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3 rolls sitting on a countertop with oats scattered around.

Brown Bread Rye Rolls

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Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Resting and Rising Time 1 day 4 hours
Total Time 1 day 5 hours 5 minutes
Servings: 12 Rolls
Course: Appetizer, Side Dish
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/4 Cups Water divided into 1 cup and 1/4 cup
  • 1 Cup Milk
  • 2 3/4 Cups Rye Flour
  • 1.5 tsp Salt
  • 2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast 1 packet
  • 1 tsp White Sugar
  • 2 3/4 Cups Bread Flour or all-purpose
  • 6 tbsp Molasses 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp
  • 2 tbsp Butter melted

Method
 

  1. Bring 1 cup of water and 1 cup of milk to a boil.
  2. To a large bowl, add the rye flour, boiling water and milk, and salt. Mix and let it rest for 24 hours. Do so by allowing it to rest at room temperature for 1 hour, then putting it in the refrigerator, Take it out about one hour before working with the yeast to bring the dough to room temperature.1
  3. After the 24 hour period, prepare the yeasted dough: start by combining the active dry yeast, remaining 1/4 cup of water (warm but not hot), and white sugar in a small bowl. Allow 5 minutes for the yeast to activate. If there is no visible change to the yeast, throw out the yeast mixture and try again with fresh yeast.
  4. Preheat the oven to 375 F / 190 C.
  5. Add the yeast mixture and all remaining ingredients (except the oats) to the large bowl with the rye flour.
  6. Knead until the dough can pass the "golf ball"2 test. The dough will be sticky-that's ok!
  7. Cover the bowl and allow it to rise on a warm surface3 for 3 hours, lightly pressing the dough down at the halfway mark to release air.
  8. Once the dough has finished rising, shape the dough into 12 rolls: divide the dough into 12 equal parts. Then, grab the edges of each roll and bring the edges to the middle of the roll. Flip the roll over and pat the bottom against the counter. Rotate the roll in your hands with the bottom still touching the counter surface to form a spherical roll. Put 6 rolls on each standard sized baking sheet.
  9. Add oats as desired on top of each roll. Cover the rolls and allow them to rise on a warm surface for one hour.
  10. Bake the rolls at 375 F for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, make sure to knock on a roll. If it sounds hollow, it is ready. If the rolls are underbaked, bake for another 5 minutes.
  11. Enjoy!

Notes

1: 24 Hour Rest: Rye flour has a lot of flavor, but it needs heat and time to be fully unlocked. Like a bag of tea, scalding hot water/milk brings out the flavor of rye. As it sits for 24 hours, more flavor develops! If you are to bake with rye flour without scalding it and letting it rest, what you make will have noticeably less flavor. Since molasses provides a lot of flavor to this rye bread, though, sometimes we rest our flour for just 12 hours and still get a successful batch of rolls. 
2: The Golf Ball Test: Take a piece of dough roughly the size of a golf ball and form it into a sphere. Go near a window and slowly stretch the dough. If light can be seen through the dough before it rips, it's ready for the next step! 
3: A Warm Surface: We preheat the oven so early because we like to set the rising dough on the stovetop above our oven. The heat rises from the oven and makes the stovetop warm for our bread. Make sure the stovetop is turned off-only the oven should be on! If you rise your bread on a different warm surface, you don't have to preheat the oven so early.