How to Make Super Easy No-Nonsense Rye Bread That Will Stay Fresh for Days

This is another recipe that I have adapted from ‘The Rye Baker’. It is inspired by the Finnish archipelago bread. I’ve changed some of the ingredients and proportions to suit my taste. All the slight changes result in an extremely flavourful, sweet, moist, and dense rye bread that will stay fresh for many days.

Slice it nice and thin and it will go well with pretty much anything you put on it.

Recipes like these are as simple as baking can get. All the ingredients are mixed from the get-go, the dough is moulded into a baking tin, followed by final proofing and baking.

You can adjust the recipe by swapping the raisins for nuts or more seeds or some other type of dried fruits. Use any seeds you like. Swap the honey and molasses with other sweet syrups. Play with the flours and ratios. White wheat flour really helps with making the bread lighter. You can go with 100% rye. In that case I would suggest using white rye as it will also help with making the crumb softer and lighter.

If you can’t get a hold of wheat bran you can use whole wheat flour instead. Or you can sift whole wheat flour to remove the bran and use that.

This loaf will fit perfectly in a 2lb baking tin. You can find the exact one I use in my Amazon shop if you’re interested.

Watch the video down below for detailed instructions.

Ingredients

For the dough –

300g (10.6oz) white wheat bread flour

250g (8.8oz) wholegrain (dark) rye flour

50g (1.75oz) wheat bran

100g (3.5oz) raisins

80g (2.8oz) linseeds

60g (2.1oz) sunflower seeds

600g (1.32lb) buttermilk

7g (0.25oz) salt

50g (1.75oz) honey

50g (1.75oz) blackstrap molasses or black treacle

10g (0.35oz) instant dry yeast or 12g (0.42oz) active dry yeast or 30g (1oz) fresh yeast

If you are using active dry yeast, then you may need to let it sit in the water for 10 minutes before adding the other ingredients or else it could take a lot longer to raise the dough.

Method

1. In a large bowl combine the buttermilk, yeast, salt, honey, molasses, and seeds. Whisk until smooth.
2. Add the wheat bran and keep whisking. Add the white wheat flour and mix until there is no dry flour left.
3. Finally, add the wholegrain rye flour and mix one last time.
4. Place the dough in a greased baking tin and spread it out so it reaches all the corners and fits the tin perfectly. Smooth out the surface. *My dough was relatively cool after mixing. That is because I used cold buttermilk. Use room temperature ingredients to raise the final dough temperature and to shorten fermentation time. But there is certainly nothing wrong with having a cooler dough and fermenting it for slightly longer.
5. Cover and ferment for 2 – 2.5 hours or until the dough has risen by about 30%. During the final hour of fermentation pre-heat the oven to 160C (320F) fan off or 140C (285F) fan on. This bread is dense and heavy, so it needs a low and slow bake.
6. Cover the tin with a lid or with a piece of foil.
7. Bake for 2 hours or until the core temperature reaches at least 94C (200F).
8. Drizzle the bread with honey to make it nice and shiny (optional).
9. Leave it to rest in the tin for 15 minutes before removing.
10. Cool down completely and then wrap in plastic and leave to mature for 1 day.

Keep in mind that the conditions in each kitchen are different, so fermentation times may vary for you. It is up to the baker to control the bread and react accordingly.

Your oven may be different too, so your baking time may vary.