kelley cooks

Marble rye bread

This bread is so soft and fragrant with the perfect amount of seasoning to fool anyone into thinking this is a professional deli rye. It’s excellent griddled in butter for a patty melt or reuben or as a dipper for some spinach artichoke dip.

Measure your pan before you start to make sure it will work with your equipment - this quantity works well in a 10”x5” loaf pan or a 9”x4”x4” Pullman pan.

Adapted from: King Arthur Baking
photo of completed recipe: Marble rye bread

  • You'll be eating in: About 4 hours

  • Active time: 30 minutes

  • Yield: 1 loaf (10"x5" / 1.5lb pan)

Ingredients

For the dough:

  • 271grams all purpose flour
  • 138grams rye flour
  • 35grams potato flour
  • 21grams dry milk powder
  • 1teaspoon onion powder
  • 2teaspoons caraway seeds
  • 10grams salt
  • 19grams sugar
  • 1.5teaspoons instant yeast
  • 28grams vegetable oil
  • 298grams water

For the dark swirl (optional):

  • 2teaspoons black cocoa mixed with 2 teapoons rye flour

For the egg wash:

  • 1egg
  • 1tablespoon water

Instructions

  1. Mix the dough

    Combine all of the ingredients except the black cocoa mix (if using) and egg wash the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Mix on medium speed until the dough is smooth and stretchy, about 8-10 minutes. You can definitely do this by hand but it will take you longer and the dough is quite sticky.

  2. Bulk ferment

    Place the dough ball in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a shower cap, damp towel, or plastic wrap. Let the dough rise at room temperature until about doubled, 1.5-2 hours.

  3. Make the darker dough (optional)

    Remove the dough from the bowl and divide into two sections. Mix in the black cocoa/rye flour mixture into one half of the dough, kneading until well combined and uniform in color. I did this by hand with the help of a bench scraper. Roll both sections of dough into separate 8"x8" squares.

  4. Pre-shape

    Combine the squares on top of each other, or if you skipped the swirl effect, roll the dough into an 8"x8" square.

  5. Roll and prove

    Roll the dough in a log and place it seam side down in your greased loaf pan. Even if you're skipping the darker dough this shaping step helps the loaf rise evenly. Cover and let prove a second time until the loaf is quite poofy. For my 10"x5" loaf pan it rises about to the top of the of the pan.

  6. Prepare for baking

    Preheat the oven to 400°. Whisk together the egg and water and brush the loaf with the egg wash. Cover the pan loosely with foil to prevent excessive browning.

  7. Bake

    Bake at 400° for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350° and bake, covered, for another 20 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking for an additional 8-10 minutes.

    Baking time summarized:

    Oven temp Time Notes
    400° F 15 mins Covered
    350° F 20 mins Covered
    350° F 8-10 mins Uncovered

  8. Cool

    Remove the bread from the oven and the pan and then let cool as much as you can stand (ideally completely, but at least an hour) before slicing.

Variations

The swirl is beautiful but this bread is so soft and delightful that you could easily skip that step and still have an incredible result.

Storage

Bread stores exceptionally well in the freezer: once it's cool, slice the entire loaf and store the slices in a freezer safe ziploc bag. Toast directly from the freezer.

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