Salt and Caraway Crusted Fruit and Nut Rye Bread
Just bought my second 25-pound bag of dark rye flour. Three years into the pandemic, I/we finally worked through my first bag, with many sourdough and other crusty whole grain breads to show for it. Now on the hunt again for new recipes featuring rye flour, and found this intriguing recipe of heavily salted, caraway seeds studded, and fruit and nut infused rye bread. Sounds like a salted bagel topped with everything seasoning! Had to try it! The amounts of salt (1/4 cup kosher) and caraway seeds (7 1/2) tablespoons called for in this recipe are quite large and somewhat scary. I reduced both. The breads (3 in total) turned out to be quite additive, giving me and hubby a tummy-ache after we immediately devoured half a warm loaf smeared with salted butter. Unlike the long fermentation required of sourdough breads, this is a quick and simple yeast bread that can be served warm out of the oven in a matter of hours. This is also a good foundation recipe to tweak and adapt further.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp caraway seeds (crushed a bit with a rolling pin to release more flavor)
1 tbsp table salt (20g)
3 cups of whole grain dark rye four (384g)
2 1/2 cups of bread flour (310g)
1-2 tbsp chopped candied orange peels (I used my rum-soaked leftovers)
1 cup more or less, dark and golden raisins, dried cherries, and dried cranberries
1 cup of nuts (I used almonds and pecans) lightly toasted and roughly chopped
45g pumpkin seeds
Optional: 1 tbsp rye malt (10g) and 5g of cocoa powder
2 1/2 tbsp caraway seeds (crushed with rolling pin) and 2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp kosher salt
Instructions:
Mix all ingredients (except the last two) in KitchenAid Mixer bowl with dough hook thoroughly (you may need to use a rubber spatula to help mix in the sides)
Add 2 cups of warm water until dough turns into a ball (a little more water maybe needed so that no dry flour is left). The dough, due to its high whole grain ratio (about 55%) will be dense and heavy.
Take out the dough, coat mixing bowel with oil, and put dough back and cover
Turn on oven for 2-3 minutes, turn oven off and oven lights on, and proof dough in the oven for 1.5-2 hours until dough doubles in size. The longer time is necessary because of the dense dough.
Punch down the dough on floured surface and divide into three portions
Roll each piece of dough into a long rope (about 12 inches long)
Line baking sheet with parchment paper and lay all three rolled dough side by side
Brush bread rolls with water and sprinkle on 2 1/2 tbsp caraway seeds first, then roll and press seeds in as much as possible
Sprinkle on 1/4 cup of Diamond kosher salt and press in as much as possible
Put bread rolls back into oven with oven lights turned on, continue to proof bread for about 1 hour, take out and set aside
Pre-heat oven to 350F
Bake at 350F, rotating every 10 minutes, for 40 minutes
Slice rounds and serve warm with butter or cheese
Note: This bread is quite dense due to the high rye content. May experiment with higher bread flour ratio to see what I can get away with.