Norman's rye bread

Norman’s Rye Bread

Did you have a favorite bread as a child? One of my loyal readers once told me how, in her childhood, she considered store-bought bread (i.e. Wonder Bread) a special treat because all she got at home was home-baked bread.

When I was little, my favorite was the oatmeal molasses bread my mom or gram made often. If, however, I had to choose a store bought bread, it would have been Beefsteak Rye bread. I could eat slice after slice of it, toasted and buttered. The saltiness and the caraway combined with the melting butter had me coming back for more.

Have you ever tried homemade rye bread. It is better than that store bought rye, and is very easy to make. Now you have no excuse for not giving it a try.

3 cups light rye flour

1 cup unbleached flour

1-1/4 tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. caraway seeds

Dash of dill

1 tbs. salt

1/2 tsp sugar

2 tbs instant yeast

1 tbs. olive oil

2 cups (approximate) of  lukewarm water

cornmeal

Preparation

In your mixing bowl, combine the flours, cocoa powder, caraway seeds, dill, salt, sugar, yeast and olive oil. Add the water and mix to form a dough. Once again, you may have to adjust the amount of flour or water to get the dough just right. Knead the dough for a few minutes.

Allow the dough to rise in a warm place for about a half hour. Knead it again and then divide it in half. Form it into two long, thin loaves and place them on a baking sheet lined with a little cornmeal. Let them rise until they double in size.

Bake in a 500º oven for about twenty minutes. You want the bread to be hard and crusty on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. Allow the bread to cool on a rack for at least ten minutes before slicing.

Serving

Warm buttered rye bread goes with just about anything. You can start your meal out with a bowl of homemade pea soup with rye bread. Next serve up roast pork, roast potatoes, gravy, buttered Brussels sprouts and, of course more rye bread. With this, I like ice cold Riesling from Germany.