Swedish Rye Bread

Swedish Rye Bread tastes sweet and rich with a hint of savory

Servings 8 people

½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
¼ cup butter
¼ cup sorghum syrup IMPORTANT - Find sorghum and you may need to order from Amazon.
5 cups All-Purpose white flour

Boil one medium potato in water until soft. Drain the water, setting 1 cup aside.
Mash the potato to a smooth mash.
Cool the potato mash to body temperature. Add 1 cup of leftover potato water (also cooled to body temperature) , the yeast, rye flour, All-Purpose flour, salt and 2 cups of beer (room temperature)
warm your oven to 150 Degrees, TURN OFF the oven then cover the yeast mixture with a clean towel and set the yeast mixture into a warm oven.
In approximately 45 minutes, it will double in size and begin Part 2

Mix together and bring to a simmer the brown sugar, sorghum, butter then cool to the temperature of your hand
When Part 1 has doubled in size, mix in Part 2 and with your sturdy wooden spoon stir in approximately 4 cups of All-Purpose flour.
Knead the mixture using the palm of your hands and slowly incorporate 1 more cup of flour. Knead until the loaf no longer sticks to your hands or the Board or the pastry cloth. Sometimes you may need to sprinkle in more flour.
IMPORTANT: the art of bread baking may be in part determining when enough flour is incorporated into the dough mixture. Too much and the bread tastes of flour and not enough, and it may not hold its shape during the second rise. Knead and slowly dribble flour over the dough until you can rest your hand lightly on the loaf, and the dough doesn't pull out of the loaf when you lift your hand from its surface.
Butter 3 bread pans or tins of any sort or size.
Cut the dough with a broad French chef knife into 6 equal chunks. I weigh each chunk, and they will weigh approximately 1 lb. If not snip some from one and add to the lesser.
Knead each loaf again so it is smooth in appearance and firm enough so that it is not sticky to the touch. Be sparing with the flour.
Set the balls of dough to the buttered tins. If you are using traditional bread tines, 2 to a tin.

Lightly butter the surface of each loaf with soft butter
With a sharp knife pierce each loaf from top to bottom (I don't know the reason for this except it looks appealing when baked)
Cover with the clean cloth and place in a warm spot in the kitchen for a second rise.
The bread has risen when you press the side of the loaf with your index finger, and you make a dent in the loaf and it stays dented for 15 seconds.
Place the tins in a 375 Degree oven for 1 hour. Test for doneness by wetting a finger and touching your wet finger to the bottom of a tin of bread. Listen for a sizzle. When the bread is toasty brown on top and the tin sizzles when you touch it with a wet finger, take it out of the oven and turn the bread out on a clean cloth or parchment.
Polish the tops of each loaf with a skim of butter.

While still warm, cut a slice with a serrated bread knife, and take a bite. Always good to spread butter on a warm slice of Swedish rye bread and jelly and jam too.
Cool, slice and spread with Buzz Savories Honey Mustard or Spicy Beer Mustard and thinly sliced ham. Now you know why you made Swedish Rye Bread, and you did it!
Allow the loaves to cool, wrap tightly in heavy duty aluminum foil and keep in your refrigerator easily for a week or freeze or best of all, give a loaf to your neighbor.