Recipe - Sweet Rye Bread

In all the years I've owned our Vitamix blender, I've had a variety of uses for the multipurpose tool: muffins, pao de queijo,  blending soups, nut butters, Nutella, ice cream, apple sauce and powdered sugar.  While I've ground my fair share of almond meal for baking, I've never actually used it on grains for flour.  Its been in the back of my mind for some time - freshly milled grains for fresh baked bread. I've heard it also tastes much better as "wheat flour loses 40% of its vitamin content in the first 24 hours after milling and 85-90% after 2-3 more days" [source1] and [source2].  In essence, freshly milled grains taste better and are better for you.  Enough said.

After purchasing some Rye Berries on whim (it was on sale!) I decided on this recipe: Sweet Rye Bread based on the fact I had all the ingredients on hand.  I had to make some minor changes (molasses instead of sorghum syrup and store bought wheat flour) but delicious all the same.  

As for the milling itself - it was pretty simple.  I used the Vitamix dry container and dumped a cup in at a time.  I wasn't sure about the volume as how much you can pour into the container often depends on the oil and hardness of the ingredient (in general, less for nuts, more for grains and even more for sugar.) but one cup seemed to work well for the rye. Remember one cup of grains makes a little more than a cup of flour.  I did not sift and in hindsight, that may have been a good idea (perhaps I should have researched milling a bit more before jumping in!).

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of oil (or melted butter)
• 1/2 cup sorghum syrup
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 cups rye flour
• 2 to 3 cups unbleached all purpose or wheat

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the water, yeast, and sweetener- give a quick stir and let sit until yeast becomes active, 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Stir in oil, sorghum, salt, and rye flour. Start bread with the dough hook.
3. Add 1/2 cup of all purpose flour and continue to slowly add flour (1-2 tablespoons at a time) until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Let run for 8-10 minutes. This will give you time to adjust flour and let the dough knead. Remember- you can always add flour but you can’t always take it away. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky. Cover with a damp towel and set aside to rise for 1to 1 1/2 hours.
4. Once the first rise is over, knead a couple of times into the form of a log. Place in an oiled bread pan, cover again and set aside for about 1 hour. With 30 minutes left, pre-heat your oven to 350˚ F.
5. Once the loaf has risen the second time, place in oven. (if you have a bottle of water, mist the bottom of your oven a couple of times to get some steam going.) Shut the oven door and let bake for 20 minutes. Cover with a brown paper bag and continue to bake for another 30-40 minutes. Bread should have a golden crust and sound hollow when you tap on the bottom. Remove bread from pan and let cool before slicing.

by Erin Alderson