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
Has anyone tried making rye buns for german sausages?
I love your receipts and have made several which turned out great I especially like the rye bread but I have a correction for you it is not called bootstrap molasses it is BLACKSTRAP molasses
It all depends on where your ancestors came from. Back in the “hollers” of WV, its bootstrap! 🤣😉
If you are in Australia it’s called triticale! Lol
I’ve been searching for a good rye bread since quarantine began! I’ve tried all kinds of recipes and this is by far the easiest and best-tasting. It’s my husband’s fave, too, so that’s a good thing. I’m not too crazy about the shape and think I’m going to try it in the black iron skillet next time as others have suggested. I think it might make it higher rather than wider! Over all–love this!
This loaf is delicious, but every time I make it, I end up adding almost double the amount of all purpose flour, and the dough is still so sticky I can barely get it out of either bowl. It makes the loaf completely deflate when I try to form it into a loaf and transfer to the oven, which leads to some pretty dense bread. I have no idea if I’m doing something wrong. I even went by grams instead of cups (which, by the way, your grams listing for the regular flour is off).
I have the same problem. Completely loses its shape when I try to slide onto the pizza stone.
I used less water. 2 cups gave me a very sticky dough
This bread is awesome! My husband said it’s the best rye bread he has ever had!
I still cannot seem to get the dough from being sticky. I added 3 cups of flour but did not want to add more. Is it okay to add more? I’m using unbleached AP flour. Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
Yes, it is always ok to add more flour if the dough is still feeling sticky. There are so many factors that go into how much flour is needed (like temperature, humidity, etc.), that it is best to go by feel rather than sticking to the amount called for.
Very good bread. Thank you! It is hard to believe that there is no oil nor egg.
Ok – but do NOT pour COLD water in to make steam. BOIL the water first so it is at 212 degrees and will not shock the pan so much
Yummy! This was my first attempt at rye bread, and it was very easy to make. I love that the recipe doesn’t call for milk. The only ingredient that I didn’t have was cornmeal, so I just used bread flour. I know it’ll be even better next time now that I have one successful bake under my belt. Oh, and I almost never watch videos that accompany recipes, but I’m glad that I watched this one. Seeing the correct consistency of the dough was super helpful.
I made a small loaf (half quantity) initially to see what it would be like. I wish I had made it using the full ingredients as it was fabulous. I was a little concerned as it was a little sticky but needn’t have worried as the final result looked and tasted amazing.. A real winner. Thank you.
I made this today (half portion). I didn’t have all purpose flour so I used bread flour. I had to add 1/4 cup of bread flour because the dough is too sticky. Perhaps its something to do with the humidity here in Singapore. I followed the recipe for 30 minutes baking time and it was a bit brown on the top (I forgot I have reduced the quantity to half). Overall it is a brilliant recipe. Will definitely make again. Thank you
I made a small loaf (half quantity) initially to see what it would be like. I wish I had made it using the full ingredients as it was fabulous. I was a little concerned as it was a little sticky but needn’t have worried as the final result looked and tasted amazing. I didn’t have cornmeal so used a mixture of cornflour and polenta to coat it. A real winner. Thank you.