Home Made Bread
For those who’ve stayed with us before then you will know that we make our own bread for breakfast each morning. Usually, it’s a white loaf one day and then a wholemeal the next. However, Dunster Mill has just reopened and we had the opportunity to try out some rye flour.
Rye is very different from wheat flour and more difficult to work with as it contains far less gluten and is much denser. It therefore needs a bit of help if we’re going to get it to rise.
History
If you’d have been living in the Middle Ages, then rye, rather than wheat would have been the staple grain for bread, especially in northern Europe. In fact, think of rye bread and Germany springs to mind. For us in the UK, it was the Saxons that brought over rye and it was well suited to our somewhat wetter, temperate climate.
Recipe
We used a 50/50 mixture to give a less dense loaf. We also used a bread maker to do all the hard work.
- 2 tsp easy rise yeast
- 250g Rye flour
- 240g Strong white flour
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp Olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp citric acid
- 360 ml tepid water
The Result
Whilst the bread rose very well in the pan, on cooking it flattened out on the top but was still a reasonable size. It was, however, really tasty with a lot of mouthfeel and felt that it was doing you good.
We shall definitely be making this again, probably for one of our evening specials. Keep an eye open.
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