Rye bread

I figured the first loaf of bread for my bread challenge should be something I'll really like, so I chose rye bread. I have been eating it since I was a kid, and I love the caraway seeds. As an added bonus, it makes two loaves, so I can bring one to my convalescing mom.

First, I should note that I had a little bit of a wild goose chase with some of these ingredients. Better Homes & Gardens has a lot of bread recipes, and they're usually pretty long and involved, so most of them don't have a bulleted list of ingredients. Instead, they just write the instructions and put the ingredients in italics. (E.g., Stir 1 tbsp. caraway seeds into 2 cups all-purpose flour...)

So, on first read, I thought that the only weird ingredient (i.e., one I don't perpetually keep in my pantry) was caraway seeds. However, I got part-way through assembling ingredients and noticed that I needed rye flour, too. Damnit. So I had to go out and get some rye flour at Whole Foods, since apparently Dominick's doesn't carry it.

At any rate, my recipe illiteracy aside, it wasn't a difficult recipe to read. Mix some all-purpose flour, yeast, and caraway seeds:


Then mix warm water, brown sugar, oil, and salt in another bowl:


Then I mixed the dry and wet ingredients together, mixed in the rye flour, and turned the dough onto a kneading board to knead in some more all-purpose flour. This was a pretty sticky dough, so I didn't have too much trouble getting the flour incorporated. Then I balled it up and let it rise in a greased bowl.


After rising for a while, I punched it down and divided it up to rise some more. Then I divided it into two loaves and Dave baked it for me while I was at my crochet meeting.

It didn't turn out quite as expected - it's a little flat - but it's delicious and soft!


I loved this recipe and would definitely make it again. I ate it with some chunks of Brie for dinner.


Mmm. First bread down!