Stuck at home? Why not try making rye bread?

April 22, 2020

With the current shortage of white flour in UK supermarkets and the seemingly steady supply of rye flour, home bakers might want to try their hand at making rye bread. Rye bread has a lot of character and some interesting flavour profiles that many outside of Scandinavia, Germany or Eastern Europe may be unfamiliar with. This is a bit of a shame as rye breads are delicious and have the added boon of being really good for you. They also have a very long shelf life.

There are a number of reasons why rye breads don’t enjoy much popularity in the UK, one being that it was traditionally a replacement for wheat which struggled to grow in the cold and humid climes of Eastern Europe and Russia. It also doesn’t help that rye breads with a high percentage of rye can be difficult to make as, unlike wheat flour, rye does not form a strong network of gluten and has to be treated differently. For example, wheat-based breads are usually folded once or twice after the dough has been mixed in order to develop the gluten and strengthen the dough (of course, this doesn’t help with rye bread which has very little gluten development). Rye doughs can also be quite fragile and don’t respond well to aggressive folding and mixing.

Breads high in rye flour also benefit from a well-maintained sourdough culture which makes sure that the inside of the bread develops properly. While this really improves the flavour and eating quality of the bread it does make it tricky to make.

Rye bread can be very dense and chewy so it isn’t ideal for sandwiches, however, it is very nice when eaten with cured meat, fish or cheese. You can also substitute wholemeal flour with rye in some recipes in order to create a more traditional loaf of bread.

If you’re interested in rye breads I would recommend looking through Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes.

You can find Hamelman’s recipe for a rye based sourdough culture here

You can also find his recipe for a 66% rye bread here