Oatmeal Rye Irish Soda Bread with Herbs

Pulled this recipe from my local paper. Not sure where they got it from since there is no attribution on the recipe. Wherever it came from: kudos! It's delicious and for a great bonus, it's 100% whole grain. I made it for St. Patty's Day to go with the corned beef and cabbage, but this is so good, you want to make it year round. I know I will.

Oatmeal Rye Irish Soda Bread with Fresh Herbs and Walnuts
(serves 12)

cooking spray
2 ½ cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 cup Rolled Oats
1 cup Rye Flour
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda (see Note)
1 cup Chopped Toasted Walnuts
2-3 Tablespoons Fresh Chopped Thyme
2-3 Tablespoons Fresh Chopped Chives
6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted
1 large Egg
1 ⅔ cups Buttermilk, or plain yogurt (not Greek)

Heat oven to 400°F. Coat a 9x9" baking pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together flours, oats, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Mix in melted butter, stirring until small lumps form and butter has been evenly distributed. Stir in walnuts, chives, and thyme. 

In a small bowl, whisk together egg and buttermilk. Pour into flour mixture. Stir until all the flour is moistened. Do not over mix. 

Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick at center comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes before turning out of pan.

Serve with butter or plain. It's that good. 

Note: I don't know if the paper adjusted the original recipe for our 5400 ft. altitude.  I used the recipe as written with 1 teaspoon baking soda and it worked fine. It's a fairly dense bread, so you might want to bump up the baking soda to 1 ½ teaspoons if you live at sea level.