Traditional Rye Bread Recipe

Made with a mixture of bread and rye flours, a small amount of honey, and a few teaspoons of caraway seeds, this simple no-knead rye bread tastes beautifully tangy with a hearty, chewy texture perfect for sandwiches or toast. It comes together in no time and bakes in a single loaf pan, but the recipe can be doubled, and the baked bread freezes very well.

Rye bread has a reputation of being dense and heavy as well as aggressively sour in flavor. While some people love these qualities, others, understandably, do not. I love a rye bread with a subtle tang and a hearty but not leaden texture.

How

This no-knead rye bread is just that: made with a mixture of bread and rye flours, the texture of the finished loaf is light enough for a sandwich but makes excellent toast as well. A small amount of honey balances out the sourness and lends a nice chew, while caraway seeds, which can be left out, impart subtle notes of citrus and anise.

Bread Machine Rye Bread

This recipe calls for 1 cup of rye flour and 3 cups of bread flour, and while you could play around with increasing the proportion of rye in this recipe (which is roughly 20% by weight), keep in mind that the more rye flour you use, the denser your bread will be. Why? Because rye flour is different than wheat flour in a number of ways, namely:

, which is a great resource if you like to understand the science behind bread baking. I have to confess I have never made a recipe from the book, and I pull it out seldomly but when I do, I always find the answer I am looking for (and more!).

I was curious as to how much 1 cup of this particular rye flour would weigh, so I set my measuring cup on the scale and spooned in as much flour as I could without it spilling out.

Dark Rye Bread

… which brought the flour down to just below the rim of the measuring cup. This is an example of why it is so important to use a scale. Depending on how we measure, 1 cup of flour can vary dramatically in weight.

Let cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. I like to slice it, then freeze it in bundles of 3 to 4 slices.

Salt: I always use Diamond Crystal kosher salt. If you are using Morton’s kosher salt or fine sea salt use half the amount by volume or the same amount by weight.

Danish Rye Bread

Yeast: If using active dry yeast, sprinkle the yeast over the lukewarm water-honey mixture and let stand for 10 minutes; then proceed with the recipe.

Caraway: If you don’t like the flavor of caraway, simply omit the seeds or use less: 1 to 2 teaspoons or to taste.This authentic Danish rye bread recipe (rugbrod) is easier to make than you may think.  It’s packed with nutrients, has a fantastic texture and old-fashioned flavor and is just plain delicious!  Whether you prefer a bolder or milder flavor, you’re completely in charge of that in determining how long you allow the batter to ferment.

I love breads of all kinds, but there are two kinds that I especially love:  Ones that are perfectly crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside (eg, baguettes) and whole grain breads that are very dense and hearty like the kind I grew up with in Germany (eg, Vollkornbrot, Roggenbrot, Schwarzbrot, etc) and this Danish rye bread.

Danish

How To Bake A Traditional German Rye Bread

In Germany and throughout Scandinavia dense whole grain breads are particularly popular.  You’ll see them served cut up in squares for a variety of hors d’oeuvres (for example, topped with gravlax/smoked salmon, a dollop of crème fraîche or hard-boiled eggs and a sprig of dill), served for breakfast with a tray of sliced cheeses and cold cuts, enjoyed for open-faced sandwiches or simply slathered down with good butter and jam.

Ie, smorgasbord) wherein it is served buffet style with any number of fine toppings and is also a common accompaniment for many meals.  Traditional options include herring, pickled vegetables, liver pate, smoked salmon, and sliced hard-boiled eggs.  This Danish Rye Bread recipe is just what you need to create your smorrebrod!

I’ve known many people who have visited Denmark or Germany, fell in love with this type of bread and returned home to their countries unable to find it there. I haven’t been able to find it anywhere here in the U.S. except for German specialty stores and World Market stocks a very small selection of dense German breads.  Though specifically Danish sourdough rye bread I haven’t found anywhere here for purchase.

Rustic Rye Sourdough Bread Recipe • Heartbeet Kitchen

The good news is you can make it yourself and I’m going to be posting several recipes for this wonderful style of dense, hearty European bread.

We’re going to start with a favorite among many, Danish Rye Bread.  And while this bread is also popular in Germany, it claims particular importance in Denmark, indeed it’s practically one of its national foods, so we’re going to go ahead and ascribe this bread to the Danes.  (Plus it will make the maternal side of my husband’s family happy, they’re fiercely proud of their Danish ancestry.  And I have some Danish ancestry myself, so we’re all happy.)

Recipe

Danish rye bread is a sourdough bread that traditionally takes 2-3 days to make.  Here is a super simple version that cuts the fermentation time down to as a little as 24 hours without the need to tend and feed it.  This version calls for a yeasty beer.  Beer and bread are cousins, both traditionally made from the same two ingredients, water and grains.   The alcohol in this bread is burned off during the long baking process while the beer contributes to a fabulous texture and consistency (and flavor, depending on which beer you use).

Old World Rye Bread Machine Recipe

The bread dough is allowed to ferment for 24 hours at room temperature (or 48 hours depending on how sour you like the bread).  This fermentation process neutralizes the phytic acid in the grains, a naturally occurring substance that binds nutrients so that the body cannot properly absorb them.  Not only does phytic acid acid bind the nutrients of the grains themselves, it binds the nutrients of anything else you eat

The grains.  Fermenting the bread dough increases its nutrients and makes the bread easier to digest.  And even after sourdough is baked it continues to sour and only gets better in flavor over time.

This wonderfully nourishing bread is packed full of whole grains, seeds and nuts.  The grains are included in the form of flour (rye and wheat), cracked rye berries and whole rye berries.  Tons of similar styled breads incorporate these various forms of whole, cracked, coarsely ground and finely ground grains (eg, spelt, einkorn, wheat, kamut, etc) into the same loaf for a wonderful balance of textures, and that’s where a good grain mill really comes in handy.  Not only can you grind your own fresh flour on demand with all the nutrients still intact (as opposed to flour that’s been sitting on grocery store shelves for ages), you can get exactly the kind of grind you need.

How To Make Russian Rye Bread, Borodinsky Loaf Recipe

I buy my grains all in bulk, take out what I need to last me for a few weeks at a time and store the rest in a dark, cool place.  I don’t even buy flour anymore, I grind all of my own flours, cornmeal and make my own baking mixes.

Sourdough

For today’s Easy Danish Rye Bread I’m using my German-made KoMo Classic Grain Mill, another stellar example of German engineering and the pride and joy of my kitchen.

With a 12-year warranty, the quality and construction of the KoMo is amazing, plus it’s gorgeous and something you’d want to display on your counter.  You can grind your grains as fine or coarse as you like.  I use it nearly every day to make my own flours, cornmeal and mixes and cannot recommend it highly enough.

Irish Soda Bread With A Rye Twist

Check out my video below where I talk about some of the KoMo Classic Grain Mill’s features and show it in action in making today’s Danish Rye Bread!

If you’re grinding your own rye and wheat flour and cracking your own rye berries you’re in great shape!  If you don’t have a grain mill you can easily find rye flour in grocery stores and you can “crack” the rye berries yourself by very briefly pulsing them in a good/powerful blender or food processor or smashing them in a bag with a meat mallet or other heavy object.

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a stand mixer bowl.  Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm water and let sit for 10 minutes.  Add all the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Easy

German Rye Bread Recipe

Give everything a stir manually to combine, then attach the dough hook on the stand mixer, set it to the bread setting (#2), and knead for 10 minutes.  The dough will be very sticky, loose and not remotely malleable (ie, incapable of being shaped).

Scoop the dough into a very large non-metallic bowl.  The dough will bubble up so use a very large, deep bowl with