Light Bread with Wheat and Rye Flour

This lovely Sunday I will give you the recipe of a light bread perfect for toasting!
I love baking bread, it is such a good feeling to eat bread you know all the ingredients in. And even if it doesn't have the same durability length as the bread from the grocery store, it is worth the time to bake it because of the taste and the feeling of genuineness.

In the recipe you will see that I am using 34 degree water, not 37, because when you knead the dough for ten minutes in a baking machine the temperature will raise several degrees and to give the yeast the best environment the dough should not be warmer than 37 degrees.

Happy baking everyone!

2 loaves of light bread with wheat and rye flour
5 deciliter 34 degree water (easiest way is to use a digital thermometer under the water tap)
50 grams fresh yeast
0,5 deciliter oil (I used rapeseed oil but you can use any oil you like)
2 teapoons salt
1 tablespoon honey
390 grams of wheat flour
390 grams rye flour

1. Dissolve the yeast and the honey into the water by stirring with a spoon.
2. Add oil, salt and then the flour little by little while kneading the dough properly. If you use a baking machine, when all the flour is added let it knead the dough for about 10 minutes on medium effect.If you knead the dough by hand you should do it for about 15 minutes.
3. Leth the dough raise (twice it's original size) for 45 minutes under a towel.
4. Grease two bread pans or if you don't have that you can just put baking paper on a baking tray.
5. Put the oven on 225 Celcius.
6. When the dough has raised, put it on the floured table with floured hands and with light moves you just divide the dough into two pieces and put them into the baking pans or just put them side by side on the baking tray.Let the bread raise for 30 minutes under towel.
7. Bake the bread in the middle of the oven for 17 minutes (or if you have a baking termometer the inner temperature should be 98 Celsius).

Syrup Bread

The household economy in my home is getting a bit strained since I recently lost my beloved job (as a result of an unexpected reorganization in the company) and now it is the time to think smart and economic and make priorities.

I have realized that buying bread in the store is actually very expensive if you compare the price to how much it costs to bake the bread at home. Two loaves of bread with basically same ingredients as the bread I will show you today would probably cost about 50 Swedish crowns here in Sweden (= 6,46 USD or 4 British Pounds). However, when I bake two loaves I only pay about 12 Swedish crowns (= 1,29 USD or 0,8 British Pounds). It may sound like I am poking in pennies here but when you buy eight loaves each month it is a big difference between 480 Swedish crowns (51,7 USD or 32 British Pounds) for buying bread and 96 Swedish crowns (10,3 USD or 6,4 British Pounds) for baking your own.

I am sure you are thinking "Sure, I could bake if I wanted to but it is often so time consuming...!" Yes, you are right in some way beacuse many types of bread can take a long time to make, but this recipe I will show you today is not one of those long term baking experiences you fear, this is a little joy :)

This recipe comes from the book "Bröd: från bagels till tunnbröd" by Göran Söderin och George Strachal. Here you can find the book on the Swedish online book store Adlibris.

Syrup Bread

25 grams of fresh yeast

3 deciliter room temperatured water

10 grams room temperatured butter

1 deciliter dark syrup

5 grams salt

450 grams sifted rye flour with wheat

150 grams wheat flour

Put your oven to 200 Celsius.

Dissolve the yeast in the water.

Add the butter and stirr it into the yeast mixture together with the syrup.

Mix the two types of flour and the salt in a seperate bowl and then add it little by little while you work it into the yeast/water mixture. 

Work the dough with your hands until it feels smooth. 

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes. (excellent time to walk the dog or check your Instagram/Facebook ;) )

Divide the dough in two  and put them into two bread baking pans (1,5 L or 2 L) and let them rise under a towel until they double in size (approximately 1 hour)

Bake for 20 minutes or until the inner temperature (use a digital termometer) is 98 Celcius.