by Yucca
(London UK)
I had my first go at making home-made Finnish Full Rye Bread and what’s better to use than the original Finnish recipe (found in the Nordic Bakery Cookbook). The recipe is pretty simple and if you follow the steps (and be patient), success is guaranteed!
Ingredients:
- 14 g easy-blend yeast (dry yeast)
- 900 ml – 1 l lukewarm water
- 800 g wholemeal rye flour
- 2 tablespoons sea salt
- 3 baking trays, lined with non stick baking paper
Directions:
1. Put the yeast in a large mixing bowl with 200ml of lukewarm water and a couple of spoons of flour.
Make sure the water is not too hot because it would spoil the yeast.
Stir well, cover with a clean towel and put in a warm place for overnight.
2. The next day, mix in the remaining flour and salt. I have used 400g of wholemeal rye flour with 400g of wholemeal flour for extra flavour.
Mix in enough lukewarm water to form soft dough.
Knead the dough on a floured surface for few minutes.
The dough will become sticky and soft.
3. Place the dough back into the mixing bowl, sprinkle with some flour and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour and a half.
The dough should double its size during this time.
4. After the dough has risen, take it out and roll it on a floured surface, dividing it into three balls.
Flatten the three dough balls into a shape of disk and make a hole in the middle, to create a ring shape (you can use small glass to do this).
Put your rings on baking trays and cover with tea towel, leaving to rest in warm place for another hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 200oC (425oF) Gas 7. Dust the bread with a bit of flour and bake for 30 mins.
The result is delicious!!! Happy baking!!!
– Yucca (http://www.ryebreadsuperfood.com/first-home-made-rye-bread)
Could I put this in a loaf pan instead?
This bread was submitted by a visitor so I haven’t made it, but it would probably do okay in a loaf pan. Keep in mind that this will be a very dense loaf since it uses 100% rye flour.
I’ve baked this in a pie shell, without making the hole in the middle. It doesn’t rise an awful lot so you have to experiment with the right form factor. The traditional Finnish breads are very flat, almost like cow pies.
A few observations from making this recipe a few times: if you use 100% rye, it’s almost impossible to knead by hand. The stuff is unbelievably sticky. The last time I made it, I mixed it with a spatula in a bowl for most of the kneading time, and it worked out okay.
You also can make it into small misshapen little “muffins” that turn into roundish small breads. This saves the frustration of trying to knead the rye dough, and tastes even better because there is more crust to go around.
I would also suggest to use an oiled metal baking pan if you do the breads, because otherwise this rye dough sticks to wax baking paper. I tried it the first time and regretted it… ended up eating a bit of wax paper with my bread!
Thank you for sharing your experience making this rye bread. 100% rye definitely makes a sticky dough and a flat bread but it sounds like you’ve found a method you can work with. I like the idea of using a muffin tin to make small breads. Very cool!
How long can you store this bread?
This particular rye bread was submitted by a reader so I couldn’t really say how long it will keep. Perhaps someone who has made it will chime in. I do know that sourdough rye has good keeping quality. And that it is best to let rye breads rest for 24-48 hours before slicing to keep them from getting gummy.
Here is a sourdough rye ring that also includes some wheat https://www.breadexperience.com/brasciadela-swiss-rye-ring/