Friday, August 26, 2005

Baking some rye buns




I am a decent baker, but I have some problems with darker, healthier breads. Normal white? Yeah, that I can do. My dark breads never seem to rise very well. However, this recipe is absolutely failproof. You can fiddle around with it, adding practically anything. Just beware of using too much flour, it can make it a little too dry and crumbly.

And note that Swedish recipes almost always measure everything in deciliters, rather than in weight measures. Sorry - I haven't converted this but used it like this. For americans - 1 dl equals 2/5 of a cup, or 0.4 cup. And of course, 1 dl is 100 ml.

Rye buns
14 100-gram buns

500 ml tepid water or milk (finger temperature)
50 g oil or melted margarine
50 g fresh yeast
sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, wheatgerm, flax seeds - whatever you want. I used about 1 dl of pumpkin seeds and a couple of tablespoons of flax seeds.
2 tbsp dark syrup or molasses
pinch of salt
1 tbsp caraway seeds (fennel or aniseed is good too)
1 dl crushed rye
1 dl oats
4 dl rye- and wheatflour or 3 dl coarse rye flour
6 dl wheat flour (you can use partly wholegrain)

Dissolve the yeast in the water, add the fat. Add everything else and mix together, a Kitchen-Aid makes this very easy. Let it rise for a mere 10 minutes. Divide and roll into buns (I weighed mine, and got 14 buns, all about 100 g which I feel is a good size). Let them rise for another 15 minutes, and bake in a preheated oven (225 degrees C) for 10 minutes.

I was really sceptical of the short rising time - but it worked out just fine! However, I still want to try even darker breads. Anyone want to share your favorite recipe?

3 comments:

A said...

The only bread I do on fairly regular basis is a really dark bread made on sour milk, syrup and just about a little of all different packages on the flour shelf. You just pour the stuff together and bake in the oven really long in bread forms. Interested? I guess you already have some recipe like this, since it's so easy. My hands don't like to work the dough, so this is perfect for me.

Anne said...

I'd love the recipe, Nikka. I've tried something like it, but it didn't turn out well. I'm a bit wary of the syrup, but I'm sure you can experiment and use a bit less.

Max Sicily said...

A really great recipe!
Like it a lot!