Mixed rye bread – basic instruction on how to use the bread baking machine

Slice of finished, fresh rye bread

I never thought that it would come to this. I am baking on demand. Should I introduce this as a new segment to my blog? Baking on demand – BOD? Does it fall in the same category as video on demand? Guess BOD is just way more delicious and taste then the former one. Anyhow, this one goes out to you, 三姐- It’s also my first experience report of making bread with my new bread baking machine. Something that is so foolproof, easy and simple, I do not understand how I could survive without it for so many years, waste so much money for this kind of “foreign” bread that goes for a couple of Euros / loaf here in China. This is the past. The future is homemade bread. Anyhow, I bought on the Chinese online store this Spanish bread baking machine of the famous brand F**or.

I found an easy recipe for a mixed rye bread in the internet and I spiked it up a bit to suit my own taste. Here we go:

Basic recipe

• 420 ml water
• 2 table spoon of unsalted butter
• 1 ½ tea spoon salt
• 3 tea spoon sugar
• 250 g rye flour
• 500 g wheat flour
• 10.4 g dry yeast

My own additions:

• 2.5 Table spoon dry sour dough (the type that you add for the flavor) – at this stage I am buying this in special organic shops in Germany that would have this ready packaged for customers. In the future I will try to make this on my own, when I am a bit more familiar with the bread making process
• 2 Table spoon of Cumming
• 2 hand full of walnut kernel

Every bread baking machine is different It is important to follow the instructions indicated on the machine when filling it up. Some will ask you to put the liquids first, some will ask you to put the flour first and the liquids later. Please always simply follow the instructions when filling your machine with ingredients posted, then nothing can go wrong. Basically it’s important that the salt and the yeast / baking powder / dry sour dough don’t mix up before the first mixing of the machine. My machine fills like this: Butter sugar and salt first, then the flour, on top of flour goes the water and finally the yeast and the sour dough. 

Ingredients filled in the basket

Put everything in the bread basket and switch the machine to:

• Brown bread
• 1250 gram
• Medium crust

While the machine heats up the ingredients and will mix them later after heating for 10 minutes or so, fry the Cumming and the crushed walnut kernel in a frying pan to release the taste. 

roasted nuts and Cumming

My machine makes some sound when the mixture is ready for the other things to be added. But basically in the middle of the first mixing you can start adding the Cumming and the walnuts. After that you can leave everything to the machine. 

dough mixed with the nuts and the Cumming

It will make the yeast go up three times

Yeast made the dough grown nice and big

knead the dough a few more times and finally bake the bread nice and crusty. It’s too bad that I can’t pack the smell of the fresh bread here on the blog because this is something that is incomparably good and makes your mouth water.

Finished bread

The only thing left now is to find out when the last time of mixing the bread is over. This is the time that I will try to take our the dough hook from the bread making machine in order to avoid these not so beautiful holes that are in the bottom of the bread, which results from the dough hooks that are left in the bread basket when the baking process starts.

Holes with the dough hook inside

The bread is well done, this is a simple base recipe that I will do from time to time, eventually with variations. It could be a bit less dry but I am working on this aspect and for sure I will try to find other recipes that give a more juicy result, soon. Stay posted here....

Program:  brown bread

Crust:       medium

Size:         1250 g

Points:      7/10

Last but not least, this is a rye based bread. Rye based breads are best consumed one day after they are baked. I know it is hard to wait with all those fantastic smells around you when the bread is fresh from the oven, but be patient, wait for one day and you will be rewarded with an awesome tasting bread indeed.