I have set a personal goal for this upcoming fall, winter, and spring of baking all of my own bread.  It’s a challenge that will hopefully help improve my bread baking skills.  I have started out with this simple a fairly straight forward recipe for honey rye bread that was adapted from The Nordic Cook Book‘s recipe for golden syrup rye.  I halved the recipe to create only one loaf, and swapped some of the steps and ingredients around, but the bones of the recipe are the same.  Happy Baking!

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp Butter
• 1/4 cup Honey
• 1 cup Buttermilk
• 4 tsp dry-active Yeast
• 1 1/2 cups Bread Flour
• 1 cup Rye Flour
• 1 cup Flour
• 1 tsp Caraway Seeds
• 1 tsp Fennel Seeds
• 1 tsp Anise Seeds
• 1 tsp Salt

Directions:

1. Melt the butter.  I gave it a quick zap in the microwave.
2. Whisk together the butter, honey, and buttermilk.
3. Stir in the yeast.
4. Pour the liquids into the bowl of your stand mixer with the dough hook attached.
5. Turn the mixer on, and add the remaining ingredients.
6. Allow the mixer to knead the dough for about 10 minutes.
7. Place the dough in a greased container and allow it to rise for 2 hours.
8. Form the dough into a loaf.  I did a round loaf, and placed it on a baking sheet, but you can also do a square loaf in a loaf pan.
9. Score the top of the loaf.  Also optional, I did it, and it did not seem to make much of a difference.
10. Allow the dough to rise for 30 minutes.
11. Preheat the oven to 350 F (176 C).
12. Bake for about an hour, until it is dark brown.