Light Rye Bread

Do you like to bake your own bread? I know I do!! Only recently, did I start baking with rye flour. Being that it's a low(er) gluten flour compared to bread flour, I was a bit intimidated by it. Of course, I imagined the worst: little to no rise, or a sunken loaf. Of course, none of that happened when I baked this lovely Light Rye Bread from the King Arthur Flour website. I did make some changes to the recipe which you'll find at the bottom of this post.

Light and fluffy texture!

I made only half the recipe which yielded one loaf, just in case it didn't turn out. All the ingredients went into the bread machine. I ran the Dough Cycle (a 90-min program) without any issues.

After shaping the dough into a loaf, it went into its second rise, followed by a 35 min bake in the oven. Lovely bread!

What struck me as strange was that, although I used less molasses, my bread turned out darker than the one on the KAF website. Maybe my rye flour was darker than theirs. When I bought mine at a local co-op, the bulk bin only said "organic rye flour".

I love homemade bread. Don't you?

Final thoughts/tips:

• Wonderful bread. Soft, light and fluffy with only a hint of molasses. Made great sandwiches. Leftover bread was sliced and frozen without any issues.
• Hubby loved this bread too.
• Next time I'll try to incorporate some WW flour into the mix. With only a third whole-grains (from the rye flour), I don't feel the bread is "healthy" enough. Don't let that dark color fool you :o)
• The original recipe can be found HERE. Please see my modified version below.

Light Rye Bread

(adapted from King Arthur Flour)

Ingredients:

• 6 1/2 oz unbleached all-purpose flour (or 3 oz whole wheat flour + 3 1/2 oz unbleached all-purpose flour)
• 2 1/2 oz unbleached bread flour
• 3 3/4 oz organic rye flour
• 1/2 oz brown sugar
• 5 gr sea salt
• 3/4 oz vegetable oil
• 3/4 oz molasses
• 1/2 oz honey
• 1/2 oz non-fat dry milk powder
• 9 oz lukewarm water (plus 1-2 Tbsp, if necessary)
• 10 gr Vital Wheat Gluten
• 25 gr ground dark flax seeds
• 4 gr instant yeast (1 1/4 tsp)

Instructions:

• Put all the ingredients in the bowl of your bread machine.
• Run the Dough Cycle (a 90-minute program) which includes the first rise.
• Shape the dough into a loaf and put it into an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan.
• Let it rise for 50 min.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F before the bread has finished its second rise (I used convection mode).
• Spray the loaf with water.
• After putting the bread into the oven, reduce the temperature to 335 F (I used convection mode), and bake for 35 min.