This is a dark slightly sweet heavy close-grained bread. It is similar to breads called Soldier's Bread or Black Bread.
This bread is very good with cheese or cream cheese. It's especially good toasted. It should be sliced fairly thinly - I tend to go for about a quarter inch.
This bread is not hard to make. In the recipe, some ingredients are shown in parentheses. These are optional ingredients. I don't like caraway seeds, for example, so I don't use them. You might not have one of the optional ingredients; it's fine to leave it out.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/8 cups warm water or 1/2 cup strong coffee and the rest water
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (use 1/2 cup whole wheat for 1/2 cup white if you like)
- 1 1/2 cups rye flour
- 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons dry milk powder
- 2 teaspoons instant coffee powder or use coffee for the water
- (3/4 teaspoon caraway seed) (omitted, yuck)
- 1tablespoon yeast)
- (1/4 tsp allspice)
- (1/2 tsp vanilla)
- Measure out the water/coffee in a 2 cup measure. Add the molasses, oil, and yeast. Let the mixture sit until it becomes foamy and smells yeasty. This "proofs" the yeast; shows that it is working and lets it develop and grow.
- Add the yeast/water/molasses/oil to half of the dry ingredients. Mix until blended well.
- Mix more flour in. Knead the last half cup of flour in; you might not need all of it.
- Knead for about five minutes in a KitchenAid, or by hand until the loaf bounces back when poked.
- Make a "rustic loaf" by forming the dough into an oval on a cookie sheet (oiled and sprinkled with cornmeal) (you can use oatmeal, crumbled, if you don't have cornmeal).
- Let rise for about an hour.
- Bake at 375 for 40 min.
This looks pretty with some slashes and an egg wash to make it shiny, and it tastes great!
(My old house really looked like that in the winter!)
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