This Swedish Rye Bread recipe is sized for a personal or mini loaf — roughly a 3″ x 6″ pan or 6″ round pan. Double the recipe for a 4″ x 8″ loaf, and triple it for a 5″ x 9″ loaf pan. This is a nice, light rye with a touch of orange—a trademark of Swedish ryes.
ALMOST Rye Bread: Rye flour is very hard to find many places. If you can get anise or caraway seed — both of which are easy to bring back from a trip to the US or Canada if you can’t get them locally—you can substitute whole wheat flour for the rye and few people will notice the difference. Even without anise or caraway seed, and using whole wheat flour instead of rye, this is a good bread!
Read 5 Tips for Baking Bread on a Boat for important keys to success or, if you’ve never made yeast bread or want a detailed step-by-step tutorial, check out Yeast Bread Making 101.
Swedish Rye Bread
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup orange juice (OR 1/2 cup water plus 1 teaspoon grated orange peel)
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 cup white flour
- 1 tablespoon softened butter (OR margarine or canola oil)
- 1/2 teaspoon anise or caraway seed
- 1 cup rye or whole wheat flour
Instructions
- Mix orange juice, yeast, salt, molasses, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup of the white flour. Cover and let sit 10 minutes to proof. (See Tip #3 in 5 Tips for Baking Bread on a Boat). If it proofs well, proceed.
- Add the butter, anise seed and rye flour and mix well. Add in more of the white flour to make a stiff dough.
- I really like using a plastic bowl (like the ones I recommend in Equipment for Hand Mixing) as the dough will neatly come away from the sides of the boat when you have added enough flour. The dough won’t do this as nicely in a glass or metal bowl.
- If the dough is coming away from the sides of the bowl cleanly but there’s still extra flour in the bottom of the bowl, you’ve added too much flour. You can use a little of it as you knead, but excess amounts really should be discarded. While you can work them into the dough, you shouldn’t as the dough will be too dry and won’t rise nicely.
- Knead the final flour into dough, being careful not to add so much flour that the dough becomes dry. Knead until dough becomes smooth and elastic. Rye flour does not develop gluten nearly as rapidly as wheat flour, so it takes a bit of kneading—and you have to be really careful not to add too much flour. It’s better to have it a little sticky on your hands!
- Put dough in oiled bowl and turn so that dough is completely coated with the oil. Cover with a plastic bag or a towel.
- Let rise until doubled, then punch dough down.
- Let rise until doubled again, then form into loaf and place in greased pan.
- Cover and let rise until almost doubled.
- Preheat oven to 350, and bake about 30 minutes. Bread is done when brown (slightly darker than just “golden”)—if you tap on the top with a finger, it will sound hollow when done.
- Remove from oven when done. Remove the bread from pan as soon as possible if you like a crunchy crust (if you leave the hot bread in the pan, steam will soften the crust where it’s in contact with the pan).
- Allow to cool at least until you can touch it before slicing it (my husband has tougher hands than I do, so he gets to cut the first slices—we can never wait!).
- If you have a bread knife or serrated knife, it won’t crush the loaf as much as a regular blade will. With any knife, use a gentle touch so as not to crush the loaf.
Notes
Want over 800 boat-friendly recipes, over 100 substitutions, and tons of tips for cooking on a boat?
Candy on Facebook says
I am glad I read this AFTER I ate dinner-or I would be tempted to make a loaf tonight! LOL
It sure sounds great!
on Facebook says
Maybe for tomorrow night?
Candy on Facebook says
That sounds like a winner!
on Facebook says
Sounds sooo good!
Darlene Burnett Price says
Since I bake all our bread at home and can’t regulate the temp on boat, maybe this would be a good win!
The Sea and Sailors says
I like it!
Diane Ericsson says
Swedes call it Limpa Bread. Amazing stuff! I’ll try this recipe next time I make it.
The Cynical Sailor & His Salty Sidekick says
Yum – one of my favorite types of bread 🙂