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Does anyone make their own rye bread? I live in a Danish community and the old time rye bread our ancestors made was out of this world. Usually the loaves are smaller than regular white bread and the texture is such that one can slice it very thin when using it for sandwiches. Danes are famous for their open faced sandwiches, a thin slice of bread adorned with meats, cheeses, etc. Some recipes that I have tried make a coarse bread that tastes good but is very crumbly and almost impossible to slice thin without breakage. I would be interested to hear what kind of flour you use and the ratio if more than one type of flour is in a recipe. Methods of making might also make a difference too. I tried a new recipe yesterday that has one form the loaves and put into the pans before the dough has a chance to rise. The only rising of the dough is after it is in the pan in preparation for baking. This recipe came the closest to being what I am looking for. All comments and suggestions appreciated.

Peckish

I think the kind of flour you use can have a huge effect on the finished product.
For instance. For years, I could not make soft fluffy biscuits to save my life. They always turned out hard like hockey pucks. Southern friends would give me tips and tricks, but nothing worked. Then I read an article written by a woman who grew up in the South, then as an adult moved to NYC to be an investigative journalist. She also struggled with her biscuits, despite instructions and tips from her mom, an experienced southern biscuit maker. As an investigative journalist, she decided to investigate, and did a deep dive on everything - elevation, butter brand/water content, temperature, humidity, and flour. Turns out the flour was the issue. Her mom (and really, pretty much everyone in the south) uses flour that is milled from soft winter wheat. Well, apparently you can only get this in the south. You can't buy any soft winter wheat flour in the northeastern states, and I haven't been able to find it anywhere in the PNW. My husband's cousin lives in the south, I asked her to send me some flour, she sent me three different brands that were 5 lbs each. Sure enough, they were all labeled soft winter wheat, and I was able to produce fluffy soft excellent biscuits with that wheat.

thimblebug6000

Thank you, I will be following this post. My DH is German, and we were always able to get a great rye bread from a bakery in Eastern Canada that shipped to the west….not now…,no, I am not committing to actually making any, but will be interested to see the ingredients, etc.

Quiltwoman44

Wow! I'm Southern and didn't know that! Thanks.

tropit

I wish I did have a recipe for danish rye. We lived near the Danish town of Solvang for many years and I still miss those little, open faced sandwiches. They were like jewels on a plate. I'll keep watching this post.

tranum

100% Danish here. Grandma made rye bread all the time and I’d love to have her recipe but likely it was never written down. I’ve used Sturdiwheat brand rye bread mix and it’s good but not as dense as I remember. A box of 4 mixes is available online. Pinterest sells a Swedish rye bread recipe that looks good but I’ve not tried it. I use about equal rye and white flour if I make it from scratch. I know it should contain a little molasses, cocoa powder or even kitchen bouquet.

thimblebug6000

Looking at the Sturdiwheat mixes on line, I see most have caraway, which DH is not fond of. I need to remember to have a look at the local store for mixes, I have always made things from scratch but don’t want to have to buy extra types of flour to store after.

tropit

I think that the "sturdiness" is really important. Also, I think that they use a smaller loaf pan that makes smaller, very square slices. The pan might even have a sliding cover, but I'm not sure about that.

I went looking for a pumperknickel rye in the grocery store the other day and alas, I couldn't find a single loaf.

tranum

my store only stocks them in winter months. I need those little loaves all year around for a corned beef dip I like to serve.

Daffy Daphne

My latest King Arthur mailing has a recipe for Icelandic Rye Bread (Rugbraud). It's online at
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/rec...ugbraud-recipe. In the photo, the bread appears to be sliced thin.

Many of King Arthur's lovely recipes feature one of their products, in this case calling for their organic medium rye flour, but I usually have good results substituting something close if I don't want to order the exact thing from them.

Daffy