RYE BREAD RECIPES 
In 500 AD., the Saxons and Danes settled in Britain and introduced rye which was well suited to cold northern climates. Dark rye bread became a staple which lasted to the Middle Ages. Many different types of rye have come from all over such as Finland, Denmark, Russia, and the Baltic countries. In Finland, the most popular bread is rye bread. My favorite commercially prepared rye non yeasted bread is from Pacific Bakery..- - Rye Bread is dedicated to Derek and Rye Crisps is dedicated to Jacqueline - both are rye lovers.- -
THE CHEF - THE BEGINNING STEP 1 . . . . . . about 4 days to make |
Day 1
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of spelt flour
A pinch of yeast (may omit - yeast is not necessary, for first time bread bakers you will be assured of producing a vibrant CHEF ).
Start with the water then add 3/4th cup of flour plus 2 tablespoons and add the smallest pinch of yeast to a tall 2-3 quart clear glass container with a lid. Stir well to make a thick, soft dough.
The exact consistency of the dough will vary with the brand of flour. Do not add more flour or water at this point to adjust the texture. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula, cover tightly with lid and let stand in a moderate (about 70ºF.) for 24 hours.
The refrigerator is too cold for a beginning CHEF. I put mine in a cool corner of the kitchen countertop. Avoid placing the CHEF on the top of the refrigerator. It is too warm from the coils within the unit.
Day 2
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of spelt flour
CHEFin the morning it will have doubled in volume. You can tell this has happened by placing a rubber band to mark the volume of the CHEF from the night before.
First add the 1/2-cup water followed by 3/4th cup of flour plus 2 additional tablespoons of spelt flour. Stir vigorously to add plenty of fresh oxygen to the CHEF Place in a 70ºF. draft-free place for 24 hours. The CHEF should have the consistency of soft dough. You may add a little more flour or water to make this texture.
Day 3
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of spelt flour
The CHEF will now have the texture of a thick batter and will have doubled in volume. Let it stand at 70ºF. in a draft free place for 24 hours.
Day 4
The CHEF is now ripe. It should be very loose in texture, like a pancake batter. If you do not want to bake bread today then refrigerate the CHEF up to 3 days. Once the ripe CHEF is full of bubbles and has a batter like consistency, it is ready to turn into LEVAIN. Some have questioned about the starter not rising on day 2or 3. For additional help with your starter click here.
LEVAIN STARTER - THE MIDDLE STEP 2 |
1 1/4 cups of spelt flour
Full batch of CHEF
Bring the CHEF to room temperature. If it has been placed in the refrigerator, the CHEF needs 2 hours to come to room temperature. Add the flour directly to the batter-like CHEF . Stir vigorously to add fresh oxygen to the mixture. This should make the mixture very stiff. This stiff firm texture is important for ripening the LEVAIN starter. If the batter is too water-y it becomes very sour and tangy. Scrape down the sides and let stand in a cool 70ºF draft-free place for 6-10 hours, or until it has doubled. I put it in the pantry, in the cellar, or place it in and out of the refrigerator on a warm day. Do not let it rise beyond 10 hours or there will not be enough strength in it to encourage the bread to rise.
LEVAIN STARTER - AFTER BAKING STEP 4 |
Once you have placed the bread in the oven and measured out the
LEVAIN starter
, you will have a bit left over. To the left over
LEVAIN add 1/3-cup water (or 5 tablespoons of water) and 1/2 cup of flour (or 8 tablespoons of flour). Mix it adding the water first, then the flour. Allow it sit out while the bread bakes. Then place it in a cool place. The refrigerator is fine. The
LEVAIN has to be fed 1/3 cup of water (or 5 tablespoons of water) and fresh spelt flour 1/2 cup (or 8 tablespoons of flour) about once a week. For the best bread, fed the
LEVAIN twice in a 24 hour period just before baking your next loaf. When you are ready to bake your next loaf, once again allow the
LEVAIN the flour, the water, the mixing bowl, all to come to room temperature. The process for making these non-yeasted breads is indeed a long one, but once you experience biting into a savory warm slice of spelt bread fresh from your own stone lined oven, you may be handsomely rewarded through your own self realized efforts. Early on I did a taste test. I thought my first loaves were flat and I assumed the taste would also be flat. I compared a slice from a commercially made loaf of non-yeasted spelt bread to my own, and my own won hands down. There is a movie from
Pacific Bakery that shows in VHS video format how to bake unyeasted spelt bread.
BAKING (1) LOAF - BAKING STEP 3 |
 PEASANT BLACK BREAD IN A BREAD MACHINE
PREPARE THE CHEF
1 cup spelt flour
1- 1/2 cups of CHEF— SOURDOUGH CULTURE
Knead for 5 minutes, allow to sit for 8 hours inside the bread machine. This is known as the LEVAIN.
ADD THESE INGREDIENTS AND START THE WHOLE WHEAT CYCLE or you can follow the steps below.
1 tablespoon of dark molasses
1/4 cup warm water (warm to the inside of the wrist)
1 tablespoon tupelo honey
3/4 teaspoon of ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan pink crystal salt
2 teaspoons Vital Gluten
3/4 cup rye flour
3/4 cup spelt flour
water as needed
EITHER S TART THE WHOLE WHEAT CYCLE or FOLLOW THESE STEPS Allow the LEVAIN starter and all ingredients to come to room temperature. Warm the water a little. If your flour is cold from being kept in the fridge, warm it a little. This meticulousness helps the bread to ferment and rise nicely. The dough behaves quite differently if brought to room temperature. Mix the LEVAIN starter and water together and place it in the bread machine on the dough cycle of the bread machine. Let it run for about 5 minutes or until the LEVAIN starter is partly dissolved. While the bread machine is mixing add 3/4 cup of flour to the bread machine. Add the salt and just enough of the remaining 3/4 cup flour so it forms a thick mass. Stop the bread machine. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding more flour until the dough is firm and smooth, about 25-50 times. The dough is ready when a little dough pulled from the mass springs back quickly. Shape the dough into a ball.
RISING THE DOUGH (2 hours in the bread machine)
Let the dough rest on the lightly floured surface, while you butter or oil the bread machine pan. Place the dough in the bread machine and turn once to coat with butter (or oil). It needs to rest about 2 hours. The bread machine turned off with the door closed is perfect for this.
LET THE DOUGH REST (30 minutes)
Deflate the dough by pushing down in the center and pulling up on
the sides. Shape in back into a tight torpedo and place back into the bread machine for 30 minutes.
SECOND RISE OF THE DOUGH (2 hours)
Place the dough seam side down inside the bread machine pan and close the bread machine door but do not turn it on. Allow the bread to rise until almost doubled in volume, approximately 2 hours. Sometimes about this time I might go to sleep. If I do, I place the bread machine pan with the dough inside the refrigerator. In the morning I take it out and allow it to come to room temperature for about an hour.
BAKING THE BREAD Open the door to the bread machine and remove the pan. Close the door and turn on the bread machine on the bake cycle. If you have a choice set it to dark crust. Using a very sharp, serrated knife or a single-edge razor blade, score the loaf by making quick shallow cuts 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep along the surface. I always seem to forget this. Put the loaf back into the bread machine and allow it bake for an hour or however long your bake cycle is. Once finished baking, remove the loaf from the bread machine, rub a little oil on the outside crust and wrap it in a towel as it cools. Allow to cool thoroughly before slicing. The bread continues to bake as it cools.
RYE BREAD IN THE OVEN
MAKE THE LEVAIN
| 2/3 |
cup of rye flour |
| 3/4 |
cup of spring water |
| 1 |
cup Full batch of CHEF |
Bring the CHEF to room temperature. If it has been placed in the refrigerator, the CHEF needs 2 hours to come to room temperature. Add the flour directly to the batter-like CHEF . Stir vigorously to add fresh oxygen to the mixture. This should make the mixture very stiff. This stiff firm texture is important for ripening the LEVAIN starter.
RISING THE STARTER (4 hours)
Let the dough rest and rise in a warm place covered for 4 hours. Then add the following to the bowl.
MAKING THE RYE BREAD
| 2 |
cup of rye add 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds if you wish |
| 3 |
cups of spelt |
| 2 |
tablespoons of tupelo honey or molasses (high in K+) |
| 1 |
tablespoon of Himalayan pink crystal salt |
| 1 1/3 |
cup of spring water |
RISING THE DOUGH (6 - 8 hours)
Mix this stiff dough together and knead until it is well moistened. Add very little additional water if needed. Let it rise covered in a bowl for 6- 8 hours at 72º - 85º degrees F.
LET THE DOUGH REST (30 minutes)
When ready the dough should plop right out of the bowl. Use only 2 tablespoons of flour. A granite work surfaces is best and knead the dough for about 20 times. Let it rest for ten minutes then knead it for 20 times again and let it rest twenty minutes. Cut the dough into two. Shape into two tight balls. Butter a bread pan and roll each piece over in the oil to coat the outside.
SECOND RISE OF THE DOUGH (2 - 4 hours)
Let the dough rise a second time for at least 2 hours and not more than 4 hours, until it has doubled in volume. Rye flour does not rise as much as spelt flour. Rye creates a denser bread, favored by the Nordic nations.
BAKING THE BREAD Put the baking stone in the oven and preheat it to 500º. Steam your oven by spraying the walls with water. For a more detailed explanation about steaming click here. I use a spray bottle or a bowl and splash the water against the walls of the oven being careful not to hit the oven light. Put the breads in the oven and steam the oven. Wait three minutes and steam it once again. Three more minutes and steam. Lower the temperature to 350º and continue baking. Bake for a total of 35 minutes. Rap the bottom of the bread when done. If it sounds hollow; it is done. If not return it to the oven to bake for 5 minutes longer.
If the rest of the bread is to be eaten that day or the next, leave it out- turned upon its cut surface- or stored in a paper bag to allow it to breathe, while the crust stays dry. Bread within 36 hours tastes best. It can be sealed in a plastic bag and frozen. When you take it out of the freezer, leave it in the plastic
bag while it thaws at room temperature. Previously frozen bread can be made to taste nearly as good as fresh if it is thoroughly reheated at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and allowed partially to cool before serving. Putting this bread in the refrigerator dries it out quickly.
LEVAIN AFTER BAKING
Once you have placed the bread in the oven and measured out the LEVAIN starter, you will have a bit left over. To the left over LEVAIN add 1/3-cup water (or 5 tablespoons of water) and 1/2 cup of flour (or 8 tablespoons of flour). This becomes your new starter; your new CHEF. Mix it adding the water first, then the flour. Allow it sit out while the bread bakes. Then place it in a cool place. The refrigerator is fine. The new CHEF has to be fed 1/3 cup of water (or 5 tablespoons of water) and fresh spelt flour 1/2 cup (or 8 tablespoons of flour) about once a week. For the best bread, fed the new CHEF twice in a 24 hour period just before baking your next loaf. |
 RYE BREAD MACHINE THIS RECIPE IS CHEATING AND EASY
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of spring water
1 cup of LEVAIN
2 tablespoons of tupelo honey
1 cup of rye flour
Bob's Red Mill Rye Bread Mix
While traveling, I was looking for dark rye flour and by mistake bought Rye bread mix. This was a mistake but turned out to bake one of the best tasting loaves of bread I have made away from home. I took one cup of spring warm spring water added this to the bread machine along with 1 cup of LEVAIN and 2 tablespoons of tupelo honey, 1 cup of rye flour. I let this mix on the dough cycle and allowed it to rest for about an hour. Then I added Bob's Red Mill Rye Bread Mix to this. Dusted the granite counter top with a bit more rye flour, turned the entire mixture upside down on the countertop (granite is a wonderful kneading surface) and began to knead the bread. I let it rest on the granite countertop while I buttered the bread machine pan. Then I placed it in the bread machine and allowed it to rise for about 2 hours. I took it out kneaded a bit more then allowed it to rise for about 6 hours then baked it.
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RYE CRISPS IN THE OVEN
Modified from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book by Laurel Robertson . . . If you are more accustom to metric measurements, click here
INGREDIENTS
| 1/2 |
cup spelt berries kernels whole grains |
| 1 |
tablespoon of olive oil |
| 1/2 |
teaspoon Himalayan pink salt can omit |
| 1/2 |
teaspoon Baking Soda |
| 1 |
teaspoon of caraway seeds |
| 3/4 |
cup of rye flour |
Sprout the spelt berries 2 – 4 days but not so long that there are any green shoots. Grind fairly fine in a food processor or high-speed blender. Mix in the oil, salt, soda, seeds, and enough rye flour to make stiff dough. Form into golf-ball sized rounds, then roll out on a well-floured board as thin as possible, not thicker than 1/4 inch. Bake on a dry griddle on low heat for about 5 minutes on each side or in a medium low oven until very slightly brown.
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updated
17-apr-08 11:46 AM