Rye bread

[dzug]

Does anyone have a recipe for (plain) rye bread that doesn't involve using wheat bread flour as well? (I'll be using a food mixer rather than a bread maker btw). It needs to land up something like a 'normal' loaf - not like pumpernickel.

[nickmo]

hI D - rye bread without wheat flour is pumpernickel.
Rye bread, to keep it like a normal loaf needs to have wheat flour in it as rye has little gluten, so will not give a fluffy finish as there will be little air in the dough.

If you muck about with sourdough and rye combinations you may get the lighter result, and you can get white rye flour which may also help - http://www.shipton-mill.com/shop.php will sell you minimum 6kg of a light rye flour online or track downa locla miller - maybe at a farmers' market near you as one option. Graigs Farm and Doves Farm - couple of the 'brands' of organic and 'proper' flour suppliers - don't list a light or white rye, but you could approach them and see if they can suggest a source.

As a suggestion for a recipe, http://www.preparedpantry.com/americanryebread .htm has a blender recipe for a light rye - but also uses wheat flour...but it does look nice though....

[dzug]

Thanks Nickmo. Useful leads to follow up

Pumpernickel I thought was almost black - dark brown anyway - and the co.

The ready made one I've found in a local health food shop is a lot lighter - very pale brown, and reasonably palatable as these things go. The ingredients (assuming they are being honest as I am sure they are) are rye flour, sunflower oil, salt yeast and water but of course no proportions, etc given. As it's �2 a 800g loaf I was hoping to be able to make it cheaper.

[dzug]

sorry that third line should have been .. and the consistency of hardboard

[dzug]

And that Shipton Mill site is very good - two recipes found there with rye only. The better one takes 6 days though.......

[nickmo]

Hi D - glad to help. Pumpernickel bread should be like cardboard - builds the mental prowess and all that, as it takes so long to chew you have ages to think about the meaning of the universe, and all that stuff.......it is nice though.....

And rye bread is really a 'wet' crispbread like ryevita or similar. There are slightly different recipes to make these but they are basiclaly the same thing.

Re the cost of the 800g loaf - I have to say that is quite a reasonable price now for a good loaf - Falko Konditormeister at the Edinburgh farmers' market has bread up to �3.00 a pop for some of the really special Austrian style items, and in London some of the 'deli' artisan bakeries easily beat that too, so if the ingredients really are as they say (and its likely they use a light rye so the bread is not tyoo 'stiff') it is a heck of a lot better than the 30p watery muck sold as sliced bread in s/markets.

Try asking for the supplier name and then approach them direct for flour perhaps...?

You may know that a 'sliced loaf' is about 45% water - and to make the stuff last, has micro-encapsulated fungicides that break down in the water in the bread mix as it stands so that mould is inhibited....just right for the human body to absorb...

Just a comment about the price of ine item in the weeks shopping - depending on waht you spend money on on food items, if you would normally spend �1 a loaf, making it �2 but looking for a better priced option for another item should help balance the books and then see the cost of the 'good' bread in context of the weeks spending.

And if you drink at all, (appalling stuff but some like it.....) how about giving up alchohol for Lent perhaps? that would help......tee hee.......then you can eat loads of nice bread!!!!.....brilliant!!!!