Nordic Whole-Grain Rye Bread
- Total Time
- 2 days
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:2 large or 3 medium loaves
- ⅓cup/85 grams buttermilk, skyr or yogurt, at room temperature
- 2cups/250 grams medium rye flour
- ½ teaspoon/2 grams active dry yeast
- 2cups/340 grams cracked rye berries or coarse rye meal
- 1cup/170 grams sunflower seeds
- 4cups/400 grams medium rye flour
- 4teaspoons/20 grams kosher or coarse sea salt
- 3tablespoons/40 grams malt syrup or molasses (not blackstrap)
- ½ teaspoon/2 grams active dry yeast
For the Starter
For the Grains
For the Bread
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (2 servings)
1815 calories; 50 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 17 grams monounsaturated fat; 22 grams polyunsaturated fat; 304 grams carbohydrates; 50 grams dietary fiber; 39 grams sugars; 58 grams protein; 1499 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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- Step 1
On Day 1, make the starter: In a medium-size bowl, mix ¾ cup warm water with the buttermilk or yogurt. Whisk flour and yeast together, add to the buttermilk mixture and use your hands to mix together until sticky and moist; add more warm water as needed. Cover tightly and set aside at cool room temperature overnight, or up to 24 hours.
- Step 2
Also on Day 1, soak the grains: Mix 4 cups cold water with the rye berries (or meal) and sunflower seeds. Cover and set aside at cool room temperature overnight, or up to 24 hours.
- Step 3
On Day 2, make the bread: Drain the soaked grains in a colander. Measure 35 ounces/1,000 grams of the grains and place in a deep bowl. Add 14 ounces/400 grams of the starter and mix well. (Any remaining starter can be saved to use with other bread recipes.) Add the flour, salt, malt (or molasses), yeast and 2 cups water. Mix dough firmly by hand to combine. The dough should be grainy, but quite runny and wet, almost like a thick batter. To achieve that texture, add cold water, ¼ cup at a time, mixing after each addition. To test: When a walnut-size piece of dough smeared on the rim of the bowl slides slowly and smoothly down the inside, like a snail leaving a trail, the dough it is wet enough.
- Step 4
Thickly butter 3 medium or 2 standard-size loaf pans. Divide the dough evenly among the pans, filling them about half full. Cover and let rise at room temperature until dough almost fills pans, about 2 hours. (Dough will not rise more during baking.)
- Step 5
Heat oven to 450 degrees. Bake loaves for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 360 and bake until firm and glossy brown, 80 minutes to 2 hours more depending on size and moisture content of loaves. Let cool completely in the pans before turning out. Bread freezes well, and lasts for at least a week at room temperature, wrapped in paper.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Beth
My Norwegian mother-in-law puts the dough in a cold oven, sets the temperature to 225 degrees F and lets it rise for 30 minutes. Then she turns the temp up to 350 F and lets the loaf bake until done (1 - 1 1/2 hours). Dense and delicious!
Lisa
Never, ever did an instruction call for an accompanying video more than this one: "When a walnut-size piece of dough smeared on the rim of the bowl slides slowly and smoothly down the inside, like a snail leaving a trail, it is wet enough."
dhwsmith
If you save the water you drain from the soaked grains you can use it as part of the water you add in the final mix. This might add nutrients that otherwise would go down the drain.
Julia Moskin
Dear readers,
I'm so sorry about trouble with this recipe; the moisture content of the dough is tricky. An initial blast of heat will help. Also, it's necessary to keep baking well after the temperature hits 210.
Step 5 should begin:
"Heat oven to 450 degrees. Bake loaves for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 360 and bake until firm and glossy brown, 80 minutes to 2 hours more depending on size and moisture content. Let cool..."
Thanks and sorry again
Julia
Dave Kerr
Medium Rye Flour? Is that White Rye Flour?
Maggie
If you want to try this without having leftover leaven and grains, you can make the starter with:
138g water
66g buttermilk
194g rye flour
2 g yeast
For the grains, you can soak 234g cracked rye and 117g sunflower seeds in 650g water.
Lenore
I live in Denmark, and I make this kind of bread a lot. An important tip -You should never try to slice this kind of bread until at least 12 hours after baking. It's also a good idea to wrap the warm loaf in a dishcloth and leave it out on the kitchen counter overnight after baking.
If you don't have any luck with this recipe, you might want to try the Danish cookbook author Trine Hanneman's: http://trinehahnemann.com/recipes/bread/trines_rye_bread_recipe.html
Gary johnson
Second try worked! I used a lot less water than first time. More of a wet dough than a batter. ( No snail.) Let it rise at room temp all night. Baked at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, then 360 degrees for 90 minutes to 220 degrees internal temp and left the pan in the cooling oven another night. Sliced bread next day. Very good. The learning experience and the taste and texture of this thread was worth all the work.
angela
What are the dimensions of the recommended pans? "Medium" and "standard" are confusing.
Philip
Here's a helpful chart of pan sizes that I found:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html
According to King Arthur and others, a "standard" loaf pan is 4-1/2 inches x 8-1/2 inches, and holds 6 cups. (two of them = 12 cups) A 4 x 8 pan holds 4 cups. (3 of them = 12 cups)
Missy
I would just use 400 gms of a rye starter. If you already do sourdough just take 1/4 cup of your reg starter and feed with equal amounts rye flour and water for several days to change it from wheat to rye.
megp
Found a different recipe with a picture that looked right. Didn't require sourdough. Was amazingly easy to make. Soaked rye berries overnight. Beautiful when it came out of oven but way crunchy. Rye needed to be simmered to soften. Nearly inedible as it was, i turned these lovely ingredients into porridge. Crumbled a slice into small pot. Added milk, raisins. Simmered until the darn rye berries were soft- 12 min. Yum! Your failure can be eaten! Keeps tightly wrapped in fridge for ages.
Birgit
I made this bread using 400 g of ripe 100% hydration sourdough starter mixed with 400 g dark rye flour, the soaked grain/seeds, and some soaking water. No yeast. I filled two random loaf pans I had with the dough coming up half way before letting it proof at room temperature (75F) for 6 hours. The dough had risen to the top of the pan by the time it went into the oven. I baked as per instructions and the temp. of the loaves was 211F after 80 min. It came out delicious and looks like the picture.
Gina
Check out the Farine blog. She had a similar issue with the first loaf and photos of 2 attempts. She lists some changes suggested by Stanley Ginsberg who wrote the book "The Rye Baker."
susan eddy
My bread came out like a viking ship ballast for an Atlantic crossing. Humor in cooking.
Peter
How can I get the center to finish without ending up with an overly thick, overdone outside? I’ve tried this recipe three times over the years and haven’t gotten it right yet.
karrie
I had great success with this recipe. After reading the comments, I adjusted my cooking to 15 minutes at 450° then lowered temperature: got a crunchy crust and soft interior. I also had to let my dough rise for an additional hour inside of the oven with the oven light on: my home is a little cool And the dough had not doubled in size. Next time, I think I will experiment with cutting back slightly on the salt: the recipe is fine as is, but just slightly salty for my taste. Great recipe!
Eliz.
TIPS: 1/ Check bag of flour for accurate weight of grams per cup and add 4 full cups worth on Day 2; flaws in recipe may explain gumminess reported. 2/Prepare to wait 3-4 hours for rise in pans. 3/Don't go for a walk during that final hour before baking since plastic wrap will cling to sticky dough in center of loaf (no disaster but). 4/Instant yeast works. 5/Crack rye berries with knife. Results fine but will try Sam Fromartz 's Roggenweizenbrot, p. 220 of IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT LOAF next.
Eliz.
Julia Moskin, Food Editors or others who have made this recipe, please advise regarding inaccurate weights (?) or measurements of cups. Does one add 2 cups of flour on Day 2 when making half the recipe or 200 grams? 1/4 cup of Arrowhead Mills Organic Rye Flour weighs 30 grams, so 2 cups would equal 240 grams.
Kate Bai
All comments were helpful, but I still followed the recipe as precisely as I could, and it turned out amazing! Soaked berries for 24hrs. starter set for 24 hrs, and then the dough for 5 hrs (as I forgot earlier). 10 min on 450 and 80 on 360. Internal temp was 205, but I was afraid the breads were overbaked, as the tops were quite hard and sides had separated. So, I covered twice with dishcloths and a baking pan on top and left overnight. The next morning, the bread was perfect and moist inside!
Kate Bai
I also used whole rye berries as I overlooked the word "cracked", but the soaking softened them up a ton, so it was totally fine! I initially thought the salt would be too much as I don't like salty foods, but I'm so glad I followed the recipe since the flavor is just right! Also, I am literally a first time bread baker. This recipe reminds me of the many many trips to Scandinavia! It is a winner.
Katy
I don't have any cracked rye, but I do have buckwheat, sorghum, millet, barley, and bulgur. Could I use any of these in place of rye berries for the grains?
larry
Second try worked great. First i didn’t simply drain the grains. I squeezed another cup or more-of the liquid out. Secondly my kitchen is on the cool side. So i move the rise out near the woodstove and let it rise about three and a half hours. Delicious.
Jennifer Y
Was nervous about this based on comments in the reviews, but mine turned out great. I used coarse rye meal rather than cracked rye berries and added 1.5 cups of water rather than 2 because the meal had absorbed so much when soaked. Baked for 80 minutes. Turned out with excellent flavor and texture. When toasted, the crust is super crunchy and the inside still moist and lovely. Much better than I was expecting!
Tara S
Followed the instructions to a tee: -Starter was pretty thick. Used all the starter so as not to waste the remainder. -Used rye flakes. -Didn't add more water. -After 45 mins in the oven I noticed bread was pulling away from the sides of the pan. Checked and it was fully cooked. -Would have preferred more salt to my taste. Turned out just like the Danish rye from my local bakery :)
Julie
I only had whole rye, and ran it threw my vitamix to break it down a bit. I like a nuttier bread so I added an extra 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds and added a nut crust on top. Added the water gradually to the dough til texture was as described. Didn't need all the water. Turned out amazingly delicious! It was so easy, just takes time to prep and waiting for it to cool! I enjoy it sliced thin and well toasted.
Tara
Followed the tip from Anna about starting with 1.5 cups of water and adding bit by bit and it worked perfectly first time. Also used the water from soaking for added flavor. Used King Arthur Baking Harvest Grains Blend as a sub for rye berries and sunflowers seeds. Looks picture perfect.
Tim
Disastrous. Separation of crust and inner, which is just a sad gloopy mess. This recipe should be taken down. A waste of ingredients and efforts.
Tim
Maggie that’s wrong. The recipe amounts are quite precise. No leftovers.
M Montgomery
I’ve made this recipe twice now, and it’s a great hit. I do have comments. There seems to be a typo in the amount of the medium rye flour, and it should read 500 grams for the four cups of flour. Also, couldn’t it be more efficient? Why drain the moisture out of the mash and then add water back? Couldn’t this all be measured accurately to begin with ?
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