Instagram Baking Challenge number 1

Those of you who follow me on Instagram might have noticed that I've started up something called Instagram Baking Challenge together with my friend Dagmar. Each Sunday, we choose a recipe to make the following week and then we post about it with the tag #instabakingchallenge

Anyone can join in! The idea is just to get us inspired to bake again, no pressure! For our first week, we made this delicious and easy bread, originally posted by Matgeek. It's really simple and my kids loved it - I made two batches that were completely devoured. 

Rye bread with crushed rye and molasses 
Yield: 2 loaves

300 g water
60 g rye flour
60 g crushed rye
300 g water (again)
25 g fresh yeast 
20 g salt 
50 g butter at room temperature
600 g all-purpose flour 
40 g dark syrup/molasses

Bring the first 300 g of water to a boil. Measure rye flour and crushed rye into a bow and add the hot water. Stir well until smooth. Cover and let it cool. 

Heat the second 300 g of water until just tepid. Crumble in the yeast and let it dissolve. Add salt and butter. 

Add all the rye batter from the first step. Add flour and syrup as well. Stir until smooth, cover and leave for ten minutes. 

Knead for 5-6 minutes. The dough will be very loose, that's ok. 
Cover and let it rise for about 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, divide in half and shape two loaves. Place in two buttered bread tins and leave to rise for 30 minutes. (Honestly, you can skip this step - just scrape the dough straight into the bread tins. It worked out fine.) 

Heat the oven to 250 degrees centigrade. Score the loaves and put them in the oven. Add some water or ice on a baking tray at the bottom or the oven or use a spray bottle - this is to create steam. 

Lower the temperature to 200 degrees. If the loaves start to look too dark, cover with aluminum foil. 

Bake until the core temperature is about 97 degrees. Leave to cool completely before removing to a rack.