Sometimes all I really need is a good piece of bread.
I know, it sounds too easy right? But it’s true. Sometimes I’d wonder around the kitchen looking for that something to eat, not a meal, just a little something – that’s when I turn to bread.
Think about it, bread with butter – a nosh, bread with cheese and omelet – lunch, bread with jam or chocolate – dessert. It’s the ultimate food y’all.
So imagine how thrilled I was when I cleaned one of my kitchen cupboards and found a 2kg bag of Rye Flour.
Now, I’ve never baked anything with rye flour so this was all new to me, and when something is new I turn to Google. I researched a little bit about rye flour and found that it is not as high in gluten as traditional bread flour so that means I’ll need to add another flour to the mix to provide the gluten so my bread is nice a fluffy as opposed to nice kinda dry. I decided to add whole wheat bread flour (organic too!) and the results were phenomenal.
I made my first loaf about 10 days ago, and made 3 more loaves and 14 buns since.
It’s really easy to work with rye flour and the taste is earthy, deep and just so good! You can literally feel the wholesomeness in it.
On a whole different note, I might have gained a few pounds so beware. I’m not saying I’m not going to eat more bread; I’m just starting to think that a pair of exercise bikes for my birthday might not be such a bad idea.
By the way, is it just me or as we get older the birthday presents get lamer? Hmmm.
UPDATE: I DID end up getting those Exercise Bikes 🙂
- 3 Cups Rye Flour
- 3 Cups Whole Wheat Bread Flour
- 2 Tbsp Dry Yeast
- 1 Tbsp Sugar
- ½ Tbsp Salt
- 3 Cups Lukewarm Water
- Some extra Whole Wheat Flour for kneading
- Some extra Rye Flour for dusting
- In a stand mixer bowl (you can also do this in a regular bowl and knead by hand) place the rye flour, whole wheat flour, yeast, sugar and salt and mix them together.
- Add in the water and start stirring until all the ingredients are combined and form soft dough
- If the dough is sticky, dust with whole wheat flour and knead until the dough is soft and doesn’t stick, you may have to dust the dough a few times.
- For 2 bread loaves, divide the dough into 2 pieces and shape each piece into an elliptical loaf.
- Place on a parchment paper layered large baking pan, dust with some rye flour on the top and using a sharp knife cut a few X shaped incisions along the top (no need to cut too deep)
- Cover the loaves with a clean kitchen towel and let them rest in a warm place for about 45 minutes until they rise.
- For 14 buns, divide the dough into 14 pieces, roll each piece into a ball, place on a parchment paper layered baking pan, dust with some rye flour and cut an X on the top of each bun. Now let the buns rest and rise for about 40 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400F (200C) – Do Not use a convection oven for this, just a regular one
- Place a small baking pan filled with water on the bottom rack in the oven
- After the loaves/buns almost doubled their size, place in a preheated oven on the middle rack
- After about 15 minutes, gently open the oven and remove the baking pan with water.
- Keep baking for 35-40 minutes until the top and the bottom crusts are hard and hollow sounding when tapped
THANK _ YOU !!!!!
Rye buns are so hard to find.
Hi! I’m busy baking those rolls this minute – the first time I am making rolls of any kind ever! Normally I only bake rye sourdough bread. I am just wondering – must the rolls really bake that long? Just as long as the bread?
About half the time for rolls