Russian Rye Bread | Rizhsky-Khleb

After few piquant bakes, I am here with yet another bread recipe, but this time it’s with Rye flour and APF. Rizhsky Khleb – unique savory bread from Russia prepared with rye flour with the hint of caraway seeds. This is rustic bread with sweet and savory flavor making it perfect for sandwiches.

I followed the recipe from King Arthur’s Flour website, who apparently obtained this recipe from a Russian student at Moscow State University, via the web, back in late 1995. But the Student’s recipe is inspired by an excellent book on Russian cooking, “Please to the Table: the Russian Cookbook,” by Anya Von Bremzen. Interesting huh? I did not follow the recipe entirely. I reduced the measure and also I went with honey, precisely nectar instead of Barley malt syrup. For this recipe, I used Active Dry yeast but if you can use instant yeast too and avoid the yeast proofing process.

The caraway seeds give a nice flavor to this bread making this bread distinct and unique. Initially, I was planning to source barley malt syrup, but with the time crunch, I went with what I had in my pantry. This was one among the recipes that I tried towards the end. 

Ok, here is the recap and the recipe below that. Please find the printable recipe at the bottom.

Recap before the recipe:

• Day 18 | 2015 – Baked Coconut Milk Murukku
• Day 18 | 2016 – Rasavangi
• Day 18 | 2017 – R | Russian Rye Bread

Ingredients:

For yeast proofing:

• Lukewarm water – 1/4 cup
• Sugar – ¼ tsp
• Active dry yeast – 1.5 tsps

Other Ingredients for the bread:

• Rye Flour – 3/4 cup
• All-purpose flour – 1.5 cups
• Salt – 1 tsp
• Caraway Seeds – 1.5 tsps
• Honey – 1 tbsp
• Butter – 1.5 tsps
• Oil – for greasing
• Water – 3/4 cups

Steps:

Yeast Proofing:

• Add the sugar and yeast to the lukewarm water and let it sit for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, the water will be bubbly and frothy. (In parallel sieve the dough as mentioned below)
• After 10 minutes, mix it nicely.
• The yeast mixture is ready.

Preparing the dough:

• While the yeast is doing its magic, in a wide mixing bowl sieve the rye flour, all-purpose flour, and salt.
• To this mixture, add the honey, melted butter, and caraway seeds.
• Add the yeast mixture and mix the dough gently.
• Now slowly add water (2 tbsps. at a time) and start mixing the dough to form a ball. If the dough is sticky, add more flour or if it’s too dry add more water.
• Knead the dough for about 5 minutes.

• Grease a wide vessel with sufficient room for the dough to rise with oil.
• Spread some oil on top of the dough too. Keep this dough in the greased vessel and wrap it with cling film and set aside.
• I kept it inside my oven. It took me 3 hours this for the dough rise.

Kneading:

• Once the dough has raised, remove the cling film and punch it down.
• Knead it on lightly floured surface for 5 minutes to build the gluten content and to remove all the air pockets.

Baking:

• Shape the kneaded dough into an oval, place them on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, and let rise for about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, Preheat the oven to 375°F.
• Bake the bread for about 45 minutes, or until the crust is brown

Let it cool and serve with jam or fruit spread or with soup.

Notes:

• After the double rise, you can knead the dough and let it rise again before pressing out the dough for baking.
• Temperature plays a significant role in dough rise so wait patiently but during warm weather check the dough after an hour.
• If you are using instant yeast, no proofing is required. You can directly add it to the flour. In that case, add more water.
• Double the measure for two loaves.
• The original recipe calls for barley malt syrup. I replaced it with nectar. You use either nectar or honey or the malt syrup.

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Russian Rye Bread | Rizhsky-Khleb

Prep Time

3 hrs

Cook Time

45 mins

Total Time

3 hrs 45 mins

 

A yeast-based Rustic Rye bread with the hint of caraway seeds from Russia, popularly known as Rizhsky-Khleb.

Course: Breads

Cuisine: Russian

Keyword: Russian Rye Bread

Servings: 4

Author: Srividhya G

Ingredients

For yeast proofing

• Lukewarm water - 1/4 cup
• Sugar – ¼ tsp
• Active dry yeast – 1.5 tsps

Other Ingredients for the bread

• Rye Flour - 3/4 cup
• All-purpose flour - 1.5 cups
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Caraway Seeds - 1.5 tsps
• Honey - 1 tbsp
• Butter - 1.5 tsps
• Oil - for greasing
• Water - 3/4 cups

Instructions

Yeast Proofing

1. Add the sugar and yeast to the lukewarm water and let it sit for 10 minutes.
2. After 10 minutes, the water will be bubbly and frothy. (In parallel sieve the dough as mentioned below)
3. After 10 minutes, mix it nicely.
4. The yeast mixture is ready.

Preparing the dough

1. While the yeast is doing its magic, in a wide mixing bowl sieve the rye flour, all-purpose flour, and salt.
2. To this mixture, add the honey, melted butter, and caraway seeds.
3. Add the yeast mixture and mix the dough gently.
4. Now slowly add water (2 tbsps. at a time) and start mixing the dough to form a ball. If the dough is sticky, add more flour or if it’s too dry add more water.
5. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes.
6. Grease a wide vessel with sufficient room for the dough to rise with oil.
7. Spread some oil on top of the dough too. Keep this dough in the greased vessel and wrap it with cling film and set aside.
8. I kept it inside my oven. It took me 3 hours this for the dough rise.

Kneading

1. Once the dough has raised, remove the cling film and punch it down.
2. Knead it on lightly floured surface for 5 minutes to build the gluten content and to remove all the air pockets.

Baking

1. Shape the kneaded dough into an oval, place them on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, and let rise for about 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, Preheat the oven to 375°F.
3. Bake the bread for about 45 minutes, or until the crust is dark brown
4. Let it cool and serve with jam or fruit spread or with soup.

Recipe Notes

After the double rise, you can knead the dough and let it rise again before pressing out the dough for baking.
Temperature plays a significant role in dough rise so wait patiently but during warm weather check the dough after an hour.
If you are using instant yeast, no proofing is required. You can directly add it to the flour. In that case, add more water.
Double the measure for two loaves.
The original recipe calls for barley malt syrup. I replaced it with nectar. You use either nectar or honey or the malt syrup.

Adapted from King Arthur's Flour Website

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