Beautiful Marbled Rye Bread!

Time for the "Big Game" this weekend ! (Pssst.....Did you know that you're officially not supposed to use the words "Bowl" and "Super" together in a blog like this? It was news to me, too! Some sort-of licensing thing for the name of the game.....) . I've been scheming about what bread-based goodie I'm going to serve on game day. There are sooo many choices, I'll probably end up with more than one. I've got one I can't wait to experiment with......I'm very excited about it, but a little nervous, so just in case that one goes badly, I've got to have a dependable stand by! So I'm thinking mini reuben sandwiches!

A few weeks ago, I made a marbled rye for the first time. I had been meaning to do it for years and after tasting it, I truly wondered why I had waited. I suppose it was like so many things.....it looked time-consuming and unlikely to turn out as beautifully as the pictures indicated. All this - NOT TRUE!! It WAS easy and didn't take a lot of time, and, best of all, it was beautiful. So now I'm more than ready to do it again, only a mini-version. The recipe that follows will give you one very nice-sized loaf. My plan is to roll it out further so I'll have a skinny loaf that will yield slider-size sandwiches. Even if you don't make this for the "Super game", put it on your menu for sometime during one of these cold winter nights....

MARBLED RYE BREAD

Light Rye Dough

1/2 pkg. Red Star Platinum Yeast

½ cup plus 2 Tbsp. Water

2 tsp Vegetable Oil

1 cup Bread Flour (plus some additional, if needed) 

½ cup plus 3 Tbsp. Medium rye flour (I used light and it turned out fine) 

1 Tbsp. Sugar

3/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Caraway seeds

Dark Rye Dough

Repeat “Light Rye Dough” with the addition of 1 Tbsp. cocoa

Place warm water and yeast in EZ DOH bucket and stir to dissolve yeast. Let rest 1 minute. Add one cup of flour, then additional dough ingredients. EZ DOH-it for 2-3 minutes, adding small amounts of water or flour, if necessary, until the dough is smooth and soft and all ingredients are incorporated. Remove dough from bucket, , “smooth” dough and place dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and proceed to making dark rye dough in the same EZ DOH bucket. Let both doughs rise until doubled.

On a very lightly floured surface, roll each piece to a 14x7 rectangle. For a dark crust, place the light rye piece on top of the dark rye. For a light crust, reverse this. Starting with shorter side, roll up tightly, pressing dough into roll with each turn. Pinch edges and ends to seal. Working from the center of the loaf to the ends, gently roll the loaf back and forth to form a baguette-shape approximately 14" long. Place on a greased baking pan. Cover loaves; let rise. Bake in a 375°F preheated oven for 30-45 minutes. Remove from pan; cool on rack.

Adapted from “Marbled Rye Bread” on the Red Star Yeast site.
Visit http://www.wildyeastblog.com/yeastspotting/ for more delicious breads 

Beautiful Marbled Rye Bread!