nutty. All the goodness that I want wrapped up into a perfect little loaf.
Am I ready for bake-off? While this bread is on the simpler side of the spectrum, it is still delicious. I honestly find the taste irresistible because there is not extra glitter or polish. Just, plain, simple, good bread. I think it would be appreciated for its simplicity.
Lessons
What is a Soda Bread?
Soda Bread is a type of quick Bread. These breads do not use yeast but instead have sodium bicarbonate as the leavening agent. In order to get a proper activation and rise from the sodium bicarb, buttermilk is often used to create the gas that makes the bread texture and structure.
recipe
Rye Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 2 ⅓ Cup Rye Flour
- 1 ¾ Cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1 ¾ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 ¼ Teaspoon Salt
- 2 Cup Buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
- In a large bowl, mix the rye flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt together
- Make a well in the center of the dry mixtures and pour in the buttermilk.
- Stir until a dough combines. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for approximately 1 minute to bring the dough together.
- Divide dough into four even pieces. Shape each piece into a circular disc. Using a sharp knife, create an x cut across the top of each disc.
- Bake for 30 minutes on the lower rack(should be close to the middle of the oven). Then move the dough from the bottom rack to the top rack and bake for another 20 minutes.
- Let cool before serving.
- Enjoy!!