Root Beer Rye Bread

When I first looked at the old 1955 booklet “Over the Back Fence to you...Prize Yeast Recipes from Red Star”, the recipe I really wanted to try was this one, a sandwich-style rye bread with a twist.  I chose to use the book’s “Mixer Method” to make my dough…it is the method I use regularly to make bread-making simpler and faster.  I use “instant” or bread machine yeast.  The dough was somewhat sticky, use your rye flour to flour your board when shaping loaves.

This bread was a hit…you can just taste the root beer flavor, it is not a too-strong rye flavor, and the bread has that nice, firm rye texture that lends itself to thin-slicing like party rye.  It is perfect for sandwiches.  I made mine in some narrower 4” x 10” pans, because we like smaller sandwich slices.                       

Root Beer Rye Bread

  2 1/4        Cups  Warm Root Beer -- 120°-125° (20 ounce bottle)

  4               Teaspoons  Instant Yeast

  1 1/2        Cups  Rye Flour -- 4 1/2 ounces

     1/3        Cup  Dark Molasses

  1               Tablespoon  Salt

  5               Cups  Bread Flour -- 1# 6 1/2 ounces

     1/4        Cup  Butter -- softened

Combine rye flour, salt, 2 cups of white flour, softened butter, yeast and molasses in mixer bowl.  Add root beer and beat until smooth.  Stir in remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Change to dough hook and knead 6 minutes or knead by hand 8 minutes.

Cover the mixer bowl tightly and let rest in a warm place 15-20 minutes.

Punch down.  Shape into loaves, about 1# 11 ounces each and place in lightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2" loaf pans.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until center of dough is slightly above the pan rim, (took about 40 minutes).  Meanwhile, preheat oven.

Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 35-50 minutes.  Cover with parchment paper after first 20 minutes to prevent excess browning before bread is done.  Remove from pans and cool on racks.

I used 4 x 10" pans, so I baked for 35 minutes.  Bread temperature with an instant-read thermometer should be 200-205° as soon as it's removed from the oven.

Yield:  "2 Loaves"

If you want to make one loaf in a food processor or bread machine on the dough cycle, the recipe is HERE.