Oven-baked rye and wheat bread with a yeast sponge
Homemade rye and wheat bread has a wonderful golden crust and fragrant crumb. I bake it for my family from time to time, and it disappears quickly. We eat it with meals, and the children enjoy it with milk and jam as an afternoon snack or dessert.
Always put a dish of water in the oven. It helps the dough rise and prevents the bread from drying out. When I tried baking without it, the crust was very thick and hard.
You can replace the whole wheat flour with the same amount of white wheat flour.
Do not increase the rye flour: too much makes the loaf dense and difficult to bake through.
Bread takes time, but it does not need constant attention. I usually make it while getting on with other things.
Pour 150 ml of warm water into the mixing bowl and add a level teaspoon of yeast.
Add a teaspoon of sugar there
and 5 teaspoons of flour. I mix whole grain and premium. Mix well. It should look something like pancake batter, only thinner. Leave in a warm place for a couple of hours.
After 2 hours, the sponge should be bubbling actively. Add another 150 ml of warm water, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, the salt, sugar and 1/4 tsp dry yeast. Add all the remaining flour.
and start kneading the dough. I do this in a dough mixing machine. You can knead in a bread machine or by hand. The result is a fairly dense, slightly sticky dough. We leave it to rise for one and a half to two hours.
The dough should increase in volume by 3 times. Turn on the machine again and start kneading. Knead for 10 minutes, no less. Bread loves long kneading.
Meanwhile, grease the bread pan thoroughly with vegetable oil so the loaf will release easily. Lightly oil your hands, shape the sticky dough into a ball and press it evenly into the pan.
Place the pan in a cold oven. Pour half a glass of hot water into a heat-resistant bowl and also put it in the oven. Turn on the oven at 40-50 degrees and set the timer for 25 minutes.
The dough should rise to fill two-thirds of the pan. I could not get a clear photograph through the oven door, and did not want to open it.
As soon as the dough has risen, add the temperature to 250 degrees for 15 minutes. After the allotted time, reduce the temperature to 200 degrees and wait another 25-30 minutes. Now you can open the oven slightly and see what happened. If the crust has become golden brown and you can see that the bread is moving away from the pan, then it’s time to remove it.
Turn the pan on its side and tap it gently against the work surface to release the loaf. The photo shows the texture of the crumb.