This is the Jewish Rye Bread recipe that goes so well with the Lentil Soup recipe that I shared with you the other day. Like most breads, this one is simple in ingredients, it just takes some time. This one's the light rye, with caraway seeds, and it's famous for its role in the classic Reuben sandwich. I used to make many, many loaves of this one when we had our espresso cafe.
These are your dry ingredients...yep, just 6 items here. I don't know about where you live, but rye flour isn't readily available around here. It used to be, when I was having to buy multiple bags of the stuff, but not anymore! If you can't find rye flour where you live, Barry Food Farms in Ohio has good pricing (except for the shipping, and that's not their fault!) on their organic flours. Anyway...the recipe I'm sharing makes one loaf. I did two, one at a time, for this post. ;)
Jewish Rye Bread
2.5 cups bread flour
(all purpose flour doesn't have the gluten strength to stand with the heavier rye)
1 cup rye flour
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 packet of yeast (2-3/4 teaspoons)
1 cup warm water
1.5 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (I had yogurt on hand today)
1 to 2 tablespoons caraway seeds (I did 1 tablespoon)
Yep, that's it...do you have everything you need? Let's bake!
Start by putting the rye flour, the sugar and the yeast into your mixer bowl.
To this, add the cup of warm water and mix well to completely wet the rye flour. This allows it to soften, and it will better assimilate into the bread dough. Rye flour has a denser quality than our all purpose or bread flours...it can give a baker fits, trying to get a loaf to not drop from its weight. It's stickier by nature, and will not act like regular flour...so don't expect it to conform. It's a rebel, rye is! Anyway, this is going to just sit here, like that, for 20 to 25 minutes.
Next, add in the yogurt or sour cream. The original recipe called for sour cream, but we've learned that we can swap it out for yogurt, and it does remarkably well. This step helps keep your bread moister for a little longer. Using no preservatives, you can't expect more than a few days of good bread before it goes stale. This helps those days be even better.
Add the rest of the ingredients...the bread flour, salt and caraway seeds.
We're going to knead this with our mixer for 7 minutes, total. As it mixes up, the stickiness of the rye flour will, most likely, overcome the bread flour...like this. You can add another 2 tablespoons of bread flour and it'll tighten up. You don't want to just add it in the beginning, as it may not need it.
You can tell how sticky a dough this is by the way it falls off the dough hook. This is what you want to see. It's not messed up. Don't add more flour. Wet your hands to get it off the hook and out of the bowl, or it will stick to your fingers like glue!
And, with your wet hands, form it into a ball, place it in a greased bowl to rise, covered loosly with a tea towel.
After an hour to an hour and a half, your dough will have risen to double it's size. You can speed up the rising by placing the bowl in a warm spot over your stove...I usually heat my oven to a low temperature and the air vents run the heat to the surface.
Gently punch the dough down, and spread it out. The dough will feel quite tacky still...this is normal.
Roll it up as tightly as you can, and shape it into a rustic oval loaf...or do a round loaf if you prefer!
Set your loaf on a parchment lined baking sheet for the final rise. Spritz with water and cover lightly with a tea towel, let rest and rise for another hour to hour and a half. They get huge!
After they've finished rising, give the bread another spritz of water and slit the surface with a sharp knife. One slit down the middle, or a few slits diagonally...whatever pattern you like! It allows the bread to expand even further as it bakes.
This goes in to a 350 degree farenheit, preheated oven.
Bake it for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown, with an internal temperature between 205 to 210 degrees . Brush the surface with butter, if desired, while the bread is still warm. It will help keep your crust on the softer side. If you prefer the chewier crust, don't bother with the butter.
This is a wonderful, flavorful bread! I hope you'll give it a try! It makes delicious sandwiches and grilled cheese, besides being just plain old good, with hunks torn from the full loaf straight out of the oven! We served this with our Ham & Lentil Soup, and it was a huge hit!
For the soup recipe, the link is https://steemit.com/newbieresteemday/@mamajeani/comfort-food-ham-and-lentil-soup
Time to get back to the kitchen, my Steemian friends! We've got a brisket to season up for Texas Brisket Saturday! Everyone have a most wonderful day! Steem on!
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