Have you ever tried rye bread? If you love full, rustic flavors, then you absolutely must try it. It’s a bread that can accompany both sweet and savory dishes without any issues. I had heard about it, but had never tried it and was curious to experiment with this new flavor. I bought some rye flour, did some research, and tried making the bread. The experiment was quite successful, as rye bread is easy to make, even easier than wheat bread. Let’s discover why. To start, it doesn’t require double rising; in fact, once shaped, it is placed directly to rise in the chosen molds. The dough has a consistency similar to that of gnocchi and doesn’t require long kneading. By weight, rye bread has fewer calories than wheat bread. If you want to learn more about rye, you can check out this article here.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 12 Hours
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 10
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All Seasons
Ingredients
- 13 oz whole rye flour
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp fine salt
- 3.5 oz sourdough starter
- as needed durum wheat semolina for the table
Steps
To make our rye bread, let’s start by refreshing the sourdough starter according to our habits and wait for it to rise well before proceeding with the baking. I recommend preparing the bread in the evening and baking it in the morning; this way, it will have time to rise overnight.
Once the sourdough starter is ready, place it in a large bowl with the flour, salt, and part of the water. Start kneading with your hands (or you can use a mixer) to mix the starter with the flour. At this point, gradually add the rest of the water until you obtain a very soft, moist dough where all ingredients are perfectly combined.
Transfer the dough onto a surface lightly dusted with durum wheat semolina and knead it for a few minutes, rolling it over itself several times, until you have a smooth and uniform loaf, which will then rise directly, doubling in size, in a loaf pan lined with parchment paper or greased with a thin layer of seed oil to ensure that the rye bread can be easily removed once cooked.
Dust the loaf with a little semolina and place it in the pan. When the dough has doubled in volume, turn on the oven, set it to the maximum temperature, and wait for it to reach it.
Place the bread in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 392°F, letting it bake for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, reduce it again to 356°F and let it bake for another 15 minutes or so. The baking times refer to my gas oven. Rye bread is characterized by being soft yet compact and dry.
Once baked, remove it from the oven and let it cool before slicing.
Bon appétit
