If you’re after a hearty brown bread, this is it. I’ve made a lot of bread in my life, and this is by far my favorite in terms of flavor. I admittedly underbaked mine, so I recommend going to 40-45 minutes when baking, but the result is a chewy, delicious bread.
Another note: the coarseness of the rye will rip the gluten strands during kneading, but that’s why we add extra all purpose flour. You could do this with bread flour, but I’d test the dough after the 3 cups are added. You could also add in 2 tbsps of vital wheat gluten if you don’t have bread flour, but I didn’t use it in this recipe because I don’t know who all has such an ingredient.
The coarser flour tends to hydrate faster since there’s not as much gluten in it, so combining the white and the rye flour helps balance. Test your dough after adding three cups and add in the fourth cup during the kneading process if you notice it’s still too wet. I think in total I had 4 and 1/3 cups flour. It might be different for you, though. The dough should be slightly tacky, but not sticky.
Ingredients and Method:
1 tbsp + 1 tsp yeast (active dry)
2 cups warm water
2 scant tsps sugar
Combine these into a large bowl and whisk to dissolve the sugar and yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes–really do let it sit for ten minutes. The yeast needs time with this type of bread.
2 tbsp melted butter (I used plant based)
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 cups rye flour
3-4 cups all purpose flour
Stir in flours, salt, and butter, and mix until a dough forms. Once dough forms into a ball, move to a well floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, adding more flour as needed to prevent dough from sticking to the surface. This part could also be done in a stand mixer, but as I make bread by hand, I don’t have time measurements for how long to let it go in a mixer. The dough should spring back when gently pressed.
Set dough in a bowl in a warm place, loosely covered, until doubled in size. Since it’s a heavier bread, it’ll take longer than an hour. Mine took about 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Gently fold dough out of the bowl onto a clean surface, floured if dough is tacky, and divide into loaves. Grease loaf pans and let rise again for 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400* F in the last fifteen minutes of the rise time. Bake at 400 for 5 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 375 to finish baking. This bread will take a bit to bake. I recommend checking it at the half hour mark, but it’ll probably take closer to 45 minutes.
Remove from pans and let cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. Makes 2 loaves.
salisbury.fake 