Bread Machine Rye Bread

Rustic rye with minimal effort. This bread machine rye bread delivers hearty flavor and perfect texture without the fuss of shaping or rising by hand.

Are you like me? Have one thing that you always order at a restaurant that you could make at home, but just don’t?

For me, it’s rye bread. I love the depth of flavor and density of a good slice of rye, but for some reason, I’d never attempted it. Until recently.

Our restaurants have been closed on and off for months due to the thing that shall not be named, so I had to take matters into my own hands.

This bread machine rye bread recipe is dedicated to taking matters into your own hands.

Key Ingredients

Flour: This recipe has 3 different kinds of flour. I know, but hear me out. The rye flour is there for obvious reasons! Rye has a nutty, earthy flavor, but low gluten content. Bread flour and whole wheat flour, with their high gluten content, help to turn this rye loaf into a beautiful, airy bread.

Sweetener: We’re using both brown sugar and un-sulfured molasses in this recipe. Both of these ingredients have a deeper, more caramelized flavor than regular sugar. They also both serve to color the bread!

Caraway Seeds: Caraway seeds give rye bread that licorice (anise) and pepper flavor that rye bread is so well known for. They are aromatic and absolutely delish!

Yeast: This recipe calls for instant yeast, or bread machine yeast, but if you don’t have any, you can use active dry yeast. Increase the amount to 2 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast and add it along with the liquid ingredients instead of on top.

How To Make Bread Machine Rye Bread:

Add Ingredients To Bread Pan:

1. Combine the liquid ingredients: 1 1/4 cup warm water, 2 tablespoons cooking molasses, 2 tablespoons lightly packed brown sugar, 2 tablespoons neutral cooking oil, and 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt in the baking pan of your bread machine.
2. Layer the dry ingredients as follows; 1 1/2 cups bread flour, 1 cup rye flour, 3/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1 tablespoon caraway seeds, 2 teaspoons instant or bread machine yeast. At this point, I like to shake my flour out and cover the entire surface of this water, this helps to keep the yeast out of the water and away from proofing before my bread machine is done its warm-up cycle.

Pro Tip: To test your water, use my extremely scientific method: dab some on the inside of your wrist like you would with a baby bottle. If it feels too warm, use cooler water.

Bake:

1. Place the baking pan into the bread machine. Select Whole Wheat, Dark Crust, and 2 lb Loaf options. If your machine does not have all these settings, simply select the Whole Wheat setting.
2. Allow the bread machine to bake.
   This is the hard part! Walk away! You’ll be tempted to check on your bread and then start panicking cause the texture looks weird, the dough looks too wet, or the corners still have dry flour. Don’t worry, I did all the peeking for you through the process – pics are below.

Baste + Cool:

1. Remove the bread pan from the bread machine. Overturn the baked loaf onto a wire mesh cooling rack. It’s important to get to your machine as soon as possible once it beeps complete to avoid it kicking into keep warm mode, this will dry out your bread and make it less than pleasant.
2. Baste the top of your loaf with softened butter or margarine and a pastry brush. This step is optional, but it makes for a softer more visually appealing crust. I prefer to brush my loaves.
3. Allow the bread to cool completely (if possible, I know it’s hard!) before cutting.

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Bake In The Oven

You can certainly bake this light rye bread in the oven! Here’s how to do it:

1. Follow steps 1-2 as you would if baking in the bread machine.
2. Place the baking pan into the bread machine and choose the Dough cycle.
3. Once the dough cycle is complete, turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape into loaves, then transfer it to a greased 9×5″ loaf pan.
4. Cover loaf pan with a clean kitchen towel and allow to rise for 45- 60 minutes, or until domed in the baking pan – about 45 minutes. Near the end of the rise time, preheat the oven to 350f.
5. Bake your homemade rye bread at 350f for approximately 40 minutes or until golden brown on top. You can check the doneness with an instant read thermometer – the internal temperature should be 195- 200f.
6. Turn baked loaf out onto a wire rack, then using a pastry or basting brush, brush the top with softened butter.

Variations + Substitutions

• Vegetable oil in this recipe can be substituted for butter, olive oil, margarine, or even bacon grease! Heck, I even use pure lard that I rended from our home-raised pork.
• Brown sugar can be substituted for granulated sugar, maple syrup or honey. Though I prefer brown sugar in this recipe.
• Caraway seeds can be omitted completely if you’re not a fan of the licorice-y flavor.
• Whole wheat flour can be omitted in part or in whole for bread flour, but this may change the outcome of the final loaf.

Batch + Storage

Batch:

This recipe makes 1 2lb loaf. Please ensure that your bread machine has the capacity to work with a 2 pound loaf before baking.

Storage:

Once your rye bread is fully cooled, pop it into a sealed plastic bag and store it at room temperature. It'll stay fresh for 2-3 days.

Freezing a Whole Loaf:
To freeze, wrap the loaf tightly in plastic wrap, then again in aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn. Freeze for up to 3 months. When you're ready to enjoy it, let the loaf thaw at room temperature for a few hours-no need to unwrap it until it's fully defrosted.

Serving Suggestions

• Smoked ham and Swiss sandwich
• Toasted Ruben with half sour pickles
• BLT with homemade bacon