Bread Machine Rye Bread

A hint of cocoa powder accents the flavour contributed by the rye flour. If you like, substitute dill seed or fennel seed for the caraway seed. While making bread in a bread machine, make sure to consider:

- The proper way to measure flour using measuring cups is to aerate it first. This is done either by sifting flour, or aerating it by fluffing it up and whisking it well, then spooning it into the measuring cup, then carefully removing any excess flour with a knife. If you just stick that measuring cup in the bag of flour and scoop some out, you will get a lot more flour than what the recipe calls for. Do aerate the flour, or you will end up with dry dough.

- Use bread flour, not regular all-purpose flour. Bread flour contains a higher percentage of gluten than regular all-purpose flour. Using bread flour will produce taller, less dense loaves. If you use all-purpose flour (which has smaller percentage of gluten than bread flour), your loaves will be flatter and denser.

1 LB LOAF:
¾ cup water
1 Tbsp. light molasses
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. caraway seed
1 ⅔ cups bread flour
⅔ cup medium rye flour
1½ tsp. bread machine yeast

1½ LB LOAF:
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. light molasses
1 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. sea salt
¾ tsp. caraway seed
2½ cups bread flour
1 cup medium rye flour
2 tsp. bread machine yeast

Add the water, molasses, butter, sugar, cocoa, salt and caraway seeds to the bread pan.

Add both flours. Make a small depression into the flour with your finger and add the dry yeast to the depression. Make sure you do not allow the yeast to come in contact with any liquids.

Insert the bread pan into the bread machine, press it down to lock in place. Close the lid and plug the bread machine in.

Recommended Settings:
Cycle: Whole Wheat/Whole Grain or Basic/White Bread
Loaf: 1, 1.5 or 2 lb
Crust: Medium or Light

When bread is done, remove the bread pan using oven mitts. Turn over the bread pan and shake it to release the loaf. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack for about 30 minutes before slicing.

Cook's Notes:

• Resist the temptation to slice the bread right away. The steam trapped by the crust is still baking the bread, inside and releasing that too soon can result in slightly underbaked or crumbly bread.
• The bread will keep for a few days when stored in a bread box or airtight container at room temperature. If you have too much bread or want to bake a second loaf, freeze the bread for up to a month.
• If you don't have bread machine yeast, you can use active dry yeast, but it needs to be dissolved in water before being added to the machine.
• When your bread machine has been kneading for a few minutes, check the dough. If it seems too stiff, add a little bit of water and continue checking until it seems soft enough. If too wet, add more flour in small amounts until it seems to be soft yet not sticky.

Adding Gluten:  Some bread machines have a whole wheat or whole grain cycle, which comes in handy when making whole grain breads. If your machine lacks this cycle, try adding gluten to whole wheat, whole grain and rye bread recipes to improve loaf height, texture and structure. (If your supermarket does not carry gluten, check a health food store.) Use 1 Tbsp. for both the 1 lb and 1½ lb recipe.