Pumpkin Rye Bread

 - Danish Recipe

Directions:

1. If you have your own rye sourdough starter, use it. Otherwise, click here to learn how to make your own danish rye sourdough starter in 5-6 days. 

2. The day before you plan on making the rye bread, combine all of the ingredients together for the soaked seeds in a bowl or pot. Place the lid or plastic wrap over and let it sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours. 

3. With the soaked seeds and the sourdough starter ready, combine all of the ingredients in a mixing machine. 

4. Mix all the ingredients with a spatula attachment for 30 minutes on low speed. 1-2 times within that 30 minutes, take a dough scraper and scrape the sides of the mixing bowl to ensure the rye dough is uniform. 

5. Oil a bread form and pour the dough into the form. 

6. With water on your fingers or with a dough scraper, press the dough out evenly into all of the corners of the bread form. 

7. Decorate how you like with seeds. If you want to use flour to decorate, wait until after the bread has risen. 

8. Preheat the oven to 515 *F. 

9. Place plastic wrap over the bread and set it in a warm place. Allow the bread to raise for 50 minutes at 100 *F. Or up to 1.5 hours if the temperature is 75 *F. (The bread will typically crack on top when it has finished raising). 

10. Lower the temperature of the oven down to 350 *F and bake the rye bread for about 55 min or until the breads core temp. is more than 200 *F. 

11. Take the bread out of the oven and flip it out of the form. 

12. Let the bread cool off competely before you cut it. 

Notes:

- If you cut the rye bread too early, you risk the chance of the bread becoming dry and the slices becoming uneven because the bread is too moist inside while it is warm. The earlier you slice the bread, the thicker the slices need to be in order to not ruin the slices. 

- The shelf life of danish rye bread in a plastic bag is 6-10 days at room temp., 10-12 days in the fridge, and 3-6 months in the freezer (all depending on the container you are using).