Nordic Whole-Grain Rye Bread
Published January 10, 2017
Francesco Sapienza for The New York Times
- Total Time
- 2 days
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
FOR THE STARTER
⅓ cup/85 grams buttermilk, skyr or yogurt, at room temperature
2 cups/250 grams medium rye flour
½ teaspoon/2 grams active dry yeast
FOR THE GRAINS
2 cups/340 grams cracked rye berries or coarse rye meal
1 cup/170 grams sunflower seeds
FOR THE BREAD
4 cups/400 grams medium rye flour
4 teaspoons/20 grams kosher or coarse sea salt
3 tablespoons/40 grams malt syrup or molasses (not blackstrap)
½ teaspoon/2 grams active dry yeast
Nutritional analysis per serving
304 grams carbs; 2 milligrams cholesterol; 1815 calories; 17 grams monosaturated fat; 22 grams polyunsaturated fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 50 grams fat; 50 grams fiber; 1499 milligrams sodium; 58 grams protein; 39 grams sugar
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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Preparation
- 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
Comments
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!
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."
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.
As an experienced baker following this recipe to a T (snail and all), I was thoroughly disappointed to find how quickly the bread collapsed. This resulted in a dense crumb just shy of gooey in the centre. This recipe needs to be either reformulated or rewritten; I'll try Trine Hahnemann's next.
Given Julia Moskin's note in the comments, I went past an internal temp of 210 F. I wasn't sure how much further to go, so I ended up pulling the bread out when the probe on my thermometer came out clean, just as if I were making a cake. I ate some this morning, and that strategy worked. I think it would be helpful if the NYT added the note about the internal temp to the recipe itself since many bakers probably either don't check internal temps or have never baked a bread to quite that temp.
I have baked this bread twice. I love the approach, with the ferments in the starter rather than sourdough. The taste is very good, but the bread comes out too moist with the products Im using. It really helped using a pullman with a lid and shortening he proofing time before the bake. But what a messy recipe! Why not keep all ingredients including the water in the ingredient list? Please adjust the starter and grains measures to allow for just mixing it with the rest without discarding.