I love this rustic rye bread. It’s so nutty and sweet and is a great vehicle for delivering Spanish cheese into your mouth! Of course it doesn’t have to be Spanish cheese per-se but because the rye bread is inspired by our recent trip to Pollensa on the beautiful Spanish island of Mallorca, it kind of makes sense.
The bread is very dense but crumbly. Traditional recipes call for 100% dark rye flour but I like to substitute a little strong white bread flour in there just to lighten it up a bit. It’s a great bread to eat dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar but it’s also wonderful toasted and served with hummus or grilled veg and of course, cheese.
- 500g dark rye flour
- 100g strong white bread flour
- 100ml milk
- 300ml water
- 1 sachet (roughly 7g) fast action dried yeast
- one teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- one teaspoon olive oil
- more olive oil for the bowl and your work surfaces
You will also need an oven proof bread tin with a lid. Something like a cast-iron pot would work our I like using my 20cm round enamel ‘roaster tin’ from Falcon.
I’m also using a stand mixer with a dough hook for kneading the bread. It’s a very wet and sticky dough and I find doing it my hand tiresome. It’s the same amount of time either way.
You will also need either a large bowl and some clingfilm or a large plastic container with a lid for proving.
Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl, add the liquid and knead for 10 mins.
Oil a large bowl or tuppaware container and tip the kneaded dough into it. The dough will be very sticky so oiled hands are also a good tip here. Place a lid on the container and let it prove until doubled in size. Roughly 2 hours (Rye flour is notoriously slow to rise.)
The prove
Prepare your bread tin by lining it with a large square of parchment paper.
Once proved, tip the dough out onto an oiled surface and knock it back into a round ball. Place the ball into the bread pot and cover to let it have a second prove for 30 mins. Pre-heat your oven to 220C.
After 30 mins, sprinkle to top of the dough with a little cold water and then a handful of white flour which you should spread onto the top of the dough. Slash some cuts into the top, place the lid on and bake with the lid on for 25 mins and then the lid off for 25 mins.
Carefully take it out of the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack. You’ll notice it won’t have risen a huge amount, it’s quite a narrow, flat bread.
For more bread recipes, check these out on Dom in the Kitchen.
Eat and of course, enjoy!
