Today I have a classic rye bread with sourdough for you. Danish rugbrød is typically baked in a loaf tin and decorated with an oatmeal crust. Wholegrain flour and sunflower seeds make rugbrød a real superfood. To balance out the strong rye flavor a little, add a tablespoon of honey or syrup to the dough.
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The world’s simplest rye bread
Rugbrød is a great bread for everyday life. It goes with everything, is packed with nutrients and fiber, keeps you full for a long time and is super easy to make. The best thing about rye bread is that the dough doesn’t need to be kneaded, stretched or folded. Simply mix all the ingredients together, pour into a loaf tin* and leave to rest overnight. Cooked rye grains ensure that the bread stays fresh and soft for a long time. I prefer to eat the bread toasted, with a thick layer of butter and a little honey. Happy baking!
Rye bread Ingredients
- Cooked grain: Cooked grain holds in moisture and ensures that the bread stays fresh and soft for a long time. In this case, it consists of whole rye grains that are cooked in 10 times the amount of water until soft.
- Wholegrain rye flour: I prefer to grind my wholemeal flours myself. Freshly ground flours have more flavour and more nutrients than supermarket flours. However, they do not keep for long and should always be used immediately after grinding. If you don’t have a grain mill* to grind your own flour, you can of course also use store-bought flour.
- Honey: Rye has a strong taste of its own. To mellow the taste of pure rye bread and make it more balanced, a little honey is often added to the dough. For vegan bread, you can also replace the honey with agave or sugar beet syrup.
- Sourdough starter: For this recipe, the sourdough starter does not need to be freshly fed, but it should not have been refreshed more than a week ago. If you have sourdough discard in the fridge, why not try one of my leftover recipes? I feed my sourdough with equal parts water and flour. For the flour, I use a mixture of wheat flour and wholemeal rye flour. If you feed your sourdough with a different water-to-flour ratio, you will need to adjust the amount of water in the recipe accordingly.
- Sunflower seeds: You can also use pumpkin seeds instead of sunflower seeds.
- Rolled oats: I used old-fashioned rolled oats, but other seeds also make a nice crust.
Frequently asked questions
How long does rye bread keep?
Rye bread stays fresh longer than wheat bread. If it is stored correctly, it still tastes good even after four to five days. The sourdough ensures that the bread stays soft for a long time. The acid in the sourdough prevents the bread from going moldy.
How to store rye bread?
I store my rye bread at room temperature. To prevent the cut from drying out, I cover it with a cotton kitchen towel.
How long does rye bread need to rise?
Rye bread dough often needs more time than wheat sourdough. Unlike most sourdoughs with wheat flour, I leave the doughs for my rye breads to rest at room temperature (and not in the fridge). For a simple test, dust the surface of the dough with flour or coarse flour before proofing. If they form distinct cracks and the surface curves upwards, the bread is ready to bake.
Why should you cut rye bread the next day?
Rye bread tastes best on the second day because the flavours have had enough time to fully develop.
Why does rye bread get sticky?
It is important that the rye bread has cooled completely before it is cut. If rye bread is cut while warm, the escaping steam makes the crumb sticky.
Why does the loaf turn grey on the sides?
The greyish color is created when the tin is dusted with flour before the dough is poured in. To avoid a gray haze, I grease the tin thoroughly, but do not use the additional layer of flour. If the bread cannot be removed from the tin, you can cover it with a cotton cloth immediately after baking. The moisture that forms under the cloth as it cools will make it easier to remove the bread from the tin.
Helpful tools – My recommendations
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- A grain mill* for freshly ground wholemeal flour.
- A Danish Whisk* – especially if you don’t use a kitchen machine. This allows you to mix your ingredients without the whole dough sticking to the spoon.
- A kitchen scale*.
- You can use a stainless steel dough knife* to cut your dough pieces or shape your loaves.
- You can bake beautiful loaves with proofing baskets. There are round proofing baskets* and oval proofing baskets*. If you want to bake several loaves at the same time, I would recommend oval baskets. They take up less space in the fridge and oven.
- A stainless steel loaf tin*.
- A steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven mould* and lava stones*. The tray is filled with the stones and placed on the bottom of the oven during preheating. When you put your bread in the oven, pour hot water onto the stones. This creates steam, which ensures that your bread rises well.
- A cooling rack* for bread, rolls and waffles.
- A stainless steel kettle* with different temperature settings for soaking ingredients.
- A sharp bread knife*.
- A stainless steel toaster* for slices of bread, toast and rolls.
You can find more product recommendations here.
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Recipe for Rugbrød – Danish Rye Bread
Ingredients
cooked grain
- 60 g whole rye grains
- 600 g hot water
dough
- cooked grain
- 550 g whole grain rye flour
- 1 tsp. honey or a vegan alternative
- 480 g water
- 120 g Sourdough starter
- 70 g sunflower seeds
- 1½ tsp. salt
- rolled oats for the crust
Instructions
Day 1
- Whole rye grains are boiled in water until soft. The grains should absorb all the water. If there is any water left over, you can drain the soft-boiled rye grains through a sieve.
- Leave the cooked grains to cool completely.
- Mix the water, flour, sunflower seeds, sourdough starter, honey and salt to form a dough.
- Grease a loaf tin and fill with the dough.
- Press the dough into the mold with wet hands and smooth the surface of the dough.
- Moisten the surface and sprinkle with rolled oats.
- Cover the dough with a cloth and leave to rest at room temperature overnight or until the surface is clearly raised.
Day 2
- Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius.
- Spray the surface of the dough with water before baking and place the loaf tin in the oven.
- Reduce the temperature to 200 degrees and bake the bread for about 60 minutes.
Notes
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this food is very delicious thank you for making this delicious recipe