Recipe: A “Lighter” Rye Bread

One of the huge bounses of the arrival of Fifi La Firecracker K-Mix is the dramatic increase in the amount of bread that we are baking and eating, and an unexpected side effect is that I now need (knead?) to weigh my ingredients, rather than add the amount that makes the dough “feel right” as I did before, which in turn means that I have bread recipes to blog.

I am sure that some “purist” bakers would argue that there is no substitute for kneading by hand, but for me the Fuss Free ease of weighing everything directly into the K-Mix bowl – then letting the machine do its stuff, whilst I put flour away or load (or unload) the dishwasher – makes making bread a breeze.   I do still knead by hand, but increasingly my wrists hurt, and I hate scraping dough off the worktop.

Personally I love rye bread, but those that are not used to it can sometimes find it a little dark and heavy going; this loaf is made of about 20% rye, making it lighter, and it is a perfect all round bread – delicious warm from the oven, in sandwiches or toasted.

Usually I make the dough last thing in the evening before bed and give it a slow overnight rise in the fridge.  This gives the loaf some sourdough characteristics (without the necessity to keep a sourdough starter alive) and gives the perfect timing for fresh bread at breakfast.    The addition of vitamin C or ascorbic acid strengthens the gluten, and gives a little more “oomph” to a brown loaf, I usually grind one vitamin C tablet with a tablespoon of flour in my coffee grinder – beware that many vitamin C tablets for sale are orange flavoured!

Recipe: “Lighter” Rye Loaf

Makes 1 medium loaf (lasts the 2 of us 2 days)

Ingredients

300ml warm water
1 heaped tsp yeast (dried active – I used the one for hand baking)
250g strong white flour
100g rye flour
100g strong wholewheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbs oil – olive / rapeseed / hemp etc.

Pour the water into bowl, add the yeast and swirl to it is dissolved.  Add the other ingredients.

Knead with the dough hook attachment of your mixer on the lowest speed for about 4 minutes until a smooth stretchy dough has formed (if you knead by hand it will take longer).

Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight. It should more than double in size.

In the morning turn out onto a floured board and gently knock the dough back.  Shape into a loaf and place on a floured silicone mat on a baking tray.  Leave somewhere warm until doubled in size again.

Place in a preheated oven at GM7 / 220C / 425F and bake for about 40 minutes.   For a crustier loaf place a small dish of water in the oven under the loaf.

When it is done it will lift off the sheet and sound hollow when tapped.  It always takes longer than you think it will, so my general rule of thumb is that if you are unsure give it another 5 mins.

 

Sending this to this month’s Bake Your Own Bread – hosted by Girlichef…

.. and to Yeastspotting.