|
|
|
Rye Bread |
Rye bread is much darker than normal white bread or wholemeal.
Rye flour is wheat free and naturally low in gluten, which can make it easier to digest for some people.
It produces a denser bread than normal wheat flour and it has much more flavour. You may well have tried it in mainland European or Skandinavian breads.
In this rye bread recipe, we've combined it with white flour, to make the bread slightly less sticky.
It's a really delicious loaf and rarely lasts more than 2 days in our house. It's about the only thing I can get my toddler to eat, if he's teething!
Home-made bread might seem like a chore, but if you make a few loaves at a time, you can cut down to baking it just once a week. With practice, it takes less than 10 minutes to get the dough mixed and rising. Not bad! And we've included a "bread machine cheat" option in the recipe, to save effort.
And it's much healthier than many of the shop bought breads, as it doesn't contain preservatives, flour improvers or other additives. Read Not On The Label to find out why you should care about this...
|
 |
Ingredients |
Makes 2 x 1 lb loaves
Note: You'll need a good set of scales, to make this well.
9g dried yeast
9g sugar
1 tbsp natural yoghurt (as fresh as possible)
350g rye flour
650g strong white flour
2g salt
500ml warm water |
|
| |
Method - Bread Machine (optional), Then Oven |
- Bread Machine Method:
- Put the yeast, sugar and yoghurt into the bread machine
- Then add the flours and finally the water and the salt
Note: each brand of flour is different, so you may need to experiment with the water quantity over the first few batches
- Run the bread machine on the "white bread dough" programme
Hand Kneading Method:
- Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl
- Add most of the water, making sure it is warm (about 1 part hot to 2 parts cold water)
- Mix until a rough dough is formed
- Empty onto a floured surface and begin to knead the bread. If it's too sticky, add a little more flour. If it's too dry, add a few teaspoons of water.
- Knead for 7-8 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.
- Put back into the mixing bowl and cover with a damp, clean tea towel.
- Leave for 1 to 1 1/2 hours to rise, until doubled in size.
- When the bread machine is finished, or your hand made dough has doubled in size, empty the dough onto a floured surface. Cut into 2 pieces and knead each piece for about a minute.
- Flour or grease two 1 lb loaf tins. Shape each piece of dough to fit a tin and put it in. Leave it to rise for up to half an hour.
- Bake at 200 C (pre-heated oven) for 40-45 minutes.
You can test whether the bread is ready by tipping it out of the tin and knocking on the bottom. If it sounds hollow, it's ready. If not, give it another 5 minutes.
- Remove from the tins and leave to cool.
|
| |
Time From Cupboard-To-Table |
About 3 hours (allowing for bread-maker dough programme and then oven cooking)
2 hours if making by hand.
Actual preparation time is about 10 minutes plus 5 minutes. |
| |
Notes & Variations |
If you prefer a larger loaf, you can use a 2lb loaf tin. Cook for 50 minutes at 180 C.
This bread will only keep for 2-3 days, because it doesn't contain any preservatives. So we usually "eat one, freeze one".
Slicing the loaf before freezing makes things easier later in the week!
If you want a lighter-textured load, add 1/2 teaspoon of Vitamin C powder (from a health food shop) to the other dry ingredients. This helps the bread rise better. |
| |
Rate It! |
Have you tried this recipe? Tell us what you think of it.
|
|
| |
Find more recipes |
|
| |
|
