Soft Bread Machine Rye Bread

DH and I were in London not long ago, at a restaurant having a salt beef (corned beef) platter which came with soft light rye bread. Now at first, I debated having the bread, there was plenty of meat to split with hubby but it looked and smelled so delish (there’s a bakery right next door where they buy it from) that I had to try it. Well ya know what? I practically preferred the bread over the salt beef! No joke. We oohed and aahed over it and had to control ourselves and not ask for more.

So’s ya knows I turned to DH and said, this! I will deconstruct and make at home. He said, you go girl! (No he didn’t , heh but he meant that). And I did. On the blog I have a nice Rye and Oat Rolls that I make but it’s denser and while very yummy, not the texture I was craving. This is light and fluffy and almost white but still has that hint of rye flavor and is so good that I immediately froze most of the loaves (I made two batches, that’ll give you an idea!) so we shouldn’t snorf down whole loaves at one sitting! In any case, they freeze amazingly well and you can either let them defrost on the counter or zap in a microwave for two minutes. We are steadily working our way through them and if they have time to get a bit stale, they toast brilliantly well. Best in my humble opinion? Slather with butter and enjoy with a cuppa. I dare you to eat just one slice…

Gather your ingredients

Place water, yeast and silan (date honey or sub with molasses) in the bread machine.

Let the yeast proof (bubble), about 5 minutes with the lid closed.

Right on top of that, add the white and rye flours. On top of that, add the salt.

Start the dough cycle.

Dribble the oil into the flour mixture as it starts to knead and close the lid.

Let dough mix for about 5 minutes. It will be a bit shaggy looking. A note. Sometimes the bread machine doesn’t knead everything in properly. If you have this problem, stop the machine (just pull out the plug) and using a long wooden spoon or spatula, stir in the recalcitrant flour a bit by hand, then, continue by plugging the machine back in. Let it go for another 10 minutes and peek at it. It should look smoother. Close lid and let cycle finish.

Let dough rise until doubled in bulk. This can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and fifteen minutes depending on the warmth of your kitchen. I generally open the lid of my bread machine after 40 or so minutes to make sure dough doesn’t stick to top of machine. Gently poke the dough with your finger about an inch in to see if an indentation remains. If so, it’s doubled, although you can usually see this by looking at it. Remove from bread machine. Dough will be very loose.

Now you can divide and form the dough into two larger loaves or three smaller ones. Each small one is about 8-10 slices (depending on thickness of slice) each larger loaf is about 12 slices or so.

While the loaves rise, preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. Loaves will take between 45 minutes to an hour and fifteen minutes depending on the warmth in your kitchen.

(this was a double batch, hence the many loaves).

Bake for 35-40 minutes, depending on size of loaf but check after 30 minutes (every oven is different and you don’t want to overbake them) until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped on top. Remove from oven, let cool 5 minutes and remove from pans and let completely cool on wire rack before slicing (or it will get gummy inside). Just wonderful.