Sometimes I feel like Steve Urkel.
Sometimes when I grab the sink-sprayer (…is that the technical term?) I spray water all over myself and the kitchen. And when I was making this bread I dropped the bag of rye flour open-side down on the kitchen floor and spilled a hefty amount. And when I grabbed a tea towel to let the dough rise under it, an entire stack of towels landed on my head.
I even knocked my big bottle of vanilla out of the cupboard. Thankfully it didn’t break or I probably would’ve cried all over the kitchen like that sink-sprayer. The other day when I was feeling good about not burning biscuits or ruining stew, I broke a bowl on the kitchen floor.
Despite feeling like Steve Urkel and despite the fact that I just want Laura Winslow to love me as myself and not as Stefan Ur-kel (the cool me), things are going well. I mean, how can they not be with one loaf of bread on the ready and the other loaf in the freezer on standby.
Even though I spilled all morning, this bread ended up tasty. Jake can’t get enough BLT’s all up on it. And I can’t get enough savory toast. And that’s how you know bread’s worth having around.
Rye Bread {makes 2 loaves}
Recipe from King Arthur Flour
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 t active dry yeast
- 2 cups warm, not hot, water*
- pinch of sugar
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups rye flour, white, medium or pumpernickel
- pinch of salt
- 2 T brown sugar
- 2 1/2 t kosher salt
- 3 T butter, softened
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
- 1 T caraway seeds
- In a measuring cup, dissolve the yeast and pinch of sugar in a cup of warm water. Set aside for a few minutes until bubbly.
- Meanwhile mix the rest of the water and the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the yeast water and mix in. Knead in a stand mixer using the dough hook attachment for 7 minutes or knead by hand for 10 minutes. The dough will be sticky, smooth, and elastic. Add additional flour as needed to make it manageable.
- Place the dough in a large greased bowl, turning once to coat. Top with a tea towel and set aside to rise for 60-90 minutes. It’ll rise, but it might not rise to double in size. Meanwhile spray two bread pans with cooking spray. Place a rectangle of parchment paper over the long part of the bread pan overlapping the sides.
- Gently deflate dough and divide between the two prepared bread pans, folding the dough under itself to make the top smooth and mounded. Set aside to rise for 60-90 minutes or until the dough is barely peaking over the top of the bread pans. Toward the end of the rise time preheat your oven to 350 F.
- Bake loaves for 35-40 minutes. Check after 20 minutes and if the tops are browning too quickly tent with foil. They should sound hollow when tapped and the center should be 190 F.
- Remove the bread from the oven and allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove by tugging the parchment paper flaps and cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
That’s a serious megabite. Chomp chomp.
I would like a hefty piece of this as toast…with my coffee..PLEASE!
sometimes we’re just total Urkel’s in the kitchen…it happens man, but at least this bread came out of it unscathed! I bet BLT’s are amazing on this…and toast, always and forever!
i spray myself with that sink-sprayer ALL THE DANG TIME. dang it.
Mum – If there was any left, I’d totally mail it to you. ha!
Cindy – I need a BLT immediately.
Laura – haha! We’ve got similar skillz.
Ha, Steve Urkel! This looks like proper carby goodness. I can only imagine how wonderful your sandwich and toast adventures have been on this bread!
Yeah! Sandwich and toast galore.
cool site. I like your style.
Thanks Heather 🙂
Loved your post. Do you remember when Steve Urkel turned into Bruce Lee? Oh, how I loved that show. Never missed TGIF!
Thanks, Leslie, and I vaguely remember that episode! That show was so good. haha