Best Dutch Oven Rye Bread Recipes

DUTCH OVEN CARAWAY RYE BREAD

Steps:

• Mix rye flour, bread flour, buttermilk, caraway seeds, vital wheat gluten, and kosher salt together in a very large bowl.
• Combine water, sugar, and yeast in a bowl until yeast softens and begins to form a creamy foam, about 5 minutes. Stir yeast mixture into flour mixture until well mixed and caraway seeds are evenly distributed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 18 hours.
• Transfer dough to a heavily floured work surface. It will be somewhat elongated, so take the right and left sides and fold them into the middle. Turn dough over and gently use a spatula to tuck corners under; cover with plastic wrap for 15 minutes. Remove plastic wrap, dust dough with flour, and make shallow cuts in the top for full bloom.
• Place a Dutch oven in the oven and preheat oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).
• Carefully place dough in the Dutch oven, cover immediately, reduce oven temperature to 460 degrees F (238 degrees C), and bake until bread is cooked through, 30 to 35 minutes. Carefully transfer bread from the Dutch oven to the oven rack and bake for 5 minutes more.

LOW-SODIUM DUTCH OVEN RYE BREAD

Steps:

• 1. In a large bowl, mix the flours, salt, yeast and caraway seeds
• 2. Once mixed thoroughly, pour in two cups of slightly warm water.
• 3. Begin mixing with a spatula. The dough will have a ragged look. Keep folding the dough into itself, scraping the sides of the bowl.
• 4. Seal the bowl using plastic saran-type wrap and leave it in a place where the temperature will remain stable for 18 hours.
• 5. When the 18 hours have elapsed, find a surface and dust it with flour. Uncover the dough, and using your spatula, begin unseating it from the bowl.
• 6. When the dough is free, plop it down on the dusted surface and fold it into itself a few times. Dust the top of it with flour and then cover it with a cloth. Leave it for 90 minutes.
• 7. Cut a circle of parchment paper for the bottom of the dutch oven. About fifteen minutes before removing the cloth from the dough, put the dutch oven with lid into the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees
• 8. After 90 minutes, remove the cloth from the dough. Using oven mitts, remove the dutch oven, take lid off, put the circle of parchment paper on the bottom and place the dough in the dutch oven. Sprinkle extra caraway seeds if you like, and score the top with a serrated knife. Cover the dutch oven with its lid and place in oven.
• 9. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove lid and bake for another 20 minutes.
• 10. Remove from oven, remove lid. Invert pot over a table and bread should slide out. Cool on a rack for at least an hour.

DUTCH OVEN RYE BREAD

Steps:

• Combine all liquid ingredients and salt in mixer bowl of stand mixer. Using mixing paddle, beat about 30 seconds.
• Combine rye flour, baking soda, and yeast. Add to liquid ingredients and beat about 1 minute with mixing paddle. Change to dough hook.
• Add in bread flour a little less than a cup at a time, using dough hook. Allow dough hook to knead bread until smooth and elastic, adding in the rest of the flour. Place the ball of dough in a greased covered bowl for at least 1 hour, but if you're busy, you can leave it longer, up to 6 hours. I left mine for 6 hours.
• Just before baking, preheat your oven to 475. Place a covered dutch oven in the oven while it preheats.
• Don't "punch the dough down," instead, spray it with a little oil and fold it in half a couple of times. Pull away any that sticks to the bowl and incorporate it into the lump. Allow to rest covered while oven preheats.
• When oven and dutch oven are preheated, dump the lump of dough right into the hot dutch oven. You may pat it a little to even it out in the oven. Cover with lid, and bake for about 25 minutes. Then, remove lid and continue baking another 5-10 minutes so it gets a nice crust. Remove from pan immediately and cool on a rack to help the bottom crust dry out.
• NOTE: If you don't have a bread machine or mixer with dough hook, you can follow Helene's directions on her "No Knead Bread from KD." IMPORTANT: you truly do not have to grease the dutch oven. This is the amazing part about this loaf. It just pops right out of the pan and leaves no residue!
• OPTIONS: For a great cheese bread, you can add in 1 cup grated Swiss or Cheddar cheese along with the bread flour. I used Swiss cheese in the one pictured. Also, the egg and oil are optional. But molasses should be used, because it helps feed the yeast in the presence of the rye flour, and gives the color and flavor customary to rye bread.