I love rye…in bread, distilled…I love rye.

Today, the rye “on the table” is bread.

I continue making the high moisture bread dough for my daily bread. Whether it is Portuguese Broa, whole wheat, oatmeal or rye, I make a mix which is 3 parts flour/grain, 1 3/4 parts water, 1 part (packet) yeast and a bit of sea salt in a bowl to sit overnight. The following morning, I spoon the yeasty stuff into a not airtight container and put it in the frig.

As needed, I scoop out dough for a small to medium boule, a french shaped loaf, english muffins, flatbread or pizza crust.

This week, the dough was rye. King Arthur’s Perfect Rye Blend combined with Montana Wheat’s Natural White high protein “hard wheat” flour.

The result: Perfect Rye!

**My exact rye mix: 114 grams King Arthur’s Perfect Rye Blend, 258 grams MT Wheat Natural White or any high quality, i.e. not grocery store, high protein flour. Yes, I’ve found flour quality to make a huge difference in both taste and texture of baked goods.

The other component is measuring by weight and not volume – a kitchen scale is less than $20. Converting to weight measure has made a difference in consistency of results for baked goods. All flour does not weigh or measure the same. Additionally, a cup of flour can measure differently on different days, To establish a weight base for converting recipes from volume to weight, sift flour into a 1 cup measure, leveling with a knife and weigh a sifted cup. Example with the rye blend as above: MT Wheat Natural White is 129 grams to equal a cup, the Perfect Rye Blend is 114 grams. For comparison, King Arthur White Whole Wheat is 110 grams to equal a recipe cup. There are even greater differences if you use other flours such as buckwheat, millet, coconut or almond, i.e. gluten free flours. If you don’t want to take the time or make the mess, there are charts online as well.