Our family treasures this recipe from the Swedish heritage of my husband. His grandmother was the first Swedish American in the family. She was born to Swedish immigrants living in the Chicago area. This was her recipe. I’ve never seen a rye bread recipe quite like this one. It is wonderful toasted with fresh raspberry freezer jam.

Swedish Rye Bread – Traditional Bread Making Technique

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 packages traditional yeast (or 2 Tablespoons loose measure)
• 1/2 cup warm water

In a small cup or bowl soften yeast in water.

Then in a saucepan heat together on medium-low heat just until sugar and shortening are melted:

• One & 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup strong flavored molasses
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. Crisco (unflavored)

In a large mixing bowl stir together:

• 2 cups Rye flour
• 4 cups unbleached Bread flour, plus additional flour as needed

MIXING AND KNEADING: Allow the hot milk and sugar mixture to cool. Then pour the warm milk – not hot, you will kill the yeast! …into the flour. Stir. Pour in the softened yeast mixture. Stir. Add additional bread flour (up to a cup) by hand to gain a soft dough consistency. Dump out onto a clean floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, using additional flour to work out the stickiness. Shape into a ball. Place into a clean greased bowl, turning once to grease the top of the dough ball. Cover with a damp towel or lightly greased plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place till double in size (about 1 1/2 hours.) Punch down in bowl. Dump out onto a floured surface.

SHAPING AND SECOND RISE: Divide dough in half. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. Shape into two loaves and place into greased loaf pans. Cover again and let rise in pans till double (about 40 minutes.)

BAKING: Bake at 325° for one hour. Cover with foil the last 15 minutes if over-browning occurs. Loaves should sound hollow when tapped with the knuckles of your hand. Rest pans on their sides to cool then remove bread from pans; cool. Store in tightly sealed plastic bags. Makes 2 loaves.

SERVE: Slice and toast to serve. Delicious topped with Fresh Raspberry freezer jam.