I like just about anything marbled -- marbled cake, marbled cream cheese brownies, marbled ice cream. And my new favorite is marbled bread. This Marble Rye Bread is made with a dark and light caraway flavored dough and is perfect for sandwiches or toast.
One Loaf Marble Rye Bread
The recipe is originally from Red Star, but I halved it to make 1 loaf, used quick rising yeast and added a little molasses. In addition to those changes, I used an 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf pan. If you'd prefer, you can skip the loaf pan and just bake the Marbled Rye free-form.
Two Doughs
The dough is very easy to handle and stacking the two different colors is actually pretty simple -- especially if you have a pie lifter or bench scraper to help you scrape it up.
Having a large work surface or better yet, a silicone rolling mat, is extremely helpful.
If you try it, let me know what you think.
Round Loaf Without Loaf Pan
Update: I made a loaf without a loaf pan. To make this round life, I followed the directions in the card, but squished the cylinder inward, tucked down the ends and shaped the dough into a big ball. After it rose, I slashed it with a razor and baked directly on a baking stone (which is not necessary, I just happened to have one in the oven) at 375 for about 40 minutes.
Recipe
Marble Rye Bread
Ingredients
Light Dough
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons of water (5 oz/140 grams)
- 1 cup bread flour (140 grams)
- ⅔ cups medium rye flour (95 grams)
- 1 tablespoon sugar (12 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast (half packet)
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1 ½ teaspoon caraway seeds
Dark Dough
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons of water (140 grams)
- 1 cup bread flour (140 grams)
- ⅔ cup medium rye flour (95 grams)
- 1 tablespoon sugar (12 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 1 ½ teaspoon caraway seeds
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (10 grams)
- ½ tablespoon molasses (10 grams)
Instructions
- Make the light dough first. Heat the water to between 120 and 130 degrees F.
- Mix ¾ cup (105 grams) of the bread flour, rye flour, sugar, salt, yeast and seeds in the bowl of a standing mixer. Pour the hot water and the oil into the dry ingredients and stir to make a soft dough. Add remaining ¼ cup (35) of flour one tablespoon at a time until you have a firm dough. You may not need all the flour, so go by feel.
- Attach the dough hook and knead for about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Transfer to a well oiled boil and cover with plastic wrap.
- Repeat procedure for dark dough, but this time add cocoa powder and caraway seeds along with the dry ingredients and add molasses along with the oil and water. Knead with the dough hook until you have a darker dough. Put in another oiled bowl.
- Allow the dough to rise until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour, might be quicker).
- Grease an 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf pan.
- Punch down dough. On a large, floured work surface or pastry mat, roll each dough section into a 7x14 inch rectangle. Scrape up the dark rectangle using a cake lifter, bench press or spatula and stack it on top of the light rectangle.
- Beginning with the short side, roll into a spiral. Set the spiral in the prepared loaf pan. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise for about 30 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees F. for 40 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
To Make as a Round
- Follow the instructions above and roll into a spiral. Push the spiral inward to make a circle, then tuck end the bottoms and shape into a round. Pinch seams to seal. Set the round in a bowl and let rise for about 45 minutes. For a slow rise, put it in the refrigerator for two hours. Bake on a rimmed baking sheet or baking stone at 375F. For about 40 minutes.
Anna says
Hello Shawn, thanks for leaving this message. As I read it, it sounded exactly like something I would have written when I first got into yeast bread making. A dough hook makes a HUGE difference, the size of loaf pan does too. I generally use 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch these days, but it really depends on the size of the recipe. They sell these really cool cube shaped ones on Amazon so you can make really tall loaves without making tons of dough. Your 1 1/2 batch size should work really well, just remember you're the boss of the recipe and add more flour if the dough seems too loose and more liquid if it seems too tight. Also, you could consider doing a big round loaf for the Reubens.
Shawn Werle says
I made this, along with some mistakes. This was my first attempt at marbled bread and though this was a little intimidating, I went for it. First mistake, believing my stand mixer is an adequate replacement for hand kneading, no it is not. you can't beat doing it by hand, the evidenceis in the result. Biggest mistake was using a 9x5 loaf pan which was way too big for this recipe. The loaf turned out gorgeous, unfortunately it didn't even rise above the top of the pan! Perfect for dainty little sandwiches, NOT for the massive Rueben monsters I'm planning for the 18th! So today I'm gonna try again by doing a 1.5x of this recipe. Easy, beautiful, nice strong flavor. EVERYTHING you want in a rye bread, just watch your pan size like i should have.
Anna says
Hi Michelle,
I've always made this one in a loaf pan, but there are lots of round rye loaves so I'm pretty sure this one would work as a round. I'll give it a try today, so check back. My plan is to roll it into a cylinder, squish it into a round and bake. I'll post the times and temps when I test.
Michelle says
How can I make this into a round loaf?
Anna says
Thank you so much for trying it and for leaving a comment, Chrisha! This is one of my older recipes, and it's stood the test of time. I like it because it can be made fairly quickly (compared so sourdough rye and such) and still have a lot of flavor.
Chrisha says
This makes bakery quality marble rye bread. I’ve made it three times in one week!
Anna says
Thanks Emily!
Emily Leishman says
I made this loaf and it was so delicious! I loved the swirl and it was so fun to make!
Sonya says
What a beautiful swirl!