Caraway Rye Bread

Rye bread is a great with Corned Beef and Cabbage for St. Patrick's Day. Usually, I just buy rye bread. This year, I decided to try Mom's recipe for rye bread. Despite the name of this recipe, Mom does not like caraway seeds, so she left them out. But I included them when I made this recipe. The bread was terrific.

You will need to find rye flour. I happened to find dark rye flour at a grocery store. There are other types of rye flour, such as light rye flour or pumpernickel flour. A lighter rye flour results in a lighter bread. I used dark rye, and along with the molasses, my bread was rather dark (but not as dark as pumpernickel bread). You could also adjust the amounts of all-purpose flour and rye flour to change the resulting bread. This recipe calls for molasses instead of honey or sugar to fuel the yeast. The molasses gave the bread a delicious taste. But, if you don't like molasses, just use another sugar.

Caraway Rye Bread 

• 2 cups warm water (about 115 degrees)
• 2 packages dry years
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup dark molasses
• 2 Tbsp. butter, softened
• 2 Tbsp. caraway seed, plus some for topping
• 3 cups rye flour
• 3 cups flour
• cornmeal
• 1 egg, beaten

Sprinkle yeast over water in a large bowl, stirring until dissolved. Add salt, molasses, butter, caraway seed, rye flour and half of the all-purpose flour. Beat with wooden spoon until smooth. Gradually add the rest of the flour. Turn dough out onto lightly floured board. Knead until smooth--about 10 minutes. Place in a lightly greased large bowl and turn to coat dough. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place until dough has doubled in size, about an hour. Punch dough down and turn out onto a lightly floured board. Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into an oval loaf. Grease a baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place loaves on sheet, leaving them at least three inches apart. Using a sharp knife, make five slashes across the top of each loaf. Let rise for an hour. Preheat oven to 375. Bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes. Brush the top with the beaten egg and sprinkle caraway seed on top. Allow to cool. Enjoy!