Dutch Unleavened Ryebread (Roggebrood)
A dark, slightly sour, unleavened rye bread with whole rye berries in it.Evolved from a recipe at https://www.weekendbakery.com/posts/the-best-rye-bread/
Servings: 20 slices
Equipment
- 1 9 x 5 x 5 inches glass baking dish Or equivalent, shape doesn't matter, just aim for a volume of about 1260cm³ / 76.89 in³.
Ingredients
Soaked Whole Grain Rye
- 700 g broken whole grain rye (cracked rye)
- 770 ml HOT water
Dry Ingredients
- 250 g whole grain rye flour (or dark rye flour)
- 50 g fine rye flour (or medium or light rye flour)
- 13 g sea salt
Wet Ingredients
- 40 g molasses
- 200 ml water at room temperature (approximately)
Coating (optional)
- wheat germ
Instructions
Prepare
- Preheat your oven at 93° Celsius/ 200° Fahrenheit (yes, you bake this bread on a low temperature!).
Soak the Rye Grain
- Start with placing the broken whole grain rye in a (plastic) bowl and add the HOT water (just off the boil). Mix with a wooden spoon, cover and leave to rest/soak for 2 hours. The broken rye grains will absorb all the water and become soft, this is very important for the rye bread to become a success!
Make the Dough
- Now add the rest of the ingredients, including the water at room temperature.
- Note: adding the right amount of water is a matter of experience and depends on how soft you want the rye bread to become. You will see what works best for you and your own ingredients as you make the recipe more often.
Knead the Dough
- Now knead well by hand or mixer until combined. Be careful: a KitchenAid style mixer may not be able to handle it because the dough is very tough and sticky, use your hands if your mixer gets too hot or starts acting funny. My 600W with a dough paddle handles it fine.
Put in the Baking Dish
- (Optionally) Roll the loaf through the wheat germ until all sides are thinly covered.
- (Optionally) I line the pan with baking parchment.
- Place (or pour-ish) the dough in the pan.
- I spoon in the dough, pressing it down to fill the pan to the bottom and corners, then fold the parchment paper sticking up over the top, fully covering it.
Bake
- Place the loaf in the preheated oven and bake for 10 (ten) hours.
- Note: The baking period needs to be this long because the rye substance is very compact and contains almost no air, making heat transfer slow. This is a very old Dutch (Frisian) recipe, we think this bread was normally baked (cooked almost) during the night on the residual heat of a stove.
Let Rest and Cool
- Take the pans out of the oven but DO NOT OPEN until completely cooled to avoid losing moisture! This can take several hours, so curb your curiosity.
- Note: I turn them upside down for a while to let the moisture in the loaf spread evenly.
Serve
- Cut into 3-4 mm / 1/6 - 1/8 inch slices with a wet bread knife (dip in water after each slice), the bread is very crumbly and sticky. You can make little packs of sliced rye bread that keep very well in your fridge for over a week. You can keep the rest for much longer in the freezer.