The Ultimate Jewish Rye Bread Food

HOMEMADE RYE BREAD

Steps:

• Combine the yeast, sugar, melted butter, egg, and milk in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Beat on low speed for 1 minute. Add the salt, rye flour, all-purpose flour, and caraway seeds. Beat at low speed until all of the flour is incorporated, about 1 minute. Then, beat at medium speed until the mixture forms a ball, leaves the sides of the bowl and climbs up the dough hook. Remove the dough from the bowl. Using your hands, form the dough into a smooth ball. Lightly oil a bowl. Place the dough in the bowl and turn it to oil all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 5 1/2 by 9-inch baking pan.
• Remove the dough from the bowl and invert onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead the dough several times. Tuck and roll so that any seams disappear into the dough and place in the prepared baking pan. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg lightly over the top of the dough. Bake until lightly brown, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

ROSE LEVY BERANBAUM'S REAL JEWISH RYE BREAD RECIPE

Steps:

• Make the sponge: In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl, combine the bread flour, rye flour, yeast, sugar, malt syrup and water. Whisk until very smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl. The starter will have the consistency of thick batter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set the sponge aside while you combine the flour mixture.
• Make the flour mixture: In a large bowl, whisk together the bread flour (reserve one-fourth cup if mixing by hand), the yeast, caraway seeds and salt.
• Remove the plastic wrap from the sponge, and gently scoop the flour mixture over the sponge to cover it completely. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set it aside at room temperature to ferment until the sponge bubbles through the flour mixture in places, 1 to 4 hours.
• Mix the dough: If using a stand mixer, place the fermented sponge/flour mixture, along with the oil, in the mixer bowl and mix with a dough hook over low speed (Speed 2 on a KitchenAid) until the flour is moistened enough to form a rough dough, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium (Speed 4) and continue to mix until the dough is very smooth and elastic, and springs back when pressed with a fingertip, about 10 minutes. If the dough is at all sticky, turn it out onto a counter and knead in a little extra bread flour.
• If mixing by hand, add the oil to the bowl and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, stir until the flour is moistened. Knead the dough in the bowl for 5 minutes, enough to develop the gluten structure a little, adding as little of the reserved flour as possible to keep it from sticking. Use a curved bench scraper to scrape the dough and gather it as you knead it in the bowl. At this point, it may be a little sticky. Cover the dough with the inverted bowl and set it aside to rest for 20 minutes, then knead the dough until it is very smooth and elastic, an additional 5 to 10 minutes. If the dough is still sticky, knead in a little more flour.
• Place the dough in a 2-quart bowl, lightly greased with oil. Press down the dough and lightly oil the top. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Set the dough aside to rise until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Turn the dough out onto a slightly floured counter (using bread flour) and press it down to flatten it slightly. Form the dough into a ball about 5 1/2 inches wide by 2 1/2 inches high and set it on a cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet. Cover it with a large container or oiled plastic wrap. Set the dough aside to rise until almost doubled, 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.
• Prepare the oven: Have an oven shelf at the lowest level and place a baking stone or baking sheet on it before heating the oven. Place a cast-iron skillet or sheet pan on the floor of the oven to preheat. Heat the oven to 450 degrees.
• With a sharp knife or single-edged razor blade, make 4 slashes one-fourth- to one-half-inch deep in the top of the dough. Mist the dough with water and quickly but gently set the baking sheet on the hot stone or hot baking sheet. Toss one-half cup of ice cubes into the pan beneath and immediately shut the door. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 400 degrees and continue to bake until the bread is golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean or the loaf reads 190 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 30 to 40 minutes. Halfway through baking at the lower temperature, with a heavy spatula, lift the bread from the pan and set it directly on the stone, turning it around as you do for even baking.
• Remove the bread from the oven, and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

ZINGERMAN'S REUBEN SANDWICH

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Sprinkle the corned beef with a little water, wrap it tightly in aluminum foil and steam it in the oven.
• Meanwhile, put the whole loaf of rye bread (unwrapped) into the oven. Bake the bread until the crust is very crunchy, about 15 minutes. Set the bread on the counter and let it cool for about 5 minutes.
• When the rye bread is cool enough to handle place it on a cutting board. Hold the bread knife at a 45-degree angle and cut 12 slices.
• Take the corned beef out of the oven and unwrap it. Spread each slice of bread with Russian dressing. Layer half of the slices with corned beef, sauerkraut and slices of Swiss cheese, then top the sandwiches with the remaining slices of bread (dressing-side down).
• Heat 2 large heavy skillets over medium heat. Brush the bread with butter. Put the sandwiches in the pans and weight them with a lid or heat proof bowl topped with something heavy. Cook until the first sides are crisp and golden about 7 minutes then flip the sandwiches. Cook until the second sides are also well toasted and the cheese is melted. Lift the sandwiches onto a cutting board. Cut each in half diagonally and serve.
• Combine the mayonnaise, chili sauce, sour cream, parsley, onion, pickle, lemon juice, horseradish and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl and mix well.

REAL NY JEWISH RYE BREAD

Steps:

• Place bread flour, rye flour, potato flakes, caraway seeds, demarara sugar, yeast, and sea salt in the bowl of a large stand mixer. Turn mixer to low and thoroughly mix dry ingredients. Beat warm water, canola oil, and pickle juice into dry ingredients. Fit dough hook onto mixer and beat until dough is rough and shaggy-looking.
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for exactly 30 minutes. Remove plastic wrap and knead dough in stand mixer with dough hook until smooth, firm, and only slightly sticky, 6 to 8 minutes. Turn dough onto a floured work surface and knead until smooth, 1 to 2 more minutes.
• Form dough into a ball, place dough into an oiled bowl, and turn dough around several times in bowl to coat with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, set into a warm place, and let rise until nearly double, about 1 hour.
• Grease a 5x9-inch loaf pan. Turn dough onto a lightly oiled surface, shape into a log, and place into prepared loaf pan. Cover with a cloth kitchen towel and let rise until top of dough has risen slightly over top of pan, 60 to 90 minutes.
• Place rack in middle of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Bake loaf until golden brown and cooked through, about 35 minutes. The internal temperature of the bread should be 190 degrees F (90 degrees C). If loaf browns too quickly, cover loosely with a tent of aluminum foil with shiny side out. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

EASY RYE BREAD

Steps:

• Weigh out ingredients for the starter in your mixing bowl and whisk together. They should be the consistency of pancake batter.
• Measure out the remaining bread flour into the mixing bowl with starter (on top of starter).
• Make two wells in the dry bread flour, add the salt and caraway seeds in one, the yeast in the other.
• Place mixing bowl on its stand, cover (loosely with plastic wrap or a lid), and let ferment for 1-4 hours. The yeast will become active during this time.
• Measure out vegetable oil and reserve until ready for use.
• After the preliminary ferment, add oil to bowl and mix with a dough hook until a smooth, elastic dough ball is formed, about 5 minutes.
• Turn the dough out onto a greased countertop (olive oil or Pam Spray works well).
• Knead into a ball (1 minute) and place into a dough riser lightly coated with oil. Spray top of dough with oil, cover and let rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size*.
• Preheat oven with a pizza stone to 450°F Be sure that the stone and a cookie sheet (bottom shelf) are in the oven when you start pre-heating it.
• Turn bread dough out onto a lightly floured countertop and divide into two pieces.
• Form loaves and place them on a sheet of parchment paper that is roughly the same size as your pizza stone.
• Cover** and let rise for 45-60 minutes.
• After rising, slash the tops of the loaves using a serrated knife.
• Place the rolls in the oven using a pizza peel.*** At the same time, put a cup of ice on the cookie sheet to humidify your oven.
• Bake at 450 F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 400 F and continue baking for another 40 minutes. If your oven has a convection bake setting, switch to convection for the last 10 minute of baking.
• Cool on wire racks and enjoy!
• *If you are not ready to form the loaves after the first rise, you can punch the dough down and let it rise again until doubled in size. **I use a plastic storage container that is designed to store things under my bed. It is the perfect size and keeps my dough safe from cats, dogs and other critters. ***An inverted cookie tray works in a pinch. ****If smaller loaves are desired, divide dough into four pieces and reduce baking time by 10 minutes.