Today I baked my first ever rye loaf, despite loving this bread I never even thought to bake my own. How silly considering how incredibly easy it is, especially using a freestanding food mixer – specifically my ruby red kitchen aid – an appliance I adore.
I used a recipe from The Ballymaloe Bread Book by Tim Allen from the world famous Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork (Ireland), a place I’d love to go visit.
If bread is the staff of life, then baking bread must be the basic item in every cook’s repertoire and this book is wonderful for showing you just how to make it so. In my opinion it isn’t for the beginner but for those with a little confidence with yeast products. It covers both sweet and savoury breads from around the globe, with an emphasis on those from Ireland, and given that the baking tradition is one of the most rich and varied aspect of Irelands cultural heritage I don’t think it should be any other way.
The loaf was lovely and crusty on the outside but stayed very light and springy in the dough, slightly heavy but rye bread often is. Something to work on there.
Oh and I cut the caraway down by half and it was still slightly too overpowering, next time I’ll only add a quarter of the specified amount.
What better with rye bread than pastrami? Pastami is a cured meat most commonly made from beef brisket which is then heavily spiced, it is most often served in wafer thin slices. Of course with pastrami has to come the gherkins (or dill pickles to those in The States). I remember eating these sandwiches in Florida on my holidays there, oh but they were so much larger than my measly version below, it was big enough for me though and that is the important thing, right?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
That looks good. I haven’t made rye bread. I’d need to leave the caraway seeds out as I cannot abide the taste. I must try this
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That looks great – lovely and big and hearty.
Brenda, I wish I’d reduced the caraway seeds too, they were way too overpowering.
Looks divine, love rye bread in a freshly made sandwich!