Bread #10 Rye Bread

Good morning bread bakers!

It’s a rainy Sunday – perfect day for baking bread.  Today I’m making Rye Bread from my King Arthur Flour cookbook.  The recipe as written is just a guideline – you can change up the flours, wet ingredients, add-ins etc.  I decided to make it fairly traditional with caraway seeds, but I’m also adding in grated orange zest.  I hope that the flavor comes through. For some reason, I think that this will make tasty grilled cheese - with my favorite cheese, Muenster.  I will let you know.

Here is the recipe.  Please bake Rye Bread with me.

 

Special Tools you will need:
None - I mixed and kneaded this by hand

 All the ingredients

Ingredients:
2 ¼  cups warm water
¼ cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon yeast
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 Tablespoon sea salt
1 cup rye flour
2 Tablespoons caraway seeds
1 Tablespoon grated orange zest
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ to 2 cups Montana Sapphire flour
Oil for the bowl
Cornmeal to sprinkle on baking sheets

 

Proof yeast:  In a large bowl, combine warm water, brown sugar and yeast.  Stir.  Let sit until bubbly.

Mix dough: To the yeast mixture, add the softened butter, rye flour, salt, caraway seeds and orange zest.  Mix well.  Stir in the whole wheat flour and 1 ½ cups of the Montana Sapphire flour.  When the dough begins to hold together and pull away from the sides of the bowl, turn it out onto your kneading surface where you’ve poured out the last ½ cup of flour. 

Knead:  Since rye dough tends to be sticky keep your hands and board well floured while you knead it. Knead for about 5 minutes. Even when it’s thoroughly kneaded, it will still be a bit sticky.  That’s the way it should be – don’t add extra flour. 

First Rise:  When it’s thoroughly kneaded, put into a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double in bulk.

Second Rise:  Punch down and let rise a second time until double.

Shaping and final rise:  Divide dough into two pieces and shape into free-form oval shapes.  Place on baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal.  Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for about 1 hour.

Bake:  Put loaves in a cold oven.  Set temperature to 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  Lower temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 25 to 30 minutes.

  The finished bread -- you can see the flecks of orange zest.

Reflections on this bake:  I like it – don’t love it.  With mostly whole wheat and rye flour, it tastes very "healthy" in a I-don't-want-to-devour-this-bread sort of way.  The orange zest didn’t come through as much as I had hoped.  However, since this in my husband's favorite kind of bread, I will definitly make it again -- I will just tweak the recipe.  I'll double the amount of orange zest and change up the liquid -- maybe use potato water or buttermilk instead of water.  On a more positive note, last night I made grilled cheese using this bread and cheddar cheese (no Muenster in the house).  It was very good – browned up, got crispy and the cheese complemented the bread perfectly. 

 

 

Rating Category	Rating out of 5
Taste	3
Texture	3
Likeliness to make again	5
Overall Rating	3.7