[redforever]

Originally Posted by peter12

I have been trying to make Danish rye forever, and it just hasn't worked out the way it does over there. This part of my life is missing.

Ok Peter, here is the part of your life that has been missing.

Both of these recipes for rye bread are fairly straight forward to use. I would recommend starting with the Soft Chewy Rye Bread as the concentration of rye flour is smaller making the dough easier to work with. Rye flour takes a knack when making bread with it because it has very little natural gluten and it tends to be sticky and tacky. You can get fooled into thinking you have not added enough flour but when you add more flour, the dough will still be sticky and tacky…so I would suggest to go by the recipe, see how your bread turns out, and then if necessary, make adaptations from there.

Start with half the recipes and make one loaf.

Soft Chewy Rye Bread



This recipe makes 2 large loaves. I made 1 1/2 times the recipe and that is why you see 3 loaves in the picture of my bread. I made this in my Bosch Universal Mixer so by the time the dough was well kneaded, the caraway seeds were pretty smashed up which I liked because the flavor was uniform throughout the loaf and you never bit into any bitter pieces of caraway seed. If you are kneading this dough by hand, I would recommend giving the caraway seeds a good smashing before adding them to the dough.

2 cups lukewarm water
1/8 to 1/4 cup molasses
1 Tbsp instant yeast
1 Tbsp gluten
2 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp caraway seeds
1 cup dark rye flour
4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 Put all the ingredients (starting with 4 cups flour) in the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with a bread hook. Mix to combine and then knead until smooth and elastic. The dough should just be starting to leave the sides of the bowl. Only add extra flour if necessary, 2 Tbsp at a time. The dough should still be somewhat sticky or tacky. Don’t add more flour than necessary or the bread will end up too dense.

Note: I personally find for the dry Calgary area that 4 cups of all-purpose flour is just about perfect.

2 Shape the dough into a ball and put it in a lightly greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover the bowl with saran or a damp cloth. Set it in a warm place to rise for about an hour, or until it’s doubled in size.

3 Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

4 Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half and shape each half into an oblong football shaped loaf. Set the loaves a fair distance apart on the prepared baking sheet.

5 Cover the loaves with saran or damp paper towels. Set the pan in a warm place and let the loaves rise for about 30 to 45 minutes, just until they’ve doubled in size. Be careful with breads that use rye flour. The gluten content is lower and they have a tendency to over-proof quickly. The end result is dough that rips open before you have even baked it. If that happens, you can punch down the dough and let it have another rise, or you can try and slash the loaves where the cracks are starting to appear in the dough, hopefully to try and camouflage your error.

This is what over-proofed dough looks like.



6 If you like, prior to baking, slash the top of each loaf with a very sharp serrated knife set at an angle. Be very careful not to slash the loaf too much or it might deflate. If the knife sticks, either dip it in cold water or coat it with oil.

7 Put the pan with the risen loaves into a COLD oven. Set the temperature to 400F and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, lower the temperature to 350F and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes. If desired, baste the loaves with an egg wash during the last 15 minutes of baking. Beat one egg with 1/4 cup water for the egg wash. The loaves you see were basted with an egg wash during the latter part of baking.

8 Pick up one of the loaves and flip it over. The bottom should be browned nicely. With your other hand, give the bottom of the loaf a thump. It should sound hollow. If it sounds dull, it likely needs a few more minutes in the oven. When the bread is done, remove from the oven, and transfer to a wire rack. Cool, serve, and enjoy.


Bottom crust


Inside crumb



Swedish Rye Bread from Harrowsmith Cookbook

The amounts of flour used in this recipe are pushing it if you are using a 5-quart stand mixer so I would recommend making half the recipe to yield one loaf. I have a Bosch Universal Mixer that I use for large recipes. I can use up to about 15 cups of flour and about 7 to 8 cups of liquid so have no problems making bread from large recipes. The picture of this bread is from the cookbook mentioned.




1/2 cup water
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp caraway seeds

Put in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to medium and cook at a low boil for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on how strong of a caraway taste you desire. Cool to lukewarm.

1 Tbsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water

Put in the bowl of a stand mixer equipped with a bread hook. Stir to dissolve. Proof for 5 minutes or until foamy.

1 1/2 cups lukewarm buttermilk
1 Tbsp gluten
2 cups dark rye flour
4 to 6 cups all-purpose flour

1 When caraway mixture has cooled, add it and the buttermilk to the proofed yeast.
2 Add the gluten, all of the rye flour and 2 cups all-purpose flour. Mix until smooth.
3 Slowly add more of the remaining all-purpose flour until the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.
4 Lightly grease or spray a large bowl. Form dough into a ball, put in the bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with saran and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
5 Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half, shape each piece of dough into a round or rectangular loaf, and place on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. You could also bake the loaves in a bread pan. Cover with saran and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 20 to 30 minutes.
6 Preheat the oven to 400°F, with a bread stone on the middle rack.
7 Slash the tops of the risen loaves just before they go in the oven. You can spray the loaves with water or baste with an egg wash prior to slashing. Bake the loaves for 25 minutes, or until they are nicely browned and sound hollow when thumped.
8 Remove from oven and place on wire rack. Cool at least 30 minutes before slicing.