Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Danish Rye Bread for #BreadBakers




This month is my first month joining  #BreadBakers, and our host with the most, Anshie Dhar of Spice Roots decided we should make a  Rye bread containing no refined flours or sugar.  Let me tell you...this was quite the challenge!!  One of the biggest challenges was getting out of Anshie's blog once I was there.  My goodness, she has recipes influenced by cultures world wide!!!  You know that is right up  my alley and you can be sure I will be visiting Anshie's blog quite often in the future.  You should too....I am telling you it is AWESOME!


But I finally had to pull myself away, wipe the drool from my chin and come up with a rye bread that did not contain processed flour or sugar.  Now nearly every recipe for bread that I have ever used calls for at least some all purpose or bread flour and I must confess the thought of only using unrefined flours and grains made me fearful that the bread was going to be more like a brick.  But I love a challenge so I flipped through my multitudes of cookbooks, magazines and recipes stuffed into boxes.  Then I went onto the internet and I finally settled for a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com that had been submitted by KNUDR.  This recipe was done in steps and contained only 1 c. of white flour that was listed as optional.  The recipe also called for white sugar which I replaced with honey. The recipe did not say whether you should increase the rye flour if you chose not to use the white but when making it, it was apparant that you needed to add the 3rd cup rye flour and then it still did not "come together" as the recipe said.  So then I added a cup of Old Fashioned Oats, and another cup and another cup and still it did not "come together" enough to be able to knead it as the recipe instructed.  I finally remembered that when I made Swedish Dark Rye Bread  the recipe had stated that it would be wet.  So I put the bread dough onto my baking pan, loosely shaped it and let it rise.


So at least it did not run all over the pan.
And it did rise some and it will rise more as it bakes, right??


Wrong!
It came out looking like a big old oatmeal cookie.
And it tasted.....like rye bread.

So, I waffled back and forth over whether I should go with this recipe or try another.  When I joined #BreadBakers, I had no idea how challenging my first month was going to be!!  Heck, I wasn't even sure if my using Old Fashioned Oats broke the rules for this month.  But when Frank went back and cut himself a second slice, my decision was made.

It may not be the prettiest loaf of bread.  It may not be the easiest of recipes.  I will probably never make this recipe again, with it's multiple steps and days worth of prep.  But it was tasty and, more importantly, it was finished.....so I'm using it!!

You can attach to the link above to try your hand at the original recipe....perhaps the problem was me and not it....or you can find my adaptation below.  Happy Bread Baking!!

Danish Rye Bread
adapted from Allrecipes.com, submitted by KNUDR

1 c. warm water (105-115*)
1 T yeast
1 T. honey
1 c. rye flour

1 t. yeast
1 t. honey
1/2 c. warm water
1 c. rye flour

1 T. honey
1 T. kosher salt
1 c. warm water
3 c. rye flour
3 c. old fashioned oats

In large bowl, combine first 4 ingredients. Cover batter with a damp cloth and place in a warm, draft free spot.

In the evening add the next 4 ingredients. Mix and cover with a damp cloth and set aside overnight.

In the morning, mix in remaining ingredients.  It will be very wet but able to be patted into a round loaf on a baking pan.  Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise for 45 minutes.  

Bake in a preaheated 375* oven for 30 minutes or until hollow sounding when tapped.  Print Recipe

Here are what the other bakers created this month




26 comments:

  1. Beautiful. There really is nothing like fresh baked bread. Catherine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well I don't know about beautiful but it was tasty. Thanks Catherine

      Delete
  2. I can imagine the look on your face when you peeked in the oven to see what looked like a giant oatmeal cookie. But looks are not the only thing. If it tastes good and people go back for seconds then that is all that counts.
    Oh, and welcome to Bread Bakers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Renee....I just wish I had a more successful recipe to post my first time LOL>

      Delete
  3. It *did* look like an oatmeal cookie--I kind of love it! And hooray for being intrepid and just going for it. Glad it was delicious, and even if you don't ever make it again, you will always have this blog post to remind you! lol Welcome to the group, Wendy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jenni. The memory will always bring a smile to my face.

      Delete
  4. It does indeed look just like an enormous oatmeal cookie, but that's a good thing, right? I'd be tempted to throw some raisins in there the next time, just for fun. :) Welcome to Bread Bakers, Wendy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Stacy and thanks for your constant support and help.

      Delete
  5. Welcome to the group! Because of the low gluten amounts it can be tricky to get big airy loaves of rye bread. But after several years of baking I've started to think that if it tastes good, who cares what it looks like!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, hopefully I will do better with next month's challenge

      Delete
  6. You made me laugh, Wendy! Welcome to Bread Bakers and sorry about the tough challenge. I actually had to make the rye breads twice. The first time I let them be on a cookie sheet and they looked like .. well a cookie! Then I just poured the whole thing in a loaf pan and Voila! If you liked the taste of the bread, try it in a loaf pan.
    And oats was a 'legally accepted" ingredient! Welcome and hope you have more fun in future challenges!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh I had fun Ansh, I just didn't do very well LOL. Thanks for hosting.

      Delete
  7. Oh I know the feeling of a recipe not turning out as expected but what a bonus that yours tasted great and turned out to be a baking success after all!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Welcome to Bread Bakers! It had to taste good with oats and honey in there!

    ReplyDelete
  9. As if there's anything wrong with oatmeal cookies… Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I behold that this is one nice oatmeal rye. Who can argue when people go back for more? Welcome to BreadBakers, Wendy!

    ReplyDelete
  10. If this ever happens again, just pour it into a loaf pan! Welcome to the group! Now I'm craving an oatmeal cookie.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Welcome to #BreadBakers! I love the group because it pushes me to try things I never have before, and even things I might never make again... but I learn about all sorts of new things that I now love, or never thought about before. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. You crack me up! It's sort of a rye pizzookie, right? I am sure that you were baptized into the group with the most difficult challenge =) Welcome to the group!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. That delight bread, but looks like a giant cookie !! i love it

    ReplyDelete
  14. Welcome to the Bread Bakers! I hope you enjoy baking with us. As long as it tastes good, it's that matters right?! it looks great and has me craving oats now.

    ReplyDelete

I enjoy getting comments and feedback from my audience. Please let me know what you think, keeping in mind that we are all entitled to our own beliefs and opinions. I am happy to hear yours as long as they are stated nicely.