Flour, salt, baking soda, buttermilk. Blend, then turn out on a floured board and give it a few quick kneads. Pat it into a disk, put on a buttered pie plate and bake until golden.
The dough was extremely soft and sticky, in spite of adding a bit of flour during the short kneading process. Patting the disk down resulted in mini peaks where the dough followed my hand as I pulled it away. This wasn't going to be the prettiest loaf of bread. In spite of its looks, it rose well during baking, developing a nice, evenly brown crust.
We ended up cutting the bread while it was still a bit warm, as both my dinner guest and I were starving. The crust had a bit of give to it, making it difficult to get thin slices. The crumb was dense and even, moister than I expected. Overall, it was the perfect bread to sop up the juices from the tomato-based stew that was dinner. On its own, the faint sourdough type flavor was pleasing and not overpowering.
To my surprise, and to the contrary of much of what I've read about the bread, it didn't dry out within hours of baking. We cut the entire loaf, storing the leftovers in a plastic bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. The slices were still moist enough to butter and eat the next day.
All in all, if I don't have the four hours it takes for frozen yeast rolls to rise (and what is up with that, Rhodes?), this is a great go-to bread for soups and stews.
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