I do.
Water vs Milk
Water gets you a crusty, airier bread with a large open crumb texture which does tend to go stale and dry quickly. Milk will result in a softer crust and a more even structure with smaller air bubbles which wont dry out as quickly.
Butter or Oil
Only difference is flavour to a rather small extent, but the more fat you add the longer the bread will last, to a point. Fat doesn’t evaporate so the bread wont seem to dry out as quickly and it will slow down the staling process. Recepiewise though keep in mind that oil is 100% fat while butter is usually about 80% fat and 20% water, so while substituting one for the other alter things accordingly.
Eggs
No. Unless you’re making cake.
Baking soda, powder or yeast
Baking soda is only the base, which is only used in recipes including other acidic components like butter milk or lemon juice. Baking powder has both base and acid and usually does not start reacting until heat is added, where as soda will start the process the moment it’s mixed with an acid.
Both chemical leavening and yeast can be used for bread but results in markedly different flavours and textures. Yeast breaks down sugars to produce carbon dioxide as I’m sure you know, but also other rest products which provides deeper and more complex flavours to your bread. This is why letting your dough rise slower for longer in a cooler environment can be a good choice, if you’re not in a hurry.
Finally, freeze your bread. If you’re going to bake more bread than you eat in a day or three put your bread in the freezer and it’ll last nigh indefinitely. Make smaller loaves, there’s no reason you can’t take a 2 loaf recipe and just make 4 loaves if that is the amount of bread you’re more likely to get through in a reasonable time. But you may want to keep a closer eye on the baking time in this case, the smaller the pieces of bread you’re baking the higher you can bring the oven temperature and the lower the baking time. It may take a little experimentation.
Easy rye rounds
Ingredients
50g butter
5dl Milk
50g (fresh) Yeast or ~14g of dry yeast, half if you want a longer rise in fridge.
1.5 tsp salt
2 tbsp Syrup, molasses, honey or sugar
1 tsp Anise seed
2 tsp Fennel seed
450g Fine Rye flour
300g Wheat flour, All purpose works fine, but bread flour is good too.
Melt the butter and warm the milk up in a pot until about 37ish C, better to be slightly lower than too hot. Either crush the spices in a mortar or mill them. Stir in your dry yeast or if you’re using fresh “bakers” yeast then break it apart in a big bowl and add a small part of the liquid to dissolve it in, then add the rest of the liquid along with salt, sugar of choice and the spices.
Add all the rye flour and most of the wheat and combine to a kneadable dough, knead for 10ish minutes if doing by hand 5 in a machine until it doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl anymore. Let rest for 30 minutes in a covered bowl or until about doubled in size.
Note that this is a rye dough so you’re not going to get as supple and smooth a result as with a pure strong wheat dough, that you’re most likely seeing in most online fancy videos so don’t try to reach that result. I’ll be a little stickier and you wont be getting any “gluten windows” so don’t worry about it. It will still rise well, if not as high.
Flour a work surface and get your dough out on it, lightly kneed to redistribute yeast colonies and air bubbles. Split the dough into 4 pieces and form them into round balls and then flatten them out into round flat pieces about 17cm in diameter, put it on a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease the sheet if you have none. Should fit 2 per sheet. Poke a finger through the center and make a hole about 4cm wide, use a fork or anything else with small tines to poke a series of holes evenly distributed over the surface. Cover with a towel and set aside to rise another 30 minutes.
Turn your oven on at 225 C in time so that it is pre-heated by the time the 2nd rise is done. Bake the bread, in the center of the oven for about 12 minutes. Let the bread cool down on a rack under a towel.
This bread will keep a fair bit of time, I’d say it’ll be perfectly fine for a week at least. Not that it’s likely to remain uneaten for a week. But due to it’s flat nature it’s also great for freezing as it thaws quickly. Do let me know how it turns out if you have a go at it.
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