Rye & Raisin

A 100% wholemeal rye coming out of the bread tin is not the most exciting sight in the world but cool it, wrap it for 24 hours and slice it and …

… it’s a different story. These particular raisins have been soaked (not submerged, just given a few generous splashes, and then a few more after a couple of hours) in Ronmiel, a 20% proof rum/honey liqueur from the Canary Islands which we just happened to have lurking in the cupboard.

In the unlikely event that your neighbour hasn’t brought you back a bottle of Ronmiel from the Canaries use rum or orange juice.

For a step-by-step method for working with wet 100% rye doughs see Apple & Cider Rye

Refresh your starter 24 hours before you plan to mix the dough.

Mix the dough in a bowl with wet hands. Be thorough to incorporate all of the flour but there’s no point in overworking it because there’s little gluten to be developed. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes to an hour.

Oil a one pound bread tin. With wet hands squeeze the dough to roughly the size of the tin, drop it in and smooth the top.

Cover and leave for 3-3½ hours. It will not rise a great deal – see the photos in
Apple & Cider Rye as a guide.

Heat the oven to 240-250C. Bake for 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 180C and bake for a further 45 minutes. Turn the oven off, remove the bread from the tin and return it to the cooling oven with the door slightly ajar for about 20 minutes. Cool.

When absolutely cold, wrap and leave at least overnight before cutting.