SWEDISH RYE BREAD

A sweet, dark whole-grain rye bread

This recipe comes from my great-grandmother, who emigrated from Sweden and brought this recipe with her. It makes a sweet, dark bread, and (like most whole-grain breads) it tends to be a bit heavy.

Ingredients

(Makes 3 loaves)

500 ml milk
250 ml water
100 g brown sugar
14 g dry yeast (two packages)
600 g rye flour (approximate)
300 g white flour (approximate)
100 g granulated sugar
125 ml vegetable oil
60 ml dark molasses
10 ml anise seeds, crushed
5 ml salt

Procedure

Scald the milk and combine it with the water and brown sugar in a very large bowl. (You need something that holds at least 4 or 5 liters When the mixture is lukewarm, dissolve the yeast in it, then stir in 200 g rye flour and 100 g white flour to make a paste.
Let the mixture rise in a warm place until it is light and foamy. This usually takes about 30 minutes to an hour. Check it frequently!it can really make a mess if it rises enough to overflow the bowl. (I'm sure they could make a great horror movie about a gigantic blob of bread dough that keeps getting bigger and bigger as it consumes everything in its path....)
Stir in the granulated sugar, oil, molasses, anise seed and salt, and enough flour to make a stiff dough, using 2 parts rye to 1 part white. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic, adding more flour to keep it from sticking to your hands.
Clean and grease the bowl. Put the dough in the bowl, turning it to grease all sides. Cover the bowl loosely with a clean towel and let the dough rise until it's doubled in bulk. Punch it down and let rise until double again.
Divide the dough into three loaves and put in greased pans. (I usually make round loaves and bake them on cookie sheets.) Cover with the towel and let rise until double again.
Bake for about 45 minutes at 175C Because of the high sugar content, this bread can burn rather easily; watch it closely so it doesn't get too dark.

Notes

Rye flour can be a little hard to find these days. You may have to visit a store that specializes in natural foods. Avoid the kind that is very coarsely ground with big chunks of bran in it, though; this doesn't seem to have any gluten at all in it, and since the proportion of rye flour is so high in this recipe, the texture of the bread will come out all wrong. You need something that looks more like ordinary flour.

Rating

Difficulty: moderate.
Time: 30 minutes preparation, several hours rising, 1 hour baking and cooling.
Precision: measure the ingredients.

Contributor

 
Sandra Loosemore 
Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation, Salt Lake City 
{decwrl, utah-gr!uplherc}!esunix!loosemor

Recipe last modified: 21 May 86

Original header

Path: decwrl!reid
From: loosemore@esunix (Sandra Loosemore)
Newsgroups: mod.recipes
Subject: RECIPE: Swedish rye bread
Message-ID: <6182@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: 31 Oct 86 11:37:18 GMT
Sender: reid@decwrl.DEC.COM
Organization: Evans and Sutherland Computer co.
Lines: 84
Approved: reid@decwrl.UUCP

 Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted
provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial
advantage, the USENET copyright notice and the title of the newsgroup and
its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of
the USENET Community Trust or the original contributor.