Ready for Sandwiches
Black strap molasses and baking it in cast iron gives this bread a southern touch. It is a crusty loaf that is flavorful, rich, and not too dense. I wasn’t particularly fond of rye bread until we made it at home using fresh-ground grain. I guarantee you will love this to serve with sandwiches or cut in small squares for spreads and hors d’ouevres. It is not strong-tasting or bitter, just delicious.
Please experiment and adapt the recipe to fit your ingredients and equipment. However, the caraway seeds and molasses are critical to the taste. I have learned that bread is very forgiving and fun to experiment with. If you don’t care for an artisan-type crust, bake the bread in a traditional loaf pan at a lower temperature. If you don’t have a mixer with a dough hook like my Bosch, use the dough setting on a bread machine or mix and knead by hand.
We have added bulk caraway seeds to our food storage just so we can bake this bread. We usually bake two loaves at a time and freeze one for later use. The following recipe is for one loaf.
Wondermill and key ingredients
Grind and set aside
• 150 grams of rye (@ 3/4 cup of rye grain or 1 1/3 cups of flour)
• 300 grams of Prairie Gold hard white wheat. (@ 1 1/2 cups wheat berries or 2 2/3 cups flour)
Grind the wheat and rye in your WonderMill or similar grain mill.
• 1 tbsp ground caraway seeds
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds (Optional. We add flax to most of our bread to increase the omega 3.)
Grind the caraway and flax seeds in a coffee grinder or other device that will grind oily seeds.
1/4 cup gluten flour
1 tbsp whole caraway seeds
Combine the flour, ground seeds, gluten and whole caraway seeds and stir. Set aside and add to mixer after the liquid ingredients.
In the mixer combine the following: (I use a Bosch)
1-5/8 cup warm water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp Black Strap Molasses
1/2 to 1 tbsp Liquid Soy Lecithin (This keeps the bread fresh much longer.)
1 tsp Fruit Fresh
1 tsp Diastolic Malt
Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients. Do not stir or mix yet.
1 tbsp yeast–add on top of flour
If using a Bosch mixer, mix on speed 3 for 6 minutes.
You may also use the dough setting on a bread machine which takes about 90 minutes to mix and rise, or mix and knead by hand. I would reduce the amount of yeast if using the bread machine or kneading by hand for it will have longer to rise.
Fold parchment and cut in circle
Parchment Circle
After removing the dough from the mixer or bread machine (or kneading by hand with a first rise), shape dough into a large ball and place on a 15″ round of parchment paper and let rise for about 30 minutes.
Place the dough and parchment paper in a bowl. Sprinkle with whole Caraway Seeds. Spray dough and Caraway Seeds lightly with water. Cover with a dish towel.
Let dough rise until doubled–about 30 minutes. (If room is too warm, the loaf will rise too fast making large air bubbles under the crust.)
Heat oven and cast iron pot
Preheat the oven and a medium (3 1/2 qt), covered cast iron Dutch Oven to 425 F. while dough is rising. Carefully lower the dough and parchment paper into the hot Dutch Oven and replace the lid. Leave the parchment paper in place for baking.
Bake for 30 minutes then remove the lid. Bake another 5 or 10 minutes or until the bread reaches an internal temperature of 208 or 209 F and the crust browns.
I lift the bread out of the pot by lifting it in the parchment paper. Remove the bread from the paper and cool the bread on a wire rack.
