Small Easter Cross Rye Bread

First of all, a Happy Easter and Happy Passover to All! It's been a busy day here today. I knocked out a dozen small rye breads today for Easter baskets which will be blessed at the church tomorrow. But I promised an update to the small rye bread recipe based on an earlier kitchen experiment, and although a little late, here we go.

Small Easter Cross Rye Bread

2 oz stone ground rye flour
9 oz all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vinegar
2 Tbsp butter
4 oz milk
3 oz water
2.25 tsp instant yeast - or 1 packet (7g, .25 oz)
1 Tbsp caraway seeds if desired

Put liquids except for vinegar into microwave safe container. Add butter and heat a minute or two until butter is melted. Cool liquids to about 100 F - 110 F or fingerwarm. Put flours, sugar, and yeast into large bowl and combine. Add warm liquids. Add your vinegar. Mix to combine. Add salt. Mix well to form a dough and turn out onto floured work surface. Knead about 5 to 7 minutes or until gluten forms. Put into oiled bowl and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 40-45 minutes.

For small ryes, divide dough into two equal portions. The dough yield here is about 18 ounces. Degas dough, stretch a little and fold into thirds twice. Let rest 10 minutes. Shape dough into round loaf by gathering it at the bottom and pinching the seams tightly. You basically want to pull and stretch the top to get some good dough tension. If your dough feels dry and won't pinch to seal, you can give it a very gentle spray of water. You just need to moisten it slightly, not wet it down. Score an X on top of loaf with a sharp knife of blade. Use egg white wash if desired.

Bake at 400 F for 33-37 minutes or until bottom of loaf is desired color. Cool thoroughly on wire rack. If you feel your loaf is browning too much too fast, turn oven down to 375 for the last few minutes of baking.

Notes: Stone ground flours measure differently and react differently with liquids with regards to their absorption. Your dough may feel hard when you start kneading it. Even if it feels dry and shaggy in the beginning, keep going. When mixing in the bowl, you don't have to work all the flour in. Just get as much as you can and dump the contents of the bowl on the work surface. Then work all the dry leftover flour in. You may be tempted to add more water at first - don't do it. It takes a few minutes to achieve proper hydration because of the stone ground rye.

A characteristic of rye flours in general is a lowered ability to form gluten. For this recipe, do not be fooled into thinking that using more stone ground rye flour here will give a better rye taste. I tested various amounts for these small loaves. Adding more will only toughen your dough and lessen your gluten network. About 2.5 oz of rye flour should be about the maximum you should use here.

The stone ground rye flour I used here is from Hodgson Mill. As you can see from the above discussion, a standard bag will go a long way.



The use of butter in this recipe gives the dough very nice extensibility. Here a multiple recipe has risen very nicely. The hydration ratio here is about 63% and it is a nice workable dough.

Measuring Stone Ground Rye Flour - Usually regular all purpose flour weighs 4 ounces per dry measure cup when measuring properly. Spoon contents into the cup and level it with a knife, do not scoop from the bag. Stone ground flour is different - it is heavier by volume. If you have no scale, using a dry 1/2 cup measure and filling it to about 1/4 inch below the capacity will give you just about the right 2 oz. amount required here. I'll be doing a whole separate post on measuring properly. It can make or break your bread.

About Scoring Loaves - Achieving good dough tension helps you get good scoring. For this loaf I used a really great Henckel's serrated steak knife. This dough is a good one for beginners in order to work on scoring. apply your egg wash if desired, give it a chance to air dry just a few minutes, and give it a rip ;-) a minute or two before it goes into the oven.

I use different tools for scoring different doughs depending on the character of the particular dough. For this little rye, I happen to like the Henckel's knife.

Baking As a Single Loaf - This dough recipe is a little weighty for baking a single loaf. I'll post one up soon that will work better for beginners. A little bit of a lighter loaf will shape up easier and give you a better rise. This can be baked as a single though. Just adjust baking time to up to about 36-42 minutes, or until loaf is cooked properly, the bottom is browned, and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

One great thing about bread baking - you can pick it up, look at the bottom, tap it, then put it back if it's not done to your liking. Try that with a cake layer!

Enjoy your Holiday Weekend everyone, and we'll get more goodies on here soon!