This is one of my favorite recipes from Peter’s book. Aside from the recipes there are also detailed discussions on various aspects and techniques for making different breads. In this post I am making a couple of loaves of soft rye sandwich bread. Peter Reinhart “Artisan Breads Everyday” (I do not receive a commission from Amazon or other links).
I have made this soft rye sandwich bread a few times but here I have extended the levain and dough proofing to two days each, for a total of four days altogether. This starts with mixing the levain using starter, rye flour (King Arthur Medium Rye), and room temperature water. After mixing the initial proofing is for 6-8 hours at room temperature, and then to the refrigerator.
After two days in the refrigerator I prepared the dough using all of the levain plus water, molasses, vegetable oil, instant yeast, unbleached bread flour (King Arthur‘s), the optional cocoa powder, salt, and nigella seeds (India Market grocery). The dough goes back into the refrigerator for two more days.
After the proofing in the refrigerator was complete, the dough was shaped following Reinhart’s directions for sandwich loaves, and then placed in loaf pans for a room-temperature proofing.
The room temperature proofing took about 2 1/2 hours.
Soft Rye Bread for Sandwiches
While rye breads are often used for reuben’s, I had been craving an Italian sub for a few days. Instead of buying one I picked up some ham, mortadella, genoa salami, provolone cheese, and Boar’s Head deli dressing. Added a few sliced red onions, stone ground mustard, and mayonnaise to round it out.
Sadly I did not get any pastrami, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, or Russian dressing previously so after a second trip the next day I used the rye for a grilled reuben.
The soft rye sandwich bread was very good toasted as well! I’ll serve rye as well as other types of breads at breakfast, depending on what I’ve baked, so book a stay with us at The Sidecar Inn.
