Rye bread Recipe

Tip the flours, yeast, and salt into a bowl. In a jug, mix the honey with 250ml warm water, then pour this liquid into the bowl and mix to form a dough. Rye flour can be quite dry and absorbs a good amount of water; if the dough looks too dry, add more warm water until you have a soft dough. Tip it out onto your work surface and knead for 10 minutes until smooth. Because rye contains less gluten than white flour, the dough won't feel as springy as a conventional white loaf.

Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl, cover it with cling film, and leave it to rise in a warm place for 1–2 hours, or until roughly doubled in size. Dust a 2lb/900g loaf tin with flour.

Tip the dough back onto your work surface and knead briefly to knock out any air bubbles. If you're using caraway seeds, work these into the dough now. Shape the dough into a smooth oval loaf and pop it into your prepared tin. Cover the tin with oiled cling film and leave it to rise somewhere warm for a further 1–1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7. Remove the cling film and dust the surface of the loaf with rye flour. Slash a few incisions on an angle across the top, then bake for 30 minutes until dark brown and hollow sounding when tapped. Transfer the loaf to a wire cooling rack and leave it to cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.