Once you have a pot of soup simmering on the stove, the only thing you need to make it a meal is a nice chunk of warm bread. (Ok, a salad is nice too, but it’s not essential.) I often make soda breads when I’m planning dinner on the fly because they require no rising time. You can just mix one up and tuck it into the oven while you go about your cooking, and it will be waiting on the table when the rest of your meal is done.
These mini soda breads bake even more quickly, although they take a few moments longer to shape than a single loaf. But the reward is a high proportion of crusty surface, begging to be broken up and slathered with butter or dunked into a steaming bowl of soup.
Mini Whole Wheat Soda Breads: In a large bowl, combine 2 c. whole wheat flour, 2 c. all purpose flour, 1 heaping tsp. salt, and 1 heaping tsp. baking soda. Mix well. Make a well in the center and add 2 c. buttermilk, stir to combine. Turn out onto a floured countertop. The dough will be shaggy, but you should be able to form it into a rough ball by kneading it just a few times (don’t knead for more than a minute). Cut the dough into 10 wedges and shape each into a rough ball, using additional flour if necessary. Place rounds on a floured cookie sheet, cut a deep cross in each, and brush with buttermilk if desired. (Brushing with buttermilk will smooth the surface out and make the rolls more refined-looking, but I personally like the craggy surface that I get without additional buttermilk.) Bake about 35 mins. at 400, or until the tops and bottoms of the rolls are crisp when tapped with a fingernail.
Looking for a soup to dunk these in? A few recent favorites:
The Best Soup of 2011
Silky 5-Ingredient Cauliflower Soup
Split Pea Soup
Roasted Maple Squash Soup
White Bean and Spinach Soup
The Best Red Lentil Soup of 2012
Cauliflower and Cheddar Soup
Emmy Cooks 
These looks so good and perfect for soup, like you said. Did I read your post right and there is no rising time? Love that! I’m a little impatient and the rising for me always means I’ve got to stay close and do other things while I wait.
Thanks so much for sharing…I’m bookmarking your post so I can make these for my family!
Allison
You are right that there’s no rising time, and if fact you want to get these into the oven fairly quickly to let the baking soda do its magic as the bread is baking. Quick and easy!
I just sent this on to The Matriarch, she will love this! c
Excellent! And hopefully she’ll make some for you…. :)
I agree that hot soup and warm bread are a perfect pairing! I’m always on the lookout for simple bread recipes, and I’m going to put this one on my ‘recipes to try’ list.
Do you have other simple bread recipes you like? I’d love to know about them! I make soda breads and the “easy little bread” from 101 cookbooks when I want a bread quickly–and I am also making the sweet whole wheat quick bread with walnuts and orange zest quite often!
Spree at the blog Cooking Spree has an artisan-style white loaf that requires no kneading. I’ve made it at least half a dozen times in the last couple of months. It’s very easy … you just have to start it the night before. Kneading is a challenge for me as I’ve injured my wrists, and I find that bread from a bread machine just isn’t the same, so this recipe was a great find for me. I’d like to try it with some WW flour sometime to see if I can up the healthy factor a bit.
Sounds delicious!
Thanks, enjoy!