Rye Bread

I've wanted to make my mom's rye bread for about a year now, but haven't built up the courage to do it.  Mainly because as you've probably read in my previous blog post, I am not exactly a pro with bread.   Especially one that doesn't come with explicit instructions on how long to 'knead' with the dough hook in my Kitchen Aid Mixer.  My mom thought that was ridiculous that I didn't do it by hand.  You know, the ONE time that I had made bread.  What finally pushed me over the edge was that we have all been craving it since the last time she made it.  It's just not like any other bread.  When other people think of rye bread they think of the marble kind you can buy to make sandwiches with.  But this one's different.  It's dense like a homemade wheat bread but with a bit of a sour taste like sourdough and the distinct flavor of rye.  So I just couldn't take it.  If I wanted it I just had to make it.  People needed me to make it.  So that was what pushed me to finally do it.  That and my sister, you know the one who bakes, was visiting.  So let's call this a team effort.

Thankfully, at least we had something to start with as my aunt had the original recipe.  We started with a loose, and when I say loose, I mean LOOSE family recipe.  I think most family recipes are like that.  Passed down written in cursive from some far off relative with basically just ingredients, and no real instructions.  Maybe we are just spoiled now with how recipes are written, with each exact detail step by step.  Real cooks just throw it all together and it tastes good.  But okay, I'll admit it; I'm not a real cook and certainly not a real baker!  So I need a recipe.  So, with the help of my sister, La, I decided to document it.   The problem was my mom had adapted it so much herself.  And we all kept saying 'if only she had written it down!' but really I don't think even my mom knew the recipe.  She just poured the flour and the water and went by touch, texture, smell.  Which after years of practice I hope to be able to too.  But for now I'm a measurer.  Who am I kidding; I will always be a measurer.

My only experienced with this bread (other than eating it) was watching my mom make it from a distance.  Not the involved student I wish I would have been, but probably while lying on the couch like a lazy teenager watching "Guiding Light" or something.  My mom would pull out this enormous silver bowl and then plop the dough on the counter.  There was a ton of it, and she would knead it for what seemed like forever, then let it rise for forever, then put it neatly into 4 loaf pans and let it rise again... for forever!  But, my mom definitely didn't follow the rules of letting the bread cool, cause as soon as it came out of the oven she would pretty much let us cut into it.  It seemed like such an involved process, but what I learned in doing it myself was that it really is quite easy.  Okay, okay, no bread is easy, but as bread goes, pretty easy.  Definitely a lot of waiting around, but it maybe took 30 minutes of actual work before the first rise, then 10 minutes of work before the second rise.  And the whole kneading thing was not nearly as intimidating as I had made it out to be.  I think that I was still bruised from my bad pizza dough incident.  The only real pain in the butt is cleaning your counter from that sticky dough mess.  (Take a tip from my mom and scrape it with a spatula.)

Batch 1 of the bread was good.  Very good.  Just not my mom's bread.  We added molasses as my mom did to the family recipe, but we were a bit heavy-handed.  And it just didn't taste rye-y enough.  I have to admit I was disappointed it didn't turn out right away.  Granted it was only our first try and only my third time making bread, but at least it did turn out.  And we were close.  Very close.  And the second batch was perfect!  Well almost, I didn't have butter to smear on top so we used olive oil, but then it absorbed, so La decided to put some on after it rose.  Big mistake.  It smushed down and didn't re-rise.  So it was good, just flat.  It was the size of a loaf of banana bread.  So day 3/batch 3 of being a human bread making machine I was getting a bit cocky doing it without La, and realized that I didn't quite have that kneading thing down.  But it still turned out.  This time perfectly.  As soon as we cut into it, (right out of the oven, not because we were impatient, just 'cause you know, we gotta test the entire process), and we slathered a thick slab of butter, and ate it with smiles on our faces, we knew we had nailed it.  Feel free to modify it to your liking.  Less rye, more white, add some flax seeds or oatmeal, more molasses, cook on a stone instead of in a loaf pan.  For my family, you better believe there will be no modifications because bread that tastes like my mom's needs no modifications.  And this one does, if I do say so myself.

Trish's Tips:  The only change that we did make from my mom's is to grease the pans with butter instead of Crisco.  Something about shortening is just so unnatural to me, but it will yield a bit more of a crispy crust.  Try adjusting this recipe to make it your own as my mom did.  The original recipe did not have molasses and only had half the rye listed here.  Also delicious as toast with peanut butter, which I know sounds weird, but is seriously good.

Rye Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:

2 C Warm Water

1 ½-Tbl yeast (2 packets)

2 TBL sugar

3 to 3 1/2 C Rye flour

3 Tbls Olive Oil plus more for bowl

1 Tbl salt

2 ½-4 ½-C white flour

1/4 C Molasses

2-3 Tbl Butter for greasing pans

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in a large bowl.  Stir in sugar.  Let stand 5 minutes or until foamy.

Add Rye Flour, 3 TBL Olive Oil, Salt and stir to mix.  Mixture will be wet.  Add 1-1 1/2 Cups White Flour, ½ Cup at a time, mixing with a wooden spoon until mixture is kind of dry.  Add molasses.  Stir until well mixed.  Add an additional ½ C to 1 C flour as needed.  Mixture should still be fairly wet, but will hold together. 

Pour out onto floured board or countertop.  Sprinkle with more flour and knead until elastic.  You will probably need to add about ½ C - 1 Cup flour.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of Olive Oil in the same bowl used to mix dough.  Put dough in bowl and flip dough so that both sides are coated with oil.  Put clean towel over top and let rise in draft-free place until doubled in size, about 2-4 hours.

Just before starting this step prepare loaf pans by greasing pans with butter.  Dump dough onto floured work surface.  Knead every so gently to get the dough into the shape of 2 small loaves in order to fit in the loaf pans.  The dough will deflate but be careful to not over-knead.  Shape into 2 small loaves and place each in pan.  Gently smear soft (but not melted) butter on the top and sides of the loaves.  (Be generous.)  Let rise in a warm, draft-free place with a towel draped over the top of the pans for an additional 2-4 hours or until the dough rises to the top of the loaf pan. 

Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 25-35 minutes or until done.  The bread should sound hollow when tapped.

Let cool on cooling rack or if you don’t have one, just turn on its side to allow optimal air circulation for cooling.

Stew in Summertime?

Sounds weird right?  Well it is... a little.  Stew In Summertime is a tribute to my mother who made her own rules.  She was known for eating pie for breakfast, feeling that potatoes were the most nutritional vegetable (potassium, people!), and making beef stew in the middle of summer.  She taught me a love of cooking, the art of entertaining, and the how-to's of bread making, homemade soups and the secret to her famous chip dip.  Just a few months before she died I called her maybe 15 times as I made my first attempt at homemade bread.  She walked me through all of it step by step as I asked what I thought were hard questions, like what does 'warm' water mean, how long do you knead the dough and what the heck do they mean by 'elastic'?  She was incredibly patient, one would have to be getting that many calls over the same thing, especially when it came so easy to her.   These last few months I've thought how I'll make my next 'homemade bread', whatever that may be, without her.

'Stew in Summertime" the blog is a way for me to continue cooking and learning even though I have do it without her.  She taught me a lot, but there is still much to learn.  Through this blog I'll share some of the recipes and tips that I learned from her and also bravely try the recipes she didn't get a chance to teach me.  And I will try to crack the code on the recipes she made frequently, but never really wrote down.  She was known for saying 'we could make this', after trying a recipe at a restaurant, and although it wouldn't always taste the same, it would often taste better.  That is yet another thing I wish I had learned from her.

As I was driving home to Michigan to see my family the summer before she died, I asked her what she was making for dinner and she told me, "Beef Stew".  Since I had just left 75 degree weather,  I joked with her and asked if it was a 'blustery cold day' that June day.  Which in my defense is not that out of the question where I grew up in Marquette, Michigan.  Knowing my sarcastic sense of humor, she laughed and said, "well, it is kind of cold here".  It didn't really matter either way, because it was good!  I can almost see her big blue Le Creuset almost bubbling over with the deliciousness.  It smells like home to me.  Here's my version.

Trish's Tips:  Sometimes I leave the potatoes out and serve over mashed potatoes instead.  I think it makes it a bit more dressed up for a dinner party.  I also love the addition of mushrooms here, but feel free to leave them out if you like it more traditional.  Slow cooker?  I go into phases where I love mine and sometimes I think it's more work to pull it out.  If you love yours first do all of the sauteing in a pan, through the deglazing part, then throw all the ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 9-10 hours.

INGREDIENTS:
Olive Oil for sauteing meat and veggies
24 oz beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 TBL all purpose flour
8 oz cremini mushrooms, quartered
5-6 carrots diagonally cut in 1-inch pieces (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 cups peeled potatoes chopped into 1-inch pieces (about 4 medium Yukon Gold)
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
3-4 stalks celery, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

2 cups beef broth

1 1/2 cups red wine

2 (14.5 oz) cans stewed tomatoes, undrained
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

Kosher salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
3 to 4 TBL chopped fresh parsley

Put Beef in a medium sized bowl and add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Toss to coat.  Dredge beef in flour.  Heat 2 TBL oil in a large Dutch oven over med-high heat.  Add beef and cook until browned, but not cooked through on all sides.  Don't crowd the pan, cook in batches if necessary.  Remove beef from pan and put aside in bowl.  Add more oil if needed.  Saute mushrooms until browned.  Remove mushrooms and add to the beef.  Saute carrots, celery, and onions until carmelized to your liking.  Add garlic and saute for 1 minute or until garlic is fragrant.  Deglaze plan with beef broth.

Add wine, beef, mushrooms, potatoes, bay leaves, thyme, tomatoes and 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.  Then uncover and cook for 30 minutes or until beef is tender and vegetables are cooked.  Discard bay leaves.  Serve with chopped parsley on top for an added bit of freshness.