The bread doctor
Our expert Barney Desmazery answers your baking questions
HOW DO I INCORPORATE RYE FLOUR INTO MY BREAD FOR THE BEST RESULTS?
There are now two types of rye lour that are readily available: wholemeal, which makes breads more granary rustic, and light or white rye lour, to keep bread white. Both add lots of nutty, malty lavour, but they’re harder to work with than wheat lour, as the gluten in rye lour forms dierently and becomes very sticky when you add water. So, there are two ways of tackling it. First, for a normal rye ‘lavoured’ bread (the sort of bread that’s sold as a rye loaf in bakeries), you can simply take about a ifth of the strong bread lour from a basic recipe and replace it with rye, then just add the water gradually, as you might need a little less. The second is 100 per cent dark rye bread, which is only made with wholemeal rye lour. This is a delicious pumpernickel-type bread that is made in a dierent way to normal bread. You need to make more of a thick porridge than a dough and bake it in a loaf tin. You can ind a recipe for a sourdough version of this bread at bbcgoodfood.com/rye-sourdough-bread. To make a yeasted version, simply swap the sourdough starter for 7g fast-action dried yeast.
As well as making bread, rye lour can also be swapped out for about a ifth of the plain lour in biscuits, cakes and pastry to give them a lavour boost.