Is is just me, or has anyone noticed how hard it is to find good rye bread anymore? Well, not anymore, with the help of this great recipe from the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown. It was chosen by Astrid, of Paulchen’s Foodblog?! for this months Bread Baking Babe challenge earlier this month. Since I am a new “buddy”, we get until the end of the month to complete it. Of course, I waited until the last minute, but only to post about it in this case. I made this over a week ago to rave reviews by my husband and little girl. This is one fine bread.
The dough is made in 2 stages. You begin by making a batter and letting it rest for 45 minutes
Then you add the remaining ingredients and knead away. You can do this by hand but thank god for my old Kitchenaid!
I made a few slight changes to the recipes. First, it called for the zest of 2 oranges but when I started to make this I realized I didn’t have any! So to improvise I used meyer lemons (and the juice as well). While it was rising I noticed on the bag of rye flour that it said that lemon juice naturally improves lightness and volume in rye bread! The recipe calls for whole wheat flour at the end for kneading, which I did not need. I live in a dry climate and usually have to cut back on the flour department anyway. I also didn’t have an entire cup of dry milk powder so I used half milk powder and half potato flakes. All wonderful in the end!
So hurry up and head over here for this very tasty recipe.
What delicious looking rye bread! Also your tiger bread is gorgeous! Don’t you just love the cracked topping with the white bread peeking through?
Your bread looks great! And I think you were so brave attempting one after the other…
[…] Sandie of Crumbs of love […]
It’s not just you. I can’t believe how dull store-bought rye bread is now. Homemade rye is way better, isn’t it?
Your loaf looks fabulous! I bet it tasted wonderful with lemon zest instead of orange zest too.
Many thanks for baking with us.
Goodness your loaves are really beautiful! Great slashes!
It’s had to believe how many of us just go crazy for this bread even ones who don’t think they like rye.
It’s hard for me to bring myself to buy any bread in a plastic bag from the store and yes most especially rye bread. It’s hard to call it bread.
But when you bake it yourself you discover gorgeous bread again!
Thanks a ton for baking with us again.