Winnipeg Rye Bread

Winnipeg Rye Bread is a pretty big thing.  After people try it, they love it and want to have it wherever they go. Problem is, Winnipeg Rye Bread isn't available everywhere!  Who woulda thought?!

The difference with Winnipeg Rye Bread from regular rye bread is that Winnipeg Rye Bread doesn't really have much rye flour in it.  It's actually a fairly light bread.  So since I've been on a make-my-own bread kinda kick I decided to try making some.

I found a few recipes on line, and the first one I tried was a recipe that is actually out of the Winnipeg Free Press.  I like to simplify my bread making process so I made the dough in the breadmaker and then baked it in the oven.  Here's what I did:

Winnipeg Rye Bread for the Home Baker

Adapted from Carol McDonald's recipe

Ingredients:

Soak for a couple of hours:

3/4 cup rye flakes (or course rye meal* or whole rye kernels* chopped up in a blender)

3/4 cup water

Dough:

1 1/4 cups warm water, about 100F

1 tsp molasses (or liquid barley malt)

1 1/2 tbsp canola oil

4 1/2 cups white bread flour

4 tbsp rye flour

2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp (7 ml) instant yeast

Egg Wash:
1 Egg
Water or Milk (Optional)

Method:


Soak the rye flakes in water for a couple of hours.  The original recipe called for course rye meal but all I could find was rye flakes and I found they worked pretty good.  Plus because they are rolled flakes rather than whole kernels or course rye meal, they soak much faster!

After your rye flakes are soaked, put them in your breadmaker. Combine the dough ingredients in your breadmaker in the order that they are listed.

I then set my breadmaker to dough setting and let it go through it's cycle!

When that's finished,  remove the dough and punch it down.  Divide in two.  Roll each half out into a rectangle that is about as wide as your bread pan is long.  This process should also help to remove some of the air bubbles in the dough.  Roll the dough up and pinch the seam to seal.  The seam will be on the bottom of your bread giving you a nice round looking top.  Grab the ends and tuck the top layer of dough under the bottom of dough by the other seam to smooth out the ends of your loaves.  

Do the same with the other half of dough to make your second pan of bread.

Another option is to simply roll the bread up and place it 12x18 inch pan to make one big loaf of bread.

Then, cover with a damp (not wet) cloth and let it rise for an hour or so until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 460F (230C).

Give the top of the bread a few slashes with a knife.  Basically you just want to cut down about a 1/4 of an inch.  This improves the look of the bread (by my opinion) and gives the dough room to rise.

Now comes a choice, you can leave it plain, give it a cornstarch glaze, or give it an egg wash.  I use the egg wash method with results in a beautiful, golden crust.  It's also slightly chewy like the Winnipeg Rye Bread that you buy.  

Basically I just crack an egg into a small bowl and then whist it until it's well blended.  You can add a little milk or water but I just used straight egg and one was plenty.

Brush the egg wash onto the crust of the bread.

Place a cast iron pan or small casserole dish with water on it on the bottom rack of the oven.

Bake at 460F for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 400F (205C) for an additional 15 minutes.  I often have to cover my bread with tinfoil partway through the baking process because bread often browns very quickly in my small oven.  The bread is done when it starts to pull away from the side of the pan and it sounds slightly hollow when you knock on the top.  I also check to be sure the sides have browned before I remove it from the oven.

When it's finished, remove from the pan and set on a rack to cool.

Slice off a piece and enjoy with fresh Strawberry Jam or a bit of butter!  Yum!!