Homemade dark rye bread with unsweetened defatted cocoa and buttermilk, fantastic and full in flavor, a bit sweet, but with special bitterness, and divinely fragrant. Great for your holiday table.
And here I am again… making a bread :) On cold and gloomy autumn days like this, I somehow love when oven warm up my kitchen and freshly baked bread gives special fragrance to the entire house. My family really enjoys the flavors that I devise and that’s what motivates me even more. I already wrote about how easy is making bread at home, but how I came up with the idea to make dark rye bread, that’s another story which I’m about to tell you today.
Actually, quite by chance at the shop, I saw dark rye flour on a shelf, and my arm just flew toward it by itself. At that moment, I didn’t have a single clue what I’ll do with it because I never baked bread or anything else with rye flour. I even commented to the cashier my completely intuitive and impulsive decision to buy it. I came home that day, put the flour in the pantry and for the next few days, I was thinking how to enrich and make bread and how to make it more interesting. Even on the day when I decided to finally make my bread, I had no idea what special ingredients will I actually use. Inspiration came when I opened the flour bag when I saw the dark powder content, that’s when the idea strikes me – I decided to use unsweetened dark cocoa to enrich my bread. And I was a great decision. The cocoa gave my bread special dark color and very special flavor, which only later I found out it was a blast.
For making my bread I used all very common ingredients, flour, dry yeast, honey and extra virgin olive oil only, this time, I also added a bit of buttermilk and, of course, unsweetened defatted cocoa. You can find how to make homemade buttermilk in my earlier recipe for healthy apple carrot muffins.
The bread turned out fantastic, full in flavor, a bit sweet, but with special bitterness, and divinely fragrant. I was so eager to try it, I couldn’t wait until it was entirely cold down, which otherwise I would never do – something that my grandmother taught me ;) And the next morning, when I spread a fresh cheese over that fragrant delight, the splendor of life has really gained a new dimension.
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I think this bread is just perfect for the Christmas table. What do you think?
Homemade Dark Rye Bread with Cocoa
Ingredients
- 3 cups rye flour
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon dry active yeast
- 1 1/2 tablespoon unsweetened defatted cocoa
- 1 teaspoon himalayan salt
- 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon honey
- 3 tablespoon buttermilk
- warm water
Buttermilk
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Instructions
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Mix rye flour and all-purpose flour in one bowl. Add yeast, salt and cocoa powder and stir.
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Place cup of warm water in another bowl. Put oil, honey and buttermilk. Mix slowly with spoon.
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Mix liquid indigents with dry ingredients. Add more warm water and stir.
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When dough become consistent, continue mixing with your hands until it quits sticking to the sides of the bowl. Don't over mix it or bread will be tough.
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Cover the bowl with kitchen cloth and let it rise for about 60 minutes.
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Transfer dough to a table and mix it again with hands.
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Grease bread pan with olive oil. Add a bit flour to the pan to reduce sticking.
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Put dough in bread pan and leave to rise again for 10 minutes.
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Preheat oven to 200°C (395F).
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Transfer pan with the dough in oven and bake for 40 minutes (or until is deep golden brown and risen).
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When done turn the bread out of the pan to a rack to cool. Cover with moistened kitchen cloth.
Buttermilk
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Measure out the apple cider vinegar and put into a cup. Fill rest of cup with warm milk.
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Stir mixture and set aside to curdle on a room temperature.
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Use it for making bread and then refrigerate.
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