Delicious Homemade Rye Bread doesn’t get much simpler than this bakery style artisan bread. Caraway and rye flour gives the bread its distinct flavor. And guess what? No machines required! You can make this bread by hand!
Rye is one of our family favorites, but we can never find it in our local bakeries. It is a bread that is full of flavor and brings an interesting twist to sandwiches. Classic sandwiches using rye bread are pastrami on rye, tuna on rye, and corned beef on rye, but you could use rye in a variety of different sandwiches to bring out a new flavor. Or you can go the route of my children who just devour it plain. Seriously, who would have thought little kids would love rye bread so much?
This recipe is super simple to put together, gives some great bread making techniques, and makes a lovely light rye. I’ve also included instructions for a dark rye that has cocoa powder and molasses in it if you’d like to try your hand at that.
How to make Bakery Style Rye Bread:
The key to making great bakery-style bread at home is all in the method. Bakeries use steam ovens to get that wonderful chewy crust. You can create your own steam oven by placing a shallow pan of water in the oven with your bread. The water will evaporate in the heat, filling your oven with steam.
Using a baking stone or pizza stone is vital to creating both the perfect crust and the perfect crumb. Bakeries use fancy ovens of the masonry variety. See, the oven in your house cooks using radiated (the flame or the electrical elements) and convected heat (the air moving around the oven. A convection oven has fans to assist in the circulation of the air). A masonry oven is able to use conduction on top of convection and radiated heat. Masonry ovens utilize stone, just as their name suggests. Stone retain heat really well. When you put a loaf of bread directly on a hot stone, the stone transfers its heat to the bread through conduction. So when you use a pizza/baking stone, you are literally adding a third heating method into your oven. Isn’t that awesome? There’s your science lesson for the day!
Don’t have a mixer? No problem! Watch the video below where I show you how to make this bread by hand! No machines required. It’s THAT simple!
This recipe first appeared on The Stay At Home Chef on January 30, 2013
This bread is definitely the best rye recipe I’ve tried. I use a pizza stone but will try it in a cast iron skillet when at camp in the summer. It makes a nice large round loaf. Five stars hands down.
I made 3 loaves of rye last week with 3 very different recipes, this one was by far the BEST one. It is as good as our local bakery’s product. This is the winner and I will stop looking for recipes and make no other for my “rye loving” family. I only started baking bread a few months ago so if you are new, do not be afraid to try this one.
The bread is excellent. He third time I made this loaf I used less water (375g) rather than having to add more flour. That approach was quicker and less trial and error. I weighed out all my ingredients in accordance with the comment submitted below providing the conversion from volume to weight in grams.
This bread is the best rye recipe I have ever tried!
This makes such a nice loaf. My husband ate half in a day and the rest of my family ordered a loaf. Thanks
The bread turned out great. Used my rectangle cast iron Dutch oven instead of a baking stone, and that cornstarch wash gave the top a nice crust. My best effort yet on baking rye my favorite. Try peanut butter and jelly on toasted rye bread. One of my favorites.
Second time making this rye bread. Both times I added up to 3 cups all purpose flour and it is extremely sticky and will not hold into a ball. Should I just keep adding flour?
With bread making, it is best to go off the feel of the dough rather than following the recipe to a T. There are many factors that can affect how much flour you need, so you would want to just keep adding flour until the consistency is right.
Excellent recipe! I made one light and one dark and marbled them…Perfect bakery rye…THANK YOU!!!
Have a batch in the oven right now…4th time I’ve made it… twice with and twice without the molasses and cocoa…both are simple and excellent!
Just made this yesterday, I omited the caraway seeds as I am allergic. I also did the second rise in a Brotform basket for a pretty texture. Baked 450 in a parchment lined covered dutch oven for 30 minutes, uncovered another 10 and it came out bakery perfect. The Dutch over performs as a steam cook without extra water.