Rye Bread Recipe And Procedure

This homemade rye bread is light and soft inside with a crusty crust. Make it with or without caraway seeds. Great for reuben sandwiches, grilled cheese, and more!

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

For as long as I knew my friend George he was an enthusiastic bread maker. Often when I visited his home in Carlisle, Massachusetts, he had a freshly baked loaf of rye bread for us to enjoy.

Marbled Rye Bread

One time when George came to visit my family in Carmichael, I put him to work, showing me the way he makes his rye bread.

Rye bread is simply bread that is made with rye flour. Rye has an earthy flavor, and using more or less of it in combination with other flours a loaf will give it more or less of that flavor. Rye bread is often made with additions like molasses and cocoa powder, which add color and flavor. Caraway seeds can be added as well, for an even more distinctive flavor.

While you can make a loaf that is made 100% rye, those tend to be quite dense and heavy. For a lighter loaf that still has good rye flavor, mix rye flour with bread flour, which helps form a better gluten structure within the dough.

Pumpernickel Bread Recipe

As for this particular bread from George? It was wonderful. Lightly flavored, soft inside, with a crusty crust. My father doesn't like caraway seeds so they were kept out. I love them so the next time I make this bread they're going in.

It really helps to get your hands in it and learn directly from someone who can say, See? This is the right consistency for the dough. Bread making is something that you just have to practice. The more bread you make, the better you get at it.

Rye is, of course, essential for a good reuben sandwich or a classic liverwurst sandwich with pickled onions. It makes the perfect bread for a grilled cheese sandwich.

George Greenstein's Pumpernickel Bread

Have leftover rye bread that's going stale? Make them into bread crumbs and freeze them to use later. You can sprinkle them over salads, casseroles, or this Hot Reuben Dip.

Rye bread will keep for several days at room temperature if kept in a paper bag. To extend its life another few days, wrap it in a plastic bag instead.

Rye bread also freezes very well. Wrap it in plastic wrap and aluminum foil, then store in a freezer bag for up to three months. Thaw at room temperature and reheat in the oven if desired.

Homemade Rye Bread Recipe

*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2, 000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.

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No Knead Rye Bread

I love overnight bread. It’s much easier to make than normal homemade bread, without any kneading necessary – you just mix everything together in a bowl, let it sit overnight, and then bake it in the morning. This is a typical north German rye bread, dark and slightly sour.

The usual problem is that it’s usually baked in a dutch oven or lidded ceramic dish and involves somedough folding and sitting in a tea towel in the morning after it’s risen overnight, which I find detracts a bit from the simplicity of the method.

The dough rises a second time in the pan you bake it in, so you don’t need to worry about proper folding technique or anything like that. All you have to do is mix it the night before, dump it in a loaf pan, and bake it. No kneading, no folding, no special equipment.

Rustic Rye Bread Recipe: How To Make It

Despite the lack of work that goes into this bread, the crust is surprisingly crispy, and the inside of the loaf is soft and tender. It also lasts longer than other homemade breads, and it keeps for at least a week sitting on the counter, wrapped well.

If you like the idea of rye bread but don’t want to go all the way to a dark rye, try this overnight spelt rye bread instead, or sourdough rye bread if you prefer a natural yeast version.

Please note that the darker photos are made with regular cocoa powder and yeast, and the lighter bread is made with sourdough starter and natural cacao. The step-by-step photos are sourdough, so if you want to see the steps for the yeast method, please watch the recipe video.

Pure Rye Bread

See the recipe card notes for instructions on how to make this into a sourdough loaf. The step-by-step photos show the sourdough method because the video shows it made with yeast, so in the interest of maximum information, I wanted to include both.

1. Add wet ingredients: add the water, maple syrup, and active starter to a large bowl. The starter should float. If using fresh yeast, add it now.

3. Add dry ingredients: stir in the flours, oats, cocoa, and salt. Add the dry yeast now if using that method and stir into a shaggy dough.

Scalded Rye Loaf

4. Rise: cover with a plate, board, or tea towel, and set it into a room temperature, draft free place for about 12 hours.

5. Transfer: once the dough as risen, place it into a well greased or parchment lined bread tin. It will lose volume here.

6. Rise: cover the loaf with a tea towel and set it into a draft-free place to rise again for a couple of hours. The dough should be expanded but not quite doubled after this time.

Scheme Of Rye Bread Making Procedure.

Like most darker whole grain breads and sourdough loaves, this one needs to rest for a significant amount of time before slicing. The recipe states to let it cool completely – that may mean several hours or even overnight. If you want really nice clean slices I recommend letting the baked loaf sit overnight in a tea towel before slicing the following day.

If you want to make this into a boule, you’ll have to introduce some stretches and folds. I recommend 4 rounds, starting directly after mixing. After the dough has risen overnight, shape it as you usually would and place it into a well floured banneton. Bake in a dutch oven 30 minutes covered and another 15-20 minutes uncovered, at 230°C (450°F).

The dark colour and traditional dark rye flavour here come from the whole grain flours and cocoa powder. It’s not quite a German black bread, which I grew up with, but this style of rye bread is also very common in northern Germany (where I lived) and Scandinavia (though it is hard to find in Gothenburg). If you feel that the cocoa will make it too bitter – though that is kind of the point – you can leave it out, no problem.

Cereal Rye Bread Recipe

Storage: the bread keeps well, wrapped in a tea towel, for about a week. The crust will harden slightly but the middle will still be fresh. You can also use a bread bin or sealed container, but I don’t recommend storing this in a plastic bag.

Freezing: this loaf freezes spectacularly, and I highly recommend having some in the freezer at all times. Freeze the whole loaf or pre-slice and take out individual pieces to toast, but either way it’s well worth freezing some in an airtight container.

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Seeded Rye Bread Recipe

• To make this bread with a sourdough starter, simply stir in 100 grams (1/2 cup) of your active starter into the water to replace the commercial yeast. Follow the other directions as written. This is my standard now when making this bread and the results are virtually identical. You will get a more sour flavour and a more noticeable oven spring using a starter.