It seemed like fate when Kristi from True North Kitchen shared her recipe for ruisreikäleipä within a couple days of us ordering the rye flour for our Hygge boxes! 🌾🔮 This Finnish rye bread is tender, hearty, and just a wee bit sweet—perfect for eating with butter and jam or making a smörgås (open sandwich).
PrintRuisreikäleipä (Finnish Rye Bread Rings)
- Yield: 2 loaves 1x
Ingredients
Scale
Bread Dough:
- 1 ¼ cups (175g) steel cut oats
- 2 ½ cups (568g) boiling water
- 2 ½ cups (265g) Maine Grains Organic Rye Flour
- 3 cups (360g) bread flour
- 2 ½ tsp instant yeast
- ¼ cup (84g) honey
- 4 Tbsp (57g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 Tbsp salt
Finishing Touch:
- 1 Tbsp (14g) unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Place steel cut oats in the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour boiling water over the oats. Cover with a dish towel and allow to soak for roughly an hour or until mixture has cooled down to 100–110°F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together rye flour, bread flour, and yeast. Set aside.
- Once the oat mixture is lukewarm, attach dough hook to mixer. Add honey, melted butter, and salt, mixing just until combined.
- With mixer on low, slowly add dry ingredients. Mix just until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Increase mixer speed to medium and knead dough for 5–10 minutes. (The dough will be a little sticky, but it should still for the most part clear the sides of the bowl.)
- Turn dough out onto floured work surface, then shape dough into a ball. Place dough into a large bowl and cover bowl tightly with cling film. Place bowl in a warm, dry spot and leave undisturbed until dough doubles in size, roughly 1 hour.
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- After dough has doubled in size, punch it down to release excess gas build-up. Turn out onto a well-floured surface and dust dough with flour.
- Divide dough into two even portions and shape each into a ball.
NOTE: Each ball will weigh about 750g. - Flatten each dough ball into a disk that’s roughly 8" in diameter and 1" tall.
- With a 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut a hole out of the centre of each loaf. Gently stretch and enlarge the hole with your fingers.
- Transfer loaves to prepared baking sheets. Cover lightly with cling film and allow to rest for about 45 minutes.
- Set one oven rack in upper third and another in the lower third of the oven. Heat oven to 375°F.
- Once your loaves have bulked up, prick ‘em all over with a fork. Bake for 30–35 minutes or until golden brown.
NOTE: Don’t forget to swap the baking sheets halfway through the bake time. - As soon as you remove the loaves from the oven, brush ‘em with melted butter.
- Transfer to wire racks and allow to cool completely.
Notes
Slightly adapted from: True North Kitchen
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