Swedish Rye Bread - Started in a Bread Machine

Swedish Rye Bread
Adapted from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook

Hands-on time: 5 minutes
Bread machine just for kneading the dough: 1½ hours
Second rising: 40 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes (or until bread sounds hollow when you tap it with your knuckles)

Ingredients: It’s important that the ingredients are added to the machine in the following order:
1 ¼ cup water (room temperature)
2 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp honey
2 cups home-style white bread flour
1 ¼ cup rye flour
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp gluten
2 tsp fennel seeds
1½ tsp orange zest
1¼ tsp salt
2 ½ tsp bread machine yeast
Fine corn meal to sprinkle on the baking sheet

Directions:
1. Place all the ingredients in a bread maker in the order given and set to the “dough” cycle.

2. Once the dough cycle is finished, remove dough from the bread machine, shape into a loaf and place on a prepared baking sheet (parchment paper sprinkled with corn meal). Cover and let rise until double (about 40 minutes or so). It’s cold and drafty in my kitchen (open plan great rooms are lovely usually, but not for finding warm places for dough to rise) so I preheat the oven to 200°F/90°C (lowest setting) and as soon as it’s at that temperature I turn the oven off, leave the door open for a minute or two, add the covered loaf , close the door and let it sit until it doubles.

3. REMOVE THE BREAD FROM THE OVEN after 20 minutes (the entire resting process could take place on a dry draft free surface).
4. Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C. Place a baking stone (if you have one – I use a pizza stone) on a rack in the middle of the oven. Allow the oven to heat for 20 minutes longer. Score the top of the loaf with a serrated knife 3 times diagonally. Cuts should be no deeper than ¼” . Do this quickly and the loaf will still fall slightly.

5. To bake the bread, I do not remove the loaf from the parchment lined baking sheet (the first time I tried to do that...I ended up with focaccia!). I just place the baking sheet on top of the baking stone and bake for 30 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when you knock it.

Last great tip…if you want the crust crunchy, place 1 cup of water in a shallow pan in the oven somewhere not in the way of the bread rising.

6. Once the bread is ready, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool on a rack for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan.