Caraway

Rye bread for Finnish Joonas

May 13, 2012
3.7
3 Ratings
  • Makes One loaf
Author Notes

My partner is Finnish and we live in Australia, so for years we have been trying out every Rye bread recipe we can find to try and get close to what you can buy back in Finland. Over time I have picked out the ingredients and tecnicques from all these different recipes to come up with this bread, which Joonas has declared his favorite so far. A warning though, this bread is tough, dence and has a strong malty rye flavor, Finnish people love this but a lot of westerners find it quite unusual. —ColleeninAus

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 200gm Rye flour - step one
  • 450gm Rye flour - step two, weigh separate
  • 450ml Luke warm water- not hot water
  • 3teaspoons Fast action yeast or 15gm fresh yeast
  • 65gm Black treacle
  • 80ml Malt vinegar
  • 3teaspoons Fine pure salt - non iodized salt
  • 25ml Sunflour oil
  • 25gm Toasted caraway seeds
Directions
  1. Put your warm water, yeast and 200gm of rye flour in a clean bowl, stir and leave to stand for half an hour (30min) in an area which will allow the mix to be around 22-24 degrees Celsius. After half an hr the mix should be airy and bubbly * if using fresh yeast dissolve it in the water before adding the flour.
  2. Make a smooth mix of the treacle, vinegar, oil and salt. Beat into your yeast mix, then add remaining 450gm of rye flour and caraway seeds.
  3. Line your baking tray with silicone baking mat or baking paper, sprinkle with some extra rye flour to avoid sticking. The dough will look like a pile of glue, this is fine, tip it onto your baking sheet and with wet hands smooth the dough out so it is about 5cm thick. Sprinkle some extra rye flour over and cover with a clean cloth. Leave for 2hrs
  4. Once the dough has risen by a third it's time to bake it. Heat oven to 180 Celsius fan forced and shove the bread in! Bake bread for round 45 mins or until the top crackers a bit! Now go cure some salmon and enjoy your bread!

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Antonia Mochan
    Antonia Mochan
  • susan g
    susan g
  • ColleeninAus
    ColleeninAus

3 Reviews

Antonia M. December 2, 2019
I made this today. I lived in Finland as a child and love rye bread, the denser and blacker the better. I wasn’t convinced I had done it right but it tastes amazing, pretty close to the real thing. Thanks for making this fellow Australia-dwelling Finnophile very happy!
 
ColleeninAus May 14, 2012
Thanks Susan, I'll put my cured salmon recipe up soon!
Let me know how your baking goes!
 
susan G. May 13, 2012
I love the hearty dense breads, and I'll try this soon.
Great last sentence!