Table of Contents
Updated
This post was written in 2020. It was rewritten and republished in 2025.
Rye Bread
Flour
Flour, a product of grinding or milling grain, is a commodity used by bakers to bake bread. The characteristics of flour depend on the grain and the milling process. This is known to persons who have mixed dough and worked with dough, and to persons who have baked bread – whether in large or small commercial bakeries or at home, regardless of gear.
Bread was made with rye flour in parts of Eurasia where rye grew, including the parts of Northern Europe, including the lands around the Baltic Sea. Rye grain has proteins, but rye flour does not enough of the proteins that bind to form gluten. Rye bread, when baked, does not rise like a leavened wheat bread. Rye flour, unlike other flour has proteins called pentosans. Peter Reinhart notes in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice at p. 185 that rye flour has different protein profile than wheat flour, and forms gluten differently, it uses glutelin to form gluten, unlike wheat flour which has glutenin. Reinhart also notes that rye flour has pentosans, which absorb water differently and make the dough gummy. According to Daniel DiMuzio’s Bread Baking, An Arisan’s Perspective:
- (p. 51) pentosans absorb water with very little mixing and are fragile, breaking down and releasing water after as little as 3-4 minutes of intensive mixing;
- (p. 51) bakers using mixing machines use a short period of slow mixing for dough with significant amounts of rye flour, and little intensive mixing;
- (p. 216) dough for deli-style light rye (70% white/30% rye) would be hydrated at 68% and mixed slowly: in a stand mixer, 3 minutes slow to blend ingredients and 3 minutes on second speed.
The hydration of dough made with rye flour is affected by the way the pentosans in rye flour release water. There are other factors. Some recipes call for light or medium rye flour which is produced from rye endorsperm (i.e. not whole grain rye) with more screenings. Dark Rye flour uses more whole grain. Some recipes specifically call for dark rye flour or call for it as an alternative to medium rye flour. There is a range of conversion weights, for different kinds of rye flour; there are variations of methodology of measuring a cup to weigh:
- Online Conversion’s converter and Aqua-Calc converter – 1 cup of dark rye flour = 4.5 oz. = 128 g.
- Bakery Network conversion chart – 1 cup “rye flour” = 4 oz. = 113 g.
- Aqua-Calc converter light rye flour (or medium rye flour) – 1 cup = 102 g = 3.6 oz.
- The Traditional Oven’s converter – 1 cup = 102 g. = 3.6 oz. light rye?
- King Arthur Flour’s Ingredient Conversion chart – 1 cup = 3.625 oz. light rye?
Anita’s Organic Mill Organic Rye Flour is available in 1 kg. bags in some local stores and online. This may be a better quantity to buy for flour used in 1 to 1.5 cup quantities than Rogers Dark Rye Flour, in 2.5 kg. bags. For both of those rye flours, the Canadian Nutrition Facts label indicates 1 cup = 120 grams = 4.2 oz. Nutrition Facts labels use values based on food databases based on the measurement standards of their methodology. Anita’s is about 120 grams a cup if settled and scooped to pack the cup. Rogers Foods Dark Rye Flour is available locally in 2.5 kg. bags, and priced as a staple. Its Nutrition Facts label says ¼ cup weighs 30 g. Online Conversion’s converter and Aqua-Calc converter dark rye flour said 1 cup of dark rye flour = 4.5 oz. = 128 g. This is the mean or average for dark rye flour surveyed in USDA data base. Rogers Dark Rye may be about 124 grams a cup, settled and scooped.
Rye bread often contains caraway seeds; consumers associate the flavour with rye bread. Caraway is related to cumin, fennel, anise, carrots, celery and parsley. Some varieties are known as Persian cumin. Caraway has been used as a cooking herb or spice since the time of the Roman Empire. It is a major spice in Central European cooking and in the nations beside the Baltic. It was adopted in Germany, the Nordic countries, the “Low” countries and England. Caraway seeds were/are used to make flavoured breads with white flour in Central European recipes. Cumin and caraway are the spices in spiced Dutch Kamijnekaas 1literally “Cumin cheese” – Leiden Kaas and spiced Gouda. Other flavoring agents in baking light rye breads: fennel and anise seeds, chopped onion, dried orange peel, orange zest and orange oil. There are dark or sour light rye styles with bread flour, rye flour and:
- an agent (molasses, cocoa or ground coffee for home bakers) for dark colour,
- vinegar or sour cream for acidity, and
- corn meal, oatmeal or sunflower seeds for texture.
Bread Varieties
Pumpernickel may refer to bread made from 100% rye flour, according to medieval recipes. These loaves are a specialty product. Many grocery stores sell commercially baked pumpernickel. It is flat, compact, usually brown or black. There are some American recipes for a rustic style made with a large amount of rye flour, e.g. King Arthur Classic Pumpernickel baked in an oven.
There are industrial formulas and home recipes for light rye bread, baked in an oven. Most commercial and home made rye bread is made with wheat flour with rye flour or rye meal. Light rye breads are soft breads, with fairly close crumb and a distinct dark crust – chewy but not crunchy. There are rustic rye and rye sourdough styles. There are deli styles and reconstructions of local bakery styles. Light rye recipes often produce torpedo shaped loaves rather than pan loaves. There is a Winnipeg style, a bread flour loaf with a small amount of rye flour and/or rye meal or chopped rye berries. The Winnipeg Free Press had recipes based on the rye bread baked by Winnipeg’s City Bread. There is a bread machine version that I have not tried.
Many formulas/recipes for oven baked light rye are based on north European (German and Scandinavian) light rye bread recipes, with white flour and some rye flour or meal. Russians, Ukrainians and East Europeans also made light rye bread with a blend of white flour, whole wheat flour and rye flour. American rye bread recipes usually involve a blend of rye flour with wheat flour. Some recipes that are made with a blend of rye and wheat flour, (i.e. light rye bread), will make the crumb dark by including cocoa or coffee. This style may be called pumpernickel in the title of a recipe
Bread Machine Recipes
Limitations
100% rye flour bread is not made with bread machines.
Modern machines (machine manufactured since about 2005)have been optimized by manufacturers to have features to attract buyers. Most work with bread flour and whole wheat flour. Most also work with “gluten-free” recipes which many users hope to bake. Modern bread machines don’t handle rye flour. The main factors are the strong kneading action of modern machines and the length of the mix/knead programs.
A dough with too much water may throw off some wet dough sheets that bake as crackers or as a thick crunchy crust. Unless the mixing time is kept short, the rye flour will absorb and then release water and mix a dough that will not bake without issues.
Manuals and Books
Some bread machine manufacturers explicitly discourage baking with rye flour. Some Panasonic manuals said rye flour leads to dense bread when used to replace other (wheat) flour in their recipes and warned that using rye flour might overload the motor. Modern machines have almost dropped rye from the manuals.
There are recipes for light rye breads among the recipes included in manuals for machines I have used, involving small amount of rye flour and some other flavour agents associated with light rye loave:
- Bread with Caraway and Onions in the Panasonic SD-YD250 manual for a medium loaf (1.5 lb.) – 1/8 cup of rye flour, 3 cups of bread flour, and caraway seeds, with nearly identical to Panasonic’s Basic White Bread.
- Zorjirushi has a recipe in the BB-PAC20 manual with 2/3 cup of rye flour and 4 cups of bread flour to make a large loaf.
Some “bread machine” recipes suggest that the dough for a light rye bread loaf can be mixed, kneaded and baked in a bread machine. It depends on the machine and the baking program.
The light rye bread bread machine recipes in Beth Hensperger’s books:
- the Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (at pp. 133-143, 313), and
- the bread machine chapter of the Bread Bible,
use the basic bake or bake whole wheat programs. I have tried Swedish Rye Bread, a limpa style, from BLBMC, Scandinavian Light Rye, and Narsai’s Rye Bread. The latter is a bread machine recipe in Beth Hensperger’s Bread Bible. It gets a brown colour from molasses. Those recipes use 1 cup or more rye flour and 1¼ cups of water in medium recipes with 2 cups of bread flour. The rye flour is over 30% of the total flour and the hydration is 70%. Those recipes worked in older bread machines, but they do not work in many machines.
When I baked BLBMC light rye bread recipes in the Panasonic and Zojirushi, the machines mixed a dough that looked reasonable in the first 10 minutes of kneading, but was wet by the end of knead time. It rises; when it falls at the knockdowns, it leaves a wet dough residue clinging to the pan which bakes as cracker or flat bread against the edge of pan. This result is produced by a combination of kneading, and over-generous hydration.
Preset and Custom
No bread machine manufacturers made machines with factory programs for light rye loaves. The basic bake and whole wheat programs for bread machine baking are not adjustable. Modern machine programs mix and knead dough for about 20 minutes, to work the dough and build gluten for yeasted bread made with wheat flour. The dough progam will be close to 20 minutes. The gluten-free program and the “cake” program (for unyeasted baking) also mix for about 20 minutes. The kneading action in all programs for the Zojirushi machine seems to be equally intense and fast.
Some bread machines can be programmed with custom cycles. I have tried to use the Zojirushi BB-PAC20, in a custom program with a short “knead” phase. A short mix does not lead to success. The Zojirushi custom (“home-made”) programs cannot be set to knead for less than 5 minutes. This will mix a light rye that is well less than 30% rye flour by weight. The homemade programs allow adding to the rise time, which allows more fermentation and rise. It is difficult to bake a light rye loaf smaller than a bread machine “medium” loaf in a Zojirishi horizontal pan machine.
Success
I was able to bake decent light rye loaves following recipes that involved a short period of kneading with a stand mixer at low speed and the use of a conventional kitchen oven.