Organic Cracked Rye

I needed cracked rye to make authentic Danish sour dough rye bread. Cracked rye is something I could not find in any grocery stores and very few options online. I was thrilled to discover Janie's Mill is selling it. And my first loaf turned out beautifully!

This cracked rye makes a perfect Winnipeg style rye bread. I've made this loaf 8 times in the past 3 months. It's as close to City Bread Winnipeg Rye, as you're going to make at home, imho. Here's the recipe I use:

- soak 100g of Janie's Cracked Rye in 110g of water for 8 to 16 hours at room temp, covered. (Water will be fully absorbed)
- warm 175g of water with 1 tsp of table sugar to lukewarm temp (80 to 90F) in a glass, in the microwave (30 seconds).
- add 2 tsp of active dry yeast. stir, and let stand for 5 minutes
- add the soaked rye and water/yeast to a mixing bowl. Stir well.
- add 350g strong white unbleached bread flour (13% protein or higher.)
- add 25g of wheat gluten flour (75-85% protein... Bob's Red Mill, or eqv.)
- add 9g of table salt
- mix well by hand with a rubber spatula.
- Let stand covered for 30 minutes. then aggressively fold over the dough in the mixing bowl 10-15 times. and cover again.
- Repeat above 2 more times.
- drop dough into a standard 9x5x3" bread pan. punch it down to de-gas it in the pan, Let it rise to about 3-1/2 to 4" height. (about 45 to 90 minutes. don't overproof)
- Bake at 425F for 30 minutes, or until 195F internal temp.
- Depan 5 minutes out of the oven, and let cool on a rack until room temp.

Glorious perfect Winnipeg rye bread. The dough will start out very sticky because of the rye. Don't worry. i use a silicon spatula. after two rests, the dough will develop it's gluten. And when tapped on, it'll be elastic, and will rise very nicely. The added Gluten flour is important for its rise and have the soft texture of KUB or City Bakery.

I mix 1/3 cop of cracked rye with one cop of water and cook until I get the right consistency. It's a good breakfast cereal.

I have only started making 100% seeded rye bread. The Danish recipe I follow calls for an overnight soak of rye kernels, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and flax seeds. The bread is delicious. I love the hearty flavor. I made a mistake of forgetting to add salt but my sister in law ate 5 slices topped with loads of butter and sea salt.

Wife and I lived in Amsterdam for 10 years and we came to love the dark rye bread served nearly everywhere. Unfortunately, you cannot find it in the US. We discoved a recipe which calls for cracked rye, and decide to try Janie's Mill. It has been wonderful. Great product and reasonable pricing. Shipping kills, but I guess I need to order more each time ;-)