Rye Beer Bread Recipes

Steps:

• Combine rye flour, beer, and yeast in a large bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Set out overnight. Do not refrigerate.
• The next day, add sugar, salt, shortening, and egg; beat with mixer until smooth. Stir in caraway seeds, if wanted. Add enough white bread flour to make a soft dough.
• Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth, approximately 10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, and turn to oil the surface of the dough. Let rise in warm place about 1 hour, or until doubled.
• Punch down dough, and divide in half. Shape into round or oblong loaves, and place on greased baking sheets sprinkled with corn meal. Let rise for 30 minutes.
• Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Cool on racks.

Steps:

• Combine the yeast, sugar, melted butter, egg, and milk in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Beat on low speed for 1 minute. Add the salt, rye flour, all-purpose flour, and caraway seeds. Beat at low speed until all of the flour is incorporated, about 1 minute. Then, beat at medium speed until the mixture forms a ball, leaves the sides of the bowl and climbs up the dough hook. Remove the dough from the bowl. Using your hands, form the dough into a smooth ball. Lightly oil a bowl. Place the dough in the bowl and turn it to oil all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 5 1/2 by 9-inch baking pan.
• Remove the dough from the bowl and invert onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead the dough several times. Tuck and roll so that any seams disappear into the dough and place in the prepared baking pan. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg lightly over the top of the dough. Bake until lightly brown, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Steps:

• Stir together yeast, 1/2 cup flour and warm water in a large bowl. Cover and let sit in a warm spot for about 30 minutes.
• Stir beer, remaining flour and salt into the bowl. Mix until all the flour is incorporated and forms a thick sticky dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm spot for 2 hours, until doubled in size.
• Scrape all the dough from the bowl with a rubber spatula, and place on a well-floured surface. Generously flour the top of the dough and form into a loaf shape.
• Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal. Transfer loaf to the baking sheet and sprinkle the top with flour. Cover loosely with a towel and let rise for 30-40 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Place a small loaf pan of warm water on a lower rack to humidify the oven.
• Slash a long slit in the top of the loaf with a sharp knife or razor. Place the baking sheet on the rack above the pan of warm water in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes, until the loaf is golden brown.
• Transfer to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before slicing and serving.

Steps:

• The evening before you want to bake your bread, mix rye flour, salt, beer, 2 cups plus 3 Tbsp. (270 g) bread flour, and ½ cup cold water (65°F-70°F) in the bowl of a stand mixer until a wet, sticky dough forms. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest 20 minutes. (Resting here allows the flour to hydrate and promotes elasticity and gluten development in the dough.)
• Fit bowl with dough on stand mixer fitted with dough hook. Add molasses and yeast and mix on low speed to combine, 1-2 minutes. Increase speed to medium and mix 2 minutes to develop the dough. (Alternatively, you can mix by hand in a medium bowl with a sturdy rubber spatula or dough whisk.) If dough seems dry, add 1-2 Tbsps water.
• Transfer dough to a clean medium bowl and cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature overnight (12 hours).
• The following day, transfer dough to a lightly floured surface. Gently flatten into a rough square, then bring all 4 corners to the center and pinch together with your fingers. Turn dough over and, using a bench scraper or your hand, push edges of dough under loaf toward the center while rotating to create tension across the top to shape into a ball. Using your hands and dusting with flour as needed, gently rotate ball against surface to tighten further and seal bottom. Generously flour proofing basket with rice or bread flour and invert dough into basket so seam side is up. Cover with a kitchen towel and let sit until dough no longer springs back when poked with your finger, 2-3 hours.
• About 30 minutes before baking bread, place a rack in middle of oven and set Dutch oven with lid on it. Preheat oven to 450°F.
• Cut a round of parchment paper a few inches wider in diameter than the ball of dough. Invert proofing basket onto parchment to release dough (dust off excess flour if desired). Using a lame or a sharp paring knife, cut a crosshatch pattern about ½" deep on surface of dough. These cuts will serve as steam-release vents when the bread expands in the oven.
• Using oven mitts, place preheated (very hot!) Dutch oven on a heat-resistant surface and remove lid. Using parchment paper as handles, carefully place dough inside Dutch oven. Cover and bake 30 minutes. (Covering helps retain enough steam inside the pot to allow the surface of the bread to remain supple and expand.)
• Remove lid and continue to bake bread until crust is a dark mahogany brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 200°F, 15-20 minutes (removing the lid allows the bread's exterior to caramelize and bake into a chewy crust). Using oven mitts, carefully remove pot from oven. Gently invert bread onto a wire rack and let cool before slicing.

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in milk. Set aside in a warm place to proof, about five minutes.
• Mix all but one tablespoon of the molasses with orange rind, salt and ground fennel seeds in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then mix with beer in a large bowl. Mix the remaining tablespoon of molasses with a tablespoon of warm water and set aside to use as a glaze.
• Stir in the yeast mixture. Then stir in the oats, bran and rye flour. Add the whole wheat flour, a half-cup at a time, to make a soft, somewhat sticky dough.
• Turn the dough out onto a board liberally spread with the all-purpose flour. Knead until the dough is soft, smooth and fairly elastic, adding more all-purpose flour as necessary. Most of the stickiness should be gone from the dough.
• Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover and set aside to rise until doubled, one-and-a-half to two hours. Punch dough down, knead briefly and divide in half.
• Shape each portion of dough into a narrow, plump oval and press the fennel seeds into the top of each loaf. Place loaves on an oiled baking sheet and set aside to rise until doubled, about one hour.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush each loaf with some of the glaze prepared in Step 2. Place breads in the middle of the oven and bake until they sound hollow when tapped, about 40 minutes. Brush more glaze on the loaves during baking.
• Cover breads loosely with foil and cool on racks.