Swedish Rye Bread

One of the few baking projects that I have tried recently is some beautiful Swedish rye bread. The shops had a shortage of plain flour for a while, so I decided to try baking with some rye flour. My Swedish grandmother always used to make lovely breakfast rolls similar to this recipe.

 

Ingredients

• 50g Butter
• 5dl milk (or a mixture of milk and plain yoghurt)
• 50g fresh yeast (or 1 packet – 7g – dried yeast)
• 2tsp salt
• 1-2 tblsp honey
• 7dl rye flour
• approx 6dl plain flour

Method

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and then add the rest of the liquid. Heat to 37°c (or 45°c if you are using dry yeast). Dissolve your yeast into this warm liquid. Add salt and hiney. Gradually mix in the rye flour, and then as much of the plain flour as you need to make a smooth dough that you can knead.  Put in a bowl and leave to rise in a warm, draft-free place with a damp tea towel over the top. It needs to rise for up to an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Knead your dough using more flour until it is a firm, smooth dough. Make your dough into rolls, loaves etc. Bake in a 200°c oven until golden and hollow sounding when tapped.