Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Rye and molasses bread

I've finally assuaged my white bread guilt and made a successfully dark and flavoursome loaf after weeks of turning out lead bricks. There are various recipes floating around for no-knead brown breads that you mix up and stick in a cold oven, but I can't seem to make any of them work. This one, however, adapted from something I copied down from A Pod And Three Peas ages ago, does the trick. It's a bit like homemade Vogels rye bread, only nicer.

Rye Molasses Bread

Rye and Molasses Bread
This bread came out of the oven looking so dark and brooding I wanted to call it Heathcliff, but thought that might be a Wuthering Heights pun too far. The molasses gives it a distinctive flavour, but you could always substitute treacle or golden syrup. Either way, this bread is really, really good with slabs of cold unsalted butter.

2tsp dried yeast
650ml warm water
1Tbsp molasses
500g wholemeal flour
100g rye flour
100g rolled oats
1tsp salt

Put the water and yeast into a large bowl (or the bowl of your freestanding mixer) and whisk together. Add the molasses and whisk again. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Leave for five minutes, then either plug into your mixer and let the dough hook work its magic for about five minutes or turn it out and knead it for five minutes. It is a really, really wet and sticky dough - the mixer is far easier.
Scrape the dough into a well-greased and lined large loaf tin (mine has an internal measurement of about 25cm x 8cm), slash the top and put the whole thing into a plastic bag. Leave until doubled - around 60-90 minutes - then bake at 200C for about 45 minutes. I turn it out of the tin at this point and return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes to get a nice, crusty bottom. Let cool completely on a rack before slicing. Pin It

15 comments:

  1. Looks like an excellent slice. Have been meaning to try molasses in my rye bread for ages but never remember in time. Now I want to try using oats too - lovely idea.

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  2. Mmm, this looks sweet and hearty. Must try!

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  3. It looks delicious - great colour, and an excellent texture. I love using different flours in my baking, and oats are always a great addition to a loaf.

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  4. Mmmmm. I need to start baking with more than just my average white flour and this looks good. I have plenty of golden syrup too so this is going onto my bread list this month. Lovely x

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  5. Great, now I have something to do with that jar of molasses taking up valuable fridge real estate. Looks delicious!

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  6. right...bread baking this weekend i think!! finally getting back into it! this loaf looks fantastic :)

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  7. I too end up resorting to baking white loaf after white loaf: all of my non-white loaves take about 10 minutes to chew down each mouthful, so heavy and dense the loaves are! So I'll definitely be giving this recipe a go!

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  8. Interesting recepie and end Result looks good.Have to try:)

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  9. looks lovely - very vogels-like. Love the plastic bag trick! Must try that sometime.

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  10. Ooh, lovely. I've never tried molasses, but I love saying the word itself. Am always on the hunt for more bread recipes though, so if I ever find some molasses for real, I'll give this a go.

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  11. That bread looks fabulous. I need some molases now.

    5,996 loaves to go http://6000loaves.blogspot.com

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  12. That looks a perfect loaf of wholesome bread. They can be such temperamental beasts so I can imagine your pleasure with this beauty!

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  13. I have a question for you... I only have rye flour and white bread flour in the house. Do you think I can substitute? Guess it'll affect the liquid. x

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  14. What a lovely idea. I like the idea of molasses sugar in it. Sounds delicious. I dont bake much bread but will give this a go and tweet you the pic! x

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