As mentioned in my previous post about Danish rye bread (or as we call it, rugbroed), Danish rye bread is a Danish food stable. Most Danes will eat Danish rye bread for lunch (and sometimes for dinner too). Most Danes can't imagine a life without rye bread:) That being said, there are many types of Danish rye bread. I already featured a traditional Danish rye bread recipe on this blog, but here is a more adventurous version of Danish rye bread, which includes dried fruit, seeds and nuts. Another wonderful aspect of this recipe is that the sourdough starter only takes 3 hours instead of 3 days to make. This is great if you haven't planned ahead (or if you don't already have a sourdough starter ready waiting for you from the last time you made rye bread). Since most Danes eat rye bread everyday, it is always nice to have different types of rye breads in your arsenal to spice things up. I am sure this wont be my last rye bread recipe on this blog.
Danish Rye Bread with Dried Fruit, Seeds and Nuts (Rugbroed)
Ingredients
Sourdough Starter
15g yeast
1 dl lukewarm water
2dl plain yogurt
200g whole wheat flour (hard wheat berries)
Rye Bread
Sourdough starter
9 dl lukewarm water
3 Tbsp salt
200g whole wheat flour (hard wheat berries)
400g rye flour (rye berries)
550g cracked rye berries
1 bottle dark beer
1 Tbsp honey
300g flax seeds, roughly ground
200g sunflower seeds
250g dates, roughly chopped
200g raisons
150g blanched almonds, roughly chopped or slivered
yields 2-4 loaves depending on size
Directions
DAY 1
Sourdough Starter
As I mentioned above, the wonderful thing about this recipe is that the sourdough starter only takes 3 hours.
If you mill your own flour, grind the hard wheat berries (to save time you can go ahead and mill enough hard wheat berries for both the sourdough starter and the rye bread, i.e. 400g). I use my WonderMill.
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and then mix in the yogurt and flour.
Let the sourdough starter rest in a warm place for about 3 hours until it starts to bubble a little.
Rye Bread
Once the sourdough starter is ready, it is time to combine the rye bread ingredients needed for day 1.
If you mill your own flour, grind 400g rye berries.
Next, combine the freshly milled rye flour and whole wheat flour, lukewarm water, 2 Tbsp salt, 350g cracked rye berries and the sourdough starter.
Once everything is combined, let the rye bread dough rise for 24 hours. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
DAY 2
Pour the beer over the rye bread dough from day 1. Let it soak into the dough
Mix the dough and beer together.
Grind the flax seeds a little bit. In order to get the full nutritional benefits of the flax seeds, grind them right before you need them. This rye bread recipe does play on the different textures, so don't completely pulverize the flaxseeds when you grind them.
Add the dates, raisons, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, and 200g cracked rye berries, plus 1 Tbsp salt and honey and mix it all together.
Remove about 300g of the rye bread dough and set aside to use as the sourdough starter the next time you make this recipe. Store it in the fridge in a closed container. Note, this means you don't have to make the sourdough starter from scratch the next time.
Pour the rye bread dough into 2-4 bread pans (depending on the size).
Let the rye bread rise for at least 5 hours.
Pre-heat the oven to 395F.
Bake the rye bread for about 1 1/2 hours.
Danish rye bread is dense and its crust can become quite hard. In order to remedy this, take the warm bread and wrap it in a kitchen towel and place it in a bpa free plastic bag/zip top bag.
Let the bread cool in the bag while the moisture softens the crust.
Let the bread sit in the bag overnight before you cut it.
Enjoy this lovely twist on the traditional Danish rye bread recipe. Add the typical wonderful toppings
