Rye bread (extremely simple and delicious)

My friend Pete Owen Jones cannot eat wheat.  He LOVES rye bread and pronounced this bread "dsklfdoiinrj" because he had a mouth full of it at the time.

There is a popular misconception that you have to get complicated about rye flour.  Not so.  You don't need sourdough, you don't need molasses, you don't need oil.  You just need the usual four suspects (flour, water, salt, yeast) to make a completely simple, lovely rye loaf.

Rye does not have the same kind of gluten structure as wheat.  That means many people who are intolerant to wheat, like Peter can eat rye pefectly easily.  That also means you do not need to knead rye flour the way you have to knead wheat or spelt.  Don't expect this dough to transform at all.  It is not going to get silky and elasticy like a wheat dough.  The result, nevertheless, is a lovely, soft textured, crispy crusted, delicious and satisfying bread.  Good with ham.  Good with cheese.  Peter likes it best with butter and home made wild cherry jam.

Peter's jam made with wild cherries he picked himself. YUM.

Simple rye bread

300 grams of light rye flour
3 grams dry yeast (or 1.5 g instant yeast or 6 grams fresh yeast)
250 grams of warm water
6 grams of salt

Put the flour in a bowl and make a well in it.  Put the yeast in the well and pour on 1/2 the water.  Let it rest for 15 minutes.  Put the rest of the water in and the salt and mix all of this together with a wooden spoon. Give it a good stir to make sure all of the ingredients are well mixed.  You won't have to knead it but give it some welly in order to ensure your yeast and salt are evenly mixed in.  It will be kind of like trying to stir porridge or mud pies.  Satisfying.  Messy.  Adjust the water (ie add more if necessary) so that you have a soft, sticky dough.  It should not come away clean from the bowl, but be much softer - you can easily press your fingers into it.

Wet your hands thoroughly and scrape it all out of the bowl.  Mould it into a little brick and gently place it in a greased baking tin.  It can come about 2/3 of the way up the sides.

Leave it, covered with a damp tea towel or cling flim for two hours or so until it has risen visibly and come to the top of the tin.  There will be little holes on top and that is normal:  these are the air bubbles bursting through the top.

Dust it with flour or spray the top with a plant sprayer and sprinkle some seeds on the top.

Bake it in an oven that you have preheated to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F) for 45 minutes.  If you would like to, take it out of the tin and just sit it on the shelf in the oven for the last 5 minutes so the whole thing gets nice and brown.

Beautiful 100% rye loaf