Homemade rye bread: Simple steps for bakery-quality results
In bakeries, a loaf of quality rye bread with seeds can cost up to 4 GBP for less than a kilogram. However, making homemade bread is surprisingly simple. Moreover, you can produce up to six small loaves from 1 kilogram of flour. Recently, one loaf lasted me a week, maintaining its freshness and taste each day.
You can bake homemade bread with seeds using either wheat or rye flour. The former results in a lighter loaf, but rye flour provides a bread that's richer in flavour and fibre. From a basic recipe, countless variations can be created. At the moment, my favourite is bread with nigella seeds and flaxseeds.
How to prepare bread with seeds at home without sourdough?
While baking bread with wheat or rye sourdough at home is possible, it is a time-consuming process. The sourdough needs about seven days to mature, and once ready, the bread must rise overnight.
A simpler alternative is to prepare the dough with dry yeast. Mix it with the other ingredients, and after two hours, you can place the dough in the oven.
What additions make homemade bread turn out best?
This largely depends on personal taste. According to my mum's advice, if you choose to add dried fruits, limit yourself to one type. Don't mix cranberries, plums, and raisins, as this can result in an unappealing mush.
Be mindful of the quantity of seeds. Choose two to three types that complement one another. If the seeds are large, like pumpkin seeds, ensure they are well mixed into the dough for even distribution. Clumped seeds can make slicing the bread difficult.
Rye bread with nigella and flaxseeds
This recipe is intended for 1 kilogram of flour. With these proportions, you can fill three large rectangular baking pans (similar to those used for pound cake or gingerbread) or six smaller so-called pâté moulds.
Dry Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups light flaxseeds,
- 2 cups sunflower seeds,
- 1 cup oatmeal,
- 2 packets of nigella seeds,
- 2 tablespoons salt,
- 1 kilogram rye bread flour,
- 2 packets dry yeast (1 packet per half-kilogram of flour).
Wet Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons honey,
- 1.5 litres warm water.
Method of Preparation:
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients and knead the dough by hand or using a mixer with dough hooks.
- Pour the dough into pans greased with olive oil. Fill them to a maximum of two-thirds full because the dough rises during baking.
- Cover with a clean cloth and set aside in a warm place for two hours.
- Put the pans with bread into an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius for 70 minutes.
- Open the oven, brush the loaves with olive oil. Lower the temperature to 160 degrees Celsius and bake for another 15 minutes.
