How to make a rye bread without sourdough

A rye bread made from rye only is almost impossible to eat. It’s too heavy and dense and tastes dry and bitter. Since it’s a rye bread we add a lot of whole rye grains which we e soak in beer for 24 hrs to make the them tender and tasty – otherwise the grains would be hard as stones and soak the fluid for the dough and make the bread very dry.

We use beer instead of water to get the malty taste from our childhood rye breads.

Then we add wheat and drained yogurt to soften the bread and give it a little sour taste and a ‘spongy’ texture. Finally we add a lot of seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, mixed seeds… ).

To salter and sweeten the bread we use Kikkoman’s Soy Sauce and a good honey. 

We leave the dough to rest for 24 hr. This long fermentation – it gives the proteins (gluten) time to mimic the effect of sourdough (Gluten is like a net that holds bread together and helps dough to rise by trapping gas bubbles during fermentation). 

After 24 hr is almost identical with sour dough rye breads.

It may sound complicated – but it’s. The hands on time is around 30 minutes spread over 3 days.

And it may look expensive – and compared to our wheat bread it is. But compared to the rye bread you can buy it isn’t. The ingredients above cost around € 5 and gives two 1.3 kg breads. That’s 25% of the prize you pay for the same amount in a crafted bakery of 40% of what you pay for an IKEA bread.

But more important – its healthier and much more fun to make.

Bon appetit

Thomas