Rye Bread
After trying Adam Leonti’s (from the Brooklyn Bread Lab) recipe for Boule Bread, I felt I used his basics to create a wonderful rye bread. Using his Boule Recipe I made a great bread that’s very developed in flavor and texture by taking about a day to prepare the dough. I know that rye flour doesn’t have enough gluten in it to become bread so I used two thirds bread flour. Rye bread isn’t like sour dough but has a slight sour with slight sweet and is accented with caraway seeds. Rye bread is essential bread of choice for pastrami, corned beef, rueben sandwiches and patty melts. Rye bread also goes very well with Swiss Cheese.
Ingredients for about 20 servings
4 1/4 cup bread flour (plus extra for the dough ball to rest in)
2 1/4 cup dark rye flour
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 1/2 Tablespoons kosher salt
1 Tablespoon yeast
1/4 cup caraway seeds
3 cups water (use liquid measuring cup)
1/2 cup oil (use liquid measuring cup)
1/4 cup semolina flour (to rest the un-baked loaves on)
Directions
Get out your stand mixer and put all the dry ingredients in the bowl and then slowly add the wet and mix with a spoon before you start up your mixer so the ingredients don’t fly all over. Now put your dough hook on and start out on low and slowly work up to medium high for around ten minutes or until the dough seems very much like elastic.
Now get a large bowl and get your ball of dough and cover it with flour and then wrap the bowl with plastic wrap. Leave the bowl sit out for FOUR hours.
After four hours it will look like this.
Now punch it down and make it into another ball. Cover it again with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for TWELVE hours.
After twelve hours punch the dough down again.
Get out a board and make two loaves.
Put semolina flour under the loaves and make three swallow slashes on the loaves.
Leave the loaves in your oven (not turned on unless you have a proof setting) till they rise and warm up.
Then after 2-3 hours the loaves should look something like this.
You need a well seasoned heated baking stone. If your baking stone isn’t well seasoned or oiled your baking stone will shatter. I preheated my oven for an hour at 475 degrees F and a few minutes before I put the loaf in then I turn it up to 500 degrees F I do this because the suggested heat for my stone is only 425 degrees so I know I am taking a chance pushing it.
Now that your oven and stone are good and hot turn the oven to 500 degrees F to one rack bake. I do note that you are taking a chance of your baking stone shattering. I keep my stone well oiled. I recommend the newer stones made of metal.
Carefully slide one loaf on to the stone and in about 15 minutes it will be done.
The exterior will be very dark like this and you will know that it’s done when you knock on it and it sounds like it is hollow.
Now you will want to repeat with your remaining loaf.
You wind up with two pretty nice flavorful loaves of rye bread. The semolina flour underneath adds a nice crunch and a slight nutty flavor to the bottom of the crust.
Rye Bread
Forking Good Rye Bread
The Forking Truth
First, really delicious, I’ll try again. However, I don’t really know what a pizza stone does or why I’d use one but, without one 500degs was way too high. Ended up with burnt bottom and not quite baked inside.
Hi Noel, While I’m glad it was delicious I also am sorry you had some troubles. I have a few questions and a suggestion. My first question is- Did you make two loaves. My second question is did you wait till loaves were in the oven to crank up to 500 degrees. Also the bread should sound hallow when you knock on it. I do know ovens will differ….different altitudes also make recipes differ and finally different brands of flour also alter recipes….I once had the same problem as you with a recipe I followed for bread Bunt and raw in the middle…But I was still determined to make that particular bread recipe. The second time I made I made it the BREAD CAME OUT PERFECT!!!! The problem was they wrote the recipe for one loaf so the second I made two loaves and it was perfect. That is why I asked if you made two loaves…..If you DID MAKE TWO loaves I would suggest making it the same way but in three loves….(timing will differ)…….The other suggestion is to use a different brand flour since they all give off different results. The temperatures I used worked for me with my oven….It is possible that you do need to work with slightly different temperatures. I’m not sure what is the perfect answer for you…….It sounds like you were very close. I am glad that you will try again. I hope one of my suggestions works for you. Thanks so much for your comment. We can all learn from it.
Thanks for your kind reply.
This was my first rye bread (non-white bread actually) and I made two loafs. Tap was not hallow but, they needed to be taken out. Both were at 500 the whole time. The first I tried in a “dutch oven” because the pizza stone thing and, I’ve seen other videos where it made very good looking bread at similar high temperatures (took out at 15mins cause of the smell of burning). The second one, I baked right afterwards on a tray (I wanted to see if two techniques would have noticeable differences). Because the first burned a little (hadn’t cut it open yet) I watch it carefully and took it out at around 12mins., the bottom had only slightly slightly burned. Also, the under baked insides was only slightly so on both.
I choose this recipe cause, very few had pictures of loaves which looked like (what i consider) rye bread. Next time i’m thinking around 350 for 45mins or more. This has been my usual temp and time and I’ve had good results.
I shouldn’t have been experimenting with a different technique before getting this one down. I felt confident on the original comment cause the way the second was made. To me it sounded like you’d only start at 450 cause of the stone craking… should have thought about it more ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I also figure, this is because ovens temperatures will differ.
The big question I have is, why the higher temp for a short amount of time. What, qualities are you trying to achieve?
Yes I was afraid about the stone cracking or even bursting. For the most part any bread or pizza I make with a crisp crust needs the 500 degrees. It does make a difference. To me rye bread is among the breads that needs to have a nice crisp crust.It’s just much better to me that way. Yes I’m certain very good results can also happen at lower temperatures but it won’t come out as crusty. You can also do without the stone if you want but you will get different results. Bread is interesting….you can tweak it however you like. Thanks Again for your feedback!
I found my dough way too sticky and had to incorporate more flour both after mixing with the dough hook and the first and second rising. Transferring the raised loaf to the hot stone caused a good part of the raising to deflate. I am still expecting yummy bread however as it smells great while baking
I didn’t have that problem…The top two reasons would be the liquid or the brand of flour. Another reason with be humidity. I’m thinking it’s the brand of flour. Each brand is ground different and some are more fine that throw recipes off. But it sounds like too much liquid to me..?I also wonder if your dough rested in a good amount of flour? I live in Arizona where it is very dry and the lack of humidity does also change recipes.Things like bread you usually have to play by ear because of all the variables. Now that you made it once I am certain you can make the correct adjustments for whatever the reasons. Glad it’s still tasty.