Easy Homemade Rye Bread Recipe

Stir together the flours, salt, and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and mix until no bits of dry flour remain. The dough will be very sticky.

Cover the bowl with plastic and let the dough rise at room temperature overnight until the dough has doubled in size, about 12 to 18 hours.

Generously dust a work surface with flour. Tip the bowl slightly and use a rubber spatula or your fingertips to gently remove the dough from the bowl onto your work surface without tearing it. Lightly flour your hands and gently fold the dough into itself, shaping it into a ball.

Generously dust a tea towel with flour and gently place the dough onto the towel, seam side down. Loosely fold the towel over the dough and place it in a small mixing bowl. Leave it to rise until it is almost doubled, about 1 to 2 hours.

Half an hour before the dough has finished its second rise, put a rack in the lower third of the oven, set a Dutch oven on the rack, and preheat to 475 F.

Use oven mitts to carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven and remove the lid. Use the tea towel to gently invert the dough into the Dutch oven with the seam side facing up. Be careful; the pot will be very hot. Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the lid from the Dutch oven, then continue baking until the bread is a dark golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes longer.

Carefully lift the bread out of the Dutch oven and let it cool on a rack. Let the loaf cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing.