Rye flour, as I’ve noted before, can be tricky to work with. Rye dough is sticky. It doesn’t rise like wheat flour, but it’s flavor is distinctly sweet and rich. And like all things kitchen, practice (and a willingness to analyze flops and failures) can result in improvements.
Pumpernickel is simply rye bread that is darkened with some kind of caramel coloring. In this loaf I used molasses and a teaspoon of instant coffee. The soaked raisins are sparsely distributed, but such a nice surprise when each one lands.
This rye baguette was covered in cumin (not caraway) seeds and flaky sea salt.
Definitely on the curious end of the spectrum, Susan really wanted to try this rye bread from Vilnius (below.) It had 5 teaspoons of cumin and plum jelly in the dough. The result: spicy, sweet, but otherwise pretty normal rye bead.
