Easy recipe for 100% rye bread
Rye is delicious, it's nutritious, it's terrific if you are on a diet or need to be on a low GI diet because it's a very slow release carb. Rye does not have to resemble the black squares of pumpernickel that comes in shrink – wrapped blocks on supermarket shelves.Go on, give this a try. It's fun to make and trust me, it's delicious!
Equipment
- scale, bowl, spoon, baking tin
Ingredients
- 300 grams dark or light rye flour or a mixture
- 250 grams water from the tap
- 6 grams salt
- 1.5 grams instant yeast or 3 grams dry yeast or 6 g fresh yeast
- 1 tsp ground coriander Optional
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin Optional
- 2 handfuls sunflower or pumpkin or flax seeds (or a mixture) soaked overnight in water Optional
- 2-3 tbs honey or molasses or malt syrup Optional
Instructions
- Measure the water into a big bowl and add the yeast. Let it sit for 10 minutes to dissolve.
- Add the flour and the salt and any of the other ingredients you are using.
- Stir together until it is well mixed.
- Grease a bread tin with a hard fat (butter or lard work best).
- Wet your hand thoroughly and pick up the dough. Shape it into a sausage shape the size of the tin. Pick up the tin and place the sausage in the tin gently. Don't push down! Just place it in and leave it. The dough will fill the tin itself and does not need to be squashed into the corners. See below for a video on how to do that.
- You can sprinkle some rye flour on the surface of the dough if you like. Cover the tin with a shower hat – raise the surface of the hat above the dough so that when the dough rises, it does not stick to the hat. Leave it for 2-5 hours – it depends on the heat in the kitchen. Don't try to speed it up by placing it in an overly warm place as rye does not like to be too warm. Check it every once in a while. Rye is ready for the oven when there are little holes all over the surface. Keep your nerve and wait for that point.
- Heat the oven to 200 degrees C. You can decorate the top of the loaf with seeds or a sprinkle of flour. Pop it in and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and remove from tin. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
- Rye is best eaten the next day and will certainly last for 3-4 days.
- Eat. Yum.
Video
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Hi all,
I agree with Liz that the dough needs a lot of water. For my rye breads (that is the Danish dark style) I make the dough so the texture is like a bit thin oatmeal.
Btw it is funny to hear that rye some places has a bad reputation. As being dense and heavy. I guess it is places where it is only known in products like pumpernickel. The dark rye bread we eat here in Denmark is not comparable to pumpernickel. Ours are much more light and with air. We always add other flours too, to make it get those qualities too.
If you more interested in rye recipes, you can see my selection at http://www.ryebread-recipe.com
Dear Christian, thanks for this – you would be amazed at how most people think they do not like rye because they really only have tasted that rather dreadful pumpernickel from Aldi! My family is German so I grew up on all sorts of rye and “mixed bread”. I find properly made rye light and moist and delicious. I will check out your rye recipes right now! Thank you for writing.
Gonna try your bread recipe. So afraid of making yeast end breads, do not like the taste of yeast. I live in a rural area of a small Caribbean island and I only see instant yeast…I think. Please tell me again the best yeasts to use. Not brand, as there are very few brands, the type please.
Hello and thanks for your comment. First, have a read here about different kinds of yeast. The trick is to use as little as possible which my recipes call for, in the main. This means the time for bread to rise is longer but the benefits are better digestibility and no yeast taste! have a read and let me know how you get on! http://www.virtuousbread.com/bread-and-conversation/the-four-different-forms-of-yeast-and-how-to-use-them/
That should be yeasted breads…not yeast end
Hi, I have tried this recipe twice and both times have failed. The first time I used instant yeast, after 30 minutes of baking it, the middle fell in. The second time I tried I used dry yeast, I left it over night in the fridge and it did not budge so I left it out for the day to rise (so I’ll see when I get home if it did anything). The second batch I ended up adding 300g of water to my flour and still seemed a bit stiff. Do I keep adding water until it’s not stiff?
Hello Chandra
I am sorry for that. There are many reasons your bread may have collapsed while baking. It may have been over proofed going into the oven and/or it may have proofed in an overly warm climate. I find if it is much over 25 degrees C the rye can get a bit collapsey! As re water – yes – just keep throwing it in until you have a nice soft dough. Some rye absorbs more than others (as with all grains) so the water content for any bread recipe is only ever a guideline! How did the second one do? Did you proof the dry yeast before adding it?
FYI – your recipe gives ‘250 grams of water’. Hate to tell you but water is measured as a VOLUME not a MASS. There is a difference!
I suspect you mean MILLILITRES, not grams.
Will try your recipe. Hope it works out.
Cheers.
Dear Michael,
thanks for your comment you are clearly a really experienced chef however, in the UK we often measure liquids in grams and, as bakers in the UK the vast majority of us do. SO, you will see that all of my measurements are in grams as it is much more accurate to weigh everything on a digital scale. Try it! They are not expensive to buy and the results are exact.
Hi Michael
1ml of water weighs 1g, so the two units are interchangeable. 250g is the same as 250ml.
The second loaf didn’t turn out very nice. It was very dry and took almost 24hrs to rise. I will add more water next time. I did not proof my yeast before I added it, I will proof it before hand.
Hi Chandra
you always have to proof dry yeast – no matter what the recipe is. And, with rye, it often is better if you proof the instant kind. Have a read of this (and the article written before it to which there is a link in the recipe) http://www.virtuousbread.com/bread-and-conversation/easy-recipe-for-rye-bread-part-2/ Please try again. It is worth it when you get it right.
Just had my first attempt. The dough rose up quite well put sagged in the baking phase. Also very hard and crusty round the edges and quite brown, like a tan colour.
I think I made a mistake by not proofing the fresh yeast ( how do you do that). Also the fresh yeast was doughy, should I have dried it out allowing me to sprinkle it into the mix.
Hi bob
the dropping whilst baking may be a sign that it was over risen before you baked it. Try putting it in a little earlier next time. You don’t have to proof fresh yeast – just crumble it up and mix it right in. You don’t have to dry it – it will disappear into the dough – just mix with a will!
Thanks, I also suspected that. It was left to rise for 6 hours. Here on the Cape coast in SA, we have a flour made in Heidelberg which is non GM, non preservative,non bleached and on their recipe for rye, they include 60g vinegar. Any comment. Bob
You are on the cape coast! Lucky you – I love it there and am lucky enough to visit every two years in December! The flour you have is wonderful and when I am there I enjoy travelling around, visiting bakeries and basically just eating a lot. I don’t know about the vinegar except that rye bread tends to be a bit gummy (you may have noticed that) unless it is made with pure sourdough rather than added yeast because the acidity of the sourdough does something chemical which reduces the gumminess. That could be the function of the vinegar and it’s actually a very interesting idea and one I will try. 60 g of vinegar for how much flour? Let’s both try! I have to get my oven mended first…..yikes.
Just completed my second attempt. Slightly better but still dropped. Decreased the yeast to 5g, salt a little less, rising time 2hr but this may be still too long. Eureka Mills in Heidelberg recommend +- 1hr which I will use on the third attempt. I am inclined to think that the quality of the flour makes a big difference to the rising time,baking time and temp. of bake.
Their recipe is much the same as yours except for the vinegar which they recommend in the proportion +- 60g per 2000g of flour. The use of vinegar in rye bread is because of the amylases#$? in rye bread which, as you correctly point out, causes gumminess. The acid in vinegar overcomes this problem. Be in touch.
it’s summer right now, right? how hot is it? if it is much over 26 degrees, rye simply will not cooperate. I recommend mixing the dough, tinning it and putting it in the fridge to rise. 8 hours should do it and bung it in a pre heated oven straight from the fridge. Put temp to 230 and then drop it to 200 after 10 minutes and continue to bake for 30 minutes. 40 minutes is total baking time.
OK will do that for my third attempt.
Although it has been stinking hot recently, by chance it rained all day on Wednesday which was my first attempt day and the temp. dropped to 21. It was back to hot again today.
Anyway i’ll try it your way.
Trying to find a true unadulterated recipe for true rye four bread ( dark) without whit flour or milk or any other fancy ways
Just using organic dark rye flour plus the usuall bread ingredients is there a baker that can help making a 1.5 lbs loaf in a bread maker
Thanks
Hi Douglas
If you scroll through the many notes on this post you will find one from somebody who did it successfully in a bread maker. I have never tried (and don’t own one) so alas I cannot help you. My recipe, as you see, is only flour, water, salt and yeast.
After a few attempts where things did not go so well – wrong yeast, too much water (slight lack of focus that day!), wrong size tin – I can now reliably crank out a delicious rye loaf every time. And no kneading – bliss. I’m not a bread maker but a trip to Finland last year got me interested in rye bread. Many thanks for sharing your expertise with us 🙂
Dear Anne, how kind you are to leave this wonderful comment. I am so pleased! I love rye and all the things that contain rye. I am so pleased you do too!
I live in Croatia and my stove has numbers (1-8)- What number would it be for 200 degrees.? Thank you
I am afraid I do not know. Try google in Croatia, I am sure someone has figured it out!
Being a Nordic rye baking hobbyist/enthusiast from Finland, just wanted to point out that molasses or treacle are not the only way to make traditional Scandinavian or Nordic rye dark in color, but one may use about 5-10% of brown or black malted rye flour instead, or for added darkness when preferred. Added sweetness is not necessary for dark rye at all. In general it’s advisable to make rye sourdough as it’s known to enhance digestibility of rye’s nutrients, while using malted rye adds to the improved digestion, also it’s quite customary to use cumin seeds with rye for that same reason.