Belarusian style rye bread is a perfect example of Eastern European rye bread.
I grew up in Latvia eating this kind of bread all the time. It is super common. Of course, every town and every baker will have their own little tweaks that distinguish their bread from others, and they all take great pride in their product understandably so.
The magic ingredient is the fermented rye malt. Without it this bread will not taste the way it should. Rye malt is used not only for bread making, but also for the popular drink Kvass. It adds a distinct roasted sweet flavour kind of like coffee. In fact, there are rye bread recipes that use coffee for that reason too.
Apart from the rye malt, the technique in this recipe is super important. There are four elements which make this bread what it is.
-The preferment which will give a fermented sweet and sour flavour.
-The scald which is there to gelatinize the flour and soak the malt and caraway seeds for maximum flavour, but more importantly for a distinct springy chewy texture.
-The autolyse. This dough contains a small amount of white wheat flour and it is the only source of gluten. By autolysing it we will give the dough more structure and help it keep its shape and prevent the surface from tearing when baked.
-The paste. Before the final proof a small amount of dough is removed and mixed with water and later used to brush the surface of the loaf to give it a beautifully smoot and shiny crust.
📖 Get the recipe ➡️
To find the rye malt search for ‘fermented rye malt’ on ebay.
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🥨 To learn more about bread making click here ⤵️
Principles of Baking
The Steps of Baking
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🔪 Find all the things I use here ⤵️
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CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
1:08 Ingredients & Equipment
2:40 The ‘scald’
3:21 The preferment
4:00 The autolyse & final dough
7:10 First proof & shaping
9:04 Final proof
10:30 Getting ready to bake
12:38 The result
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#Bread #Baking #ChainBaker
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📖 Find the written recipe in the link below the video ⤴️
🌾 If you would like to support my work click here ⤵️
https://www.ko-fi.com/chainbaker
🔪 Find all the things I use here ⤵️
🇺🇸 https://www.amazon.com/shop/ChainBaker
🇬🇧 https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/ChainBaker
🥨 To learn more about bread making click here ⤵️
Principles of Baking http://bit.ly/principles-of-baking
The Steps of Baking http://bit.ly/steps-of-baking
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I finally got my hands on red eye malt (by mail from Ukraine – amazing), and this is the first thing I try with it. I had only dark rye so the result resembles more your Borodinsky bread, at least by the looks of it. What is the reason for "fan off" baking? Would this not benefit from the fan? And I have the same question about steam – I was tempted to bake it with the top of the pan on for the first ten minutes.
Looks just so good!
Try this bread with some of the water substituted with orange juice. Being a pro chef from Finland and crazy for baking, I've baked quite a few malty rye breads with this trick. It's a faint flavor in the end, but I've come to love it. Splashing with coffee and wrapping in foil for a while after baking is also a very cool trick for dark malty rye breads. As for malts, I usually get (or make) dried malted rye and add some boiling water to it before use, and use both the malts and the resulting soak water. Works in whiter breads, too!
I absolutely love your channel and your method of teaching principles (which is what true education is, if someone were to ask me, anyway); it has caused me to relapse in my addiction to baking, and currently I'm working on a book of recipes and hoping to open my own bakery in the future! I hope you never stop sharing your wisdom!
All the best! <3
I finally made this and it's so good. It stays moist for a while (doesn't stale easily) and it has fantastic flavor and texture. The reason I started making my own bread is I got tired of flavorless, squishy grocery store loaves. Mine cracked during baking, I didn't get the beautiful flawless dome as in video — not a complaint, I'll try again until I get it right. There are a lot of steps from the preferment & scald to the finished product, but nothing really complicated.
Hi, I made this bread a couple times and it came out really nice, with a great taste. I followed the instructions however my crust came out more crisp and not at all soft like yours. I had to brush the water at the end because I didn't have a spray bottle, maybe that made the difference? Is there something you can recommend to ensure a softer crust? Should I try a longer bake at a lower temperature?
Okay, weather is finally cooling down tomorrow to 15C/60F so making the scald & preferment tonight and the bread tomorrow. The rye malt has such a fantastic aroma, I can't wait to bake with it. Will report back.
I made Lithuanian home rye bread once from sourdough. But all time I did sourdough with white or rye flour I remember those processes as very complicated stories. That is why I've been trying to find my preferable recipe for yeast variant of similar rye bread. White bread I already found. And this one as well is a good option to put in a memory and try it.
Good to hear that you grew up in Latvia. Дякую за рецепт! A lot of ingridients. They are make sense, but I'd recommend to make it easy – but that would be, of course, another recipe 🙂
Such a great series of videos! I can’t wait to see the rest of the baking world tour 🙂
This bread looks delicious! My favorite bread is pumpernickel bread. I’m surprised you don’t have a video on that yet. Any plans for a pumpernickel bread video in the future?
My substitute for the malt: dark rye flour + cocoa powder, TOASTED until dark & aromatic
Toast them separately at first until you find the ratio that works for you
I was raised on Polish rye bread. I also love pumpernickel bread. This style of bread is not that accessible where I live (Sacramento, California) so I started making my own. I found your channel and I am studying your videos. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me.
This bread is fantastically good, like russians different rye breads. 🤩🥰😍
I love everything about this channel!
Well I’m trying again, I think I have a better handle on hydration with rye, it’s really dry in what I get with 20% more hydration to match your dough. My first attempt was sad. The bread book you recommended seems to imply more water is intentionally introduced in handling. I will get these right. My kid smelled the ground coriander and caraway and was immediately drawn in, can’t find this kind of bread here, and haven’t had it since I was very young. All that’s long gone now after the mills closed, bread, French or Italian is about it . Great content, thanks for these videos. Your passion to pass on the skills is much appreciated. Great production!
My (english) grandfather made a version of this bread frequently! Our family only knew it as his 'special bread', but he was a teacher in eastern Europe as a young man and must have gotten a taste for it there. I'd forgotten all about it but the description reminded me immediately of that distinctive malt and caraway flavour. I'll definitely be making this – maybe with the addition of sunflower seeds which he always included.
As a german i can totally relate to your love to rye bread, though we generally make it with sourdough. Is the syrup you use also made from rye or from barley ? Best regards
Is this like Pumpernickel?
Made it and it’s so delicious ❤️❤️❤️ and easy to make
I find it interesting the use of rye malt being a home brewer too for some time. In fact the scald, I'm reminded of mashing grains, which is the conversion of starch to sugar, takes about an hour at 160 F. Boiling might do a incomplete conversion, not that one really needs the sugar. You reminded me of the wife's tale of sugar and yeast .. some people thinking sugar feeds yeast, when its the starch, which does the conversion, to sugar, CO2, but one can have fermentable sugars, again useless in baking, As the process of fermentable sugar produces alcohol, which is poison to the yeast, and probably not very tasty. I'm pretty sure this is a fermentable rye grain, and not a fermented rye grain, although easy enough to do via mashing, but the grain not mashed doesn't really ferment as its starch, in the non converted form. This seems more for flavor. Now I have the crazed home brewer wheels turning as far as grains. My wife tried making pumpernickel bread a long time ago, with just rye and a 'Joy of Cooking ' recipe doomed to fail. No malted rye for one thing. Straight yeast just tossed in for the 2 hour loaf. Getting the ingredients to try both these, work out some of my stress on things I have no control over 😉 really do love these recipes, many came over to the US and then were kind of lost after a few generations. Not Slav, but love the foods. Kind of part of our old immigrant country food.
Can’t wait to try this one. Got to find the malt.
I’ve never tried this but it looked delicious and I can’t wait to try it
What could I sub for the fermented rye malt powder. Seems I can't find anything listed or named that in the US.
So much for ordering from Russia! I have some barley malt, and will just substitute. You should do an episode on easy substitutions.
do you prefer malt syrup or treacle syrup in terms of flavor?
how many slice do you get?
How would you compare the taste and texture of this Belorussian bread with your similar Borodinsky bread? Is this still the one that you would have if you could only have one bread?
Loved the video and the method shown to bake this bread. I baked a 50:50 finger millet/AP flour bread about 5 years ago and it looks something like this. Finger millet is dark brown and highly nutritious….grown extensively where I live (in S.India). Got a nice spring in the oven too. The flavour wasn't too acceptable to the family though….. addicted to white and whole wheat fllours!! So the exp. was not repeated..
Truly admire the way you teach. Am a novice at sourdough baking and find your videos very very helpful. Thanks a ton.
When I search eBay for “fermented rye malt” there are two options from Russian Federation that look identical but one is labeled as Dark Rye Malt (solod) and the other Red Rye Malt (solod).
I’m assuming the Dark Rye Malt is the correct one? Or are they the same product?
I am fascinated by this bread and am captivated by your channel.
Thanks for all the great info!
Can I substitute the malt rye powder with the malt liquid version? If yes how much will I substitute? Thank you
Looks great 👍
I was so eager to get started on rye breads that I forged ahead with this recipe, with alterations. No light rye, only had dark rye flour. Couldn't source the malted rye powder in time, so subbed 10 g of instant coffee granules and 20 g extra of rye flour. The result is a chewy, dense but not overly tough loaf. I love the taste of malted syrup, which I only bought last week to make bialys. And after assembling the dough, I made my own malted rye powder by getting fermented rye grains from the local brew supplier. She ran the grains through her grinder, then I toasted and ground them down in a spare coffee grinder. They almost look as dark as what you've shown us, so I'm hopeful that the flavor will be good. Anyone here have any ideas for me as I forge ahead?
Hi…Love your channel and the recipes. There is a butcher shop near me that sells "Lithuanian" rye bread. It is not as dark as the Belarusian Rye and the crust has a nice chew to it. The crust is not hard, but you have to give it a nice tug to pull it apart and like I said…it has nice chew. Do you know of this type of rye?
I love your baking world tour series its so much fun! This bread looks amazing its my favourite type of bread to eat since my father was from Eastern Europe he introduced me to this kind of bread its so interesting to see how its actually made ! : )
You can get rye malt at a beer making supply store. RED Rye? Is it the same thing? What, no sawdust? Preferment is a poolish?
Magnificent – I love Rye Breads – This is a definite for me to do – Thanks – 🙂
Superb looking bread. Another one which I’m going to try.
Do you have a link for the rye malt on Amazon in US. Ebay is almost 60 days ship time and I can't seem to find it locally or online, thanks either way.
Baked this last night and gave it to my daughter’s fiancé – he just texted me and said the bread is INCREDIBLE – some of the best bread ever!
Ingredientes em português? onde encontro?
Fantastic, added to the must bake list.
I prepared this bread today and what a fantastic result ❤️ I love this bread so much, but couldn’t find it where I live, so thank you ever so much for this recipe, as I can now bake it myself at home. Thank you 🙏😊
I only have dark rye flour, can i use it?
Is there any advantage baking it in an iron pot (with the lid on, at least for part of the time)
Thank you so much for this demo and recipe!! I made it for my Russian friends, and it was a HUGE HIT! They told me it was better than what they buy in their Russian/Ukrainian delis! I totally appreciate your thoroughness in both the video and the written instructions. This is one of the best sourdough breads that I have ever made. And it wasn't a total failure like so many of my other attempts with sourdough. Perfection right from the start! Now my friends want the recipe and want to learn how to do it too! One million thank yous! Best Regards from Ontario, Canada.
Hello, I live in Brazil and I went to Latvia 3 times.and I loved the rye bread and if it is possible I would like to have the recipe, I can understand English quite well but if you can send me the recipe will be easy for me to understand and look for the ingredients. Thank you very much.