Caraway Rye Bread

This is hearty, filling and wholesome. I love this recipe because it's so tasty and works great beside any meal or with stews and soups. This is inspired by this bread I buy from the local bakeries in Sweden and with a bit of bregott (a brand of swedish butter - it beats Lurpak, controversia, I know). I especially love this bread in the winter or since there's not much difference in Scotland, on even colder days.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

I love this bread served with pastrami, american mustard and pickles.

Rye Caraway Bread

Serves: 1 small loaf

Ingredients

• 30g fresh yeast, crumbled

• 30g molasses sugar

• 30g butter, melted

• 200ml lukewarm water

• 30g dark cocoa powder

• 125g rye flour

• 250g wholemeal bread flour

• 60g strong white bread flour

• 1 tbsp cumin seeds

• pinch salt

Method

- Combine the water, molasses, butter and yeast in a large bowl. Whisk briefly then rest for 5 minutes or until frothy.

- Meanwhile, combine the rest of the ingredients with a whisk.

- Once the yeast mixture is frothy, slowly add in the dry mixture, whisking the whole time. Try to whisk in an upward motion so that you can incorporate as much air into the batter as possible.

- Keep adding the flour until you can no longer whisk it then flour your hands and knead it, adding flour until it's no longer sticky. You might not use all the flour.

- It will feel very hard and dense and it will be hard work but knead it as well as you can until it's no longer damp. You can slam the dough a few times against a hard counter if you have any every left.

- Roll the dough into a ball and place it back in the bowl. Sprinkle some flour on top and cover with a map tea towel. Allow to rise in a warm room for 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

- Once risen, remove and knead briefly before shaping the dough and placing it a loaf tray.

- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c. Once ready, Pop the loaf in and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The bread should feel pretty hard on the outside and sound hollow when happen on the under side.

- Wrap in a tea towel and allow to cool for a minimum of 30 minutes before serving.