If there’s one thing that has been good about the pandemic, it’s been the homemade bread craze. Before COVID, we didn’t make that much bread at home – it just seemed like too much work! And we were probably busy doing other things like hanging out with friends or family, going to restaurants, traveling… But now that we’ve been stuck at home for pretty much a full year, we can confidently say that we have made more bread than ever before in our lives! And it has paid off because it has resulted in the development of some great recipes – here’s one of them!
Sigtebrød is more of an old-fashioned Danish bread. When our mom worked in a bakery as a teenager, the older people were always the ones ordering a loaf of sigtebrød. It seems like younger people often preferred the very dark and seeded rye loaves that Danish bakeries are now known for. But sigtebrød is an underrated bread – it has great rye flavor while still retaining the fluffiness and amazing structure of a regular sandwich loaf. We love eating it with the classic toppings, like butter, cheese, jam, or honey, and it’s also great for any type of sandwich! Think about a delicious loaf of whole wheat bread, but with rye instead of whole wheat – that’s sigtebrød!
Recipe Process
This recipe uses a technique called a poolish. A poolish is a pre-ferment or starter that gives the bread a more developed flavor and better texture. I learned about it from the phenomenal book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice* (this is an affiliate link) by Peter Reinhart, and I’ve pretty much used it for all of my bread recipes ever since. A poolish also helps the bread keep better, and I find this helpful since I can’t (usually) finish an entire loaf of bread in a day or two. So, the night before you plan to bake your bread, you’ll want to mix your poolish. You have to let this ferment until it gets bubbly (2-3 hours), then put it into the fridge overnight. Take it out 1 hour before you plan to mix your dough.
Then, you mix the poolish with the rest of the dough ingredients and knead for 10-12 mins. Let this rise until it doubles in size and passes the poke test. Shaping a sandwich loaf is pretty easy – just spread it into a rectangle with your fingers and roll it up. But make sure there aren’t any gaps in the dough (or else you’ll have random holes in your loaf!). Also, make sure to pinch any creases together and roll the loaf against the countertop to create surface tension. Let the dough rise again, brush with milk, then bake! And then enjoy, with any toppings you like.
Check out the book here:
*the above link is an affiliate link. As an Amazon associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Sigtebrød (Sifted Rye Bread)
Ingredients
POOLISH (PRE-FERMENT)
- 23 grams (1/8 cup) rye flour
- 52 grams (1/4 cup) bread or all-purpose flour
- 1/8 tsp instant yeast (1/4 tsp active dry yeast, 2g fresh yeast)
- 75 ml (1/3 cup) water
DOUGH
- All the poolish (about 150g)
- 1.5 tsp instant yeast (2 tsp active dry yeast, 14g fresh yeast)
- 100 ml (a little under 1/2 cup) buttermilk
- 100 ml (a little under 1/2 cup) water
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp salt
- 28 grams (2 tbsp) melted butter, unsalted
- 320 grams (320g 2 cups) sifted rye flour (you can make this by combining 120 grams (3/4 cup) rye flour and 200 grams (1 1/4 cups) bread or all-purpose flour)
- Milk (for brushing on the top)
Instructions
- Mix together the poolish ingredients until the mixture looks like thick pancake batter. Leave this to ferment for 2-3 hours at room temperature or in a warm place (in the oven with the light on or on the proof setting should work). Once the mixture gets pretty bubbly, put it in the fridge immediately and leave to ferment overnight. If you are making the poolish on the same day as the bread, leave it to ferment at room temperature for a bit longer (3-4 hours total), then mix the dough. (But leaving it in the fridge overnight will give the final bread a better flavor, so we would recommend that!)
- The next day, take the poolish out of the fridge 1 hour before mixing the dough. Let it come to room temperature (it should get even more bubbly as it warms up).
- After waiting 1 hour, mix together the poolish and the rest of the dough ingredients (quick tip: use a wet spatula/dough scraper/hand to handle the sticky poolish). Add more bread/all-purpose flour if the dough is too sticky. Knead for 10-12 minutes until smooth and elastic.
- Cover and let the dough proof for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size and passes the poke test (should NOT spring back immediately when poked, should spring back slightly but leave an indentation).
- Oil a loaf pan (or line with parchment paper if you’re like us and your loaf pans are the opposite of non-stick).
- To shape the sandwich loaf, dump the dough out on a clean surface. Using your hands, stretch it out into a rectangle, with a width equivalent to the size of your loaf pan.
- Start rolling from one end, keeping the roll very tight.
- Once you have rolled it up, pinch together any creases and roll the loaf against the countertop lightly to create surface tension and help close the crease on the bottom of the loaf.
- Place the loaf in the pan and cover, letting this rise for another 30 minutes to an hour, or until doubled in size and passes the poke test. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C).
- Once doubled in size and ready to go in the oven, brush the top with a bit of milk and bake.
- Bake the loaf for about 40 minutes, or until the top is a light golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when you tap it.
- Let cool at least 20 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!
I haven’t made this recipe yet , as I have a couple of questions if that’s ok .
First is what sort of Rye flour do you use in UK we have dark, or light ,I use dark for the heavier Rye breads and never used the light .
Second could this bread be baked in a duch oven , which is what I usially use .
Thanks so much for your recipes I love your poolish ones .
Hi, thanks for your comment – so glad you love our recipes! When it comes to the rye flour, either dark or light works well, it shouldn’t matter too much which one. Hmmm, I’m not sure if you can bake it in a Dutch oven, since it’s a sandwich loaf, so I’ve only ever used a loaf pan for this type of dough. But if you want to, you could always try it out and see how it goes! I hope that helps and let us know how it goes if you do try out this recipe 🙂