Rye bread is a delicious and dense bread and it has a lovely nutty and deep flavour. It is similar to a normal loaf of bread but instead it is made with rye flour. This means that rye bread is full of fibre. However this also makes it a little trickier to handle because rye flour contains less gluten than other flours and it is also wheat free. This also means that the bread has a lovely dark brown colour.
I decided to make this bread over Christmas because the flavour of the bread goes great with smoked fish and we always end up having lots of smoked salmon around Christmas!
My recipe is as follows;
500g rye flour
5g salt
2 sachets of yeast (14g)
20g black treacle
350ml water
First place the flour, yeast, salt and treacle in a bowl. The treacle helps to intensify the colour of the bread. Gradually add the water and knead the dough. The dough will feel quite tough and it will not feel as smooth and stretchy compared with normal dough. Knead the dough for a good 10 minutes by which time the dough should feel quite soft and smooth. Place in a bowl to rise for 4 hours.
After this time the dough should have doubled in size. Place the dough on a floured surface and knock it back. Shape the dough into your preferred shape (I just did a simple oval). Now place the dough in a heavily floured proving basket. A proving basket is basically a wicker basket with muslin or cloth in it. I didn’t have one so I recreated one with a basket and a thin tea towel. Leave to prove for 2-3 hours.
the dough in my own version of a proving basket
Preheat the oven at 200°. Once proved, place the bread in the oven for 30 minutes. Once cooked the bread should sound hollow when knocked and be slightly dark on top. Enjoy!
Rye bread, fresh out of the oven!
More bread less dough 