Rugbrød – Dark Rye Bread
Rugbrød is a staple in, dare I say, all Danish households and it is the foundation for most pieces of Smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches) whether it be the elaborate pieces bought in restaurants or the common pieces found in the daily Danish lunch box. What makes Rugbrød super healthy is that it is very low in fat, has no oils, no sugars and it is typically loaded with whole grain and fiber. That being said, there are many different versions of Rugbrød, some packed with seeds and grains, others with only the basics.
Sour Dough Starter
Speaking as a Dane living in the US, the lack of Rugbrød can be a source of frustration and so you have to adapt. Either you go without, or perhaps you are lucky to live close to a place where they sell a dried-out version of Rugbrød or you bake it yourself. And let me tell you that baking it yourself is worth every bit of effort you put into it, I promise! Baking Rugbrød is not difficult at all but it takes planning. It’s sometimes difficult to gather all the special ingredients required and hopefully you have the special size bread pan that everyone in Denmark possess. If not, it can be purchased on Amazon. And for all the special ingredients I use Bob’s Red Mill products because they carry everything I need. Sometimes I’ll get lucky and find some of the ingrediens at the local supermarket but I usually have to buy the rest online (once again, thank you amazon).
Making Rugbrød
I would like to note that Danish Rugbrød is different than the German Pumpernickel bread and the two words are often a source of confusion when translating the name into English as Dark Rye bread. Pumpernickel is darker in color, stronger in flavor and it is steamed for a long period of time to allow the ingredients to caramelize.
Poke holes into dough to allow steam to escape.
Brush with water/oil mixture. Baked Rugbrød. Place warm bread in plastic bags to soften crust.
How do you maintain your sourdough starter? If you talk to ten different people you’ll likely get ten different answers. This is how I do it. To continue feeding your sourdough starter add 3 oz (1 1/2 deciliter) Dark Rye flour and 5 oz (1 1/2 deciliter) water to remaining sour dough starter, mix and allow to bubble up before storing in refrigerator. Continue to feed starter once a week while in fridge. As a general rule keep it cold when the sourdough starter is resting and at room temperature when it’s getting ready to be used for baking. Remove starter from refrigerator 24 hours before baking your bread and feed it twice (every 8 hours) at room temperature before using.
Feed your Sour Dough Starter. Keep at room temperature until it bubbles up and then refrigerate.
Rye Sour Dough Starter
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
10 fl oz water (3 deciliter)
6.2 oz Dark Rye flour (3 deciliter or 175 gram)
Directions:
Day 1: heat water to 100-110 degrees F and remove from heat. Sprinkle yeast over water, give a quick stir and let sit for 10 minutes. Stir Rye flour into yeast mixture until smooth. Cover bowl loosely with a lid and let sit out on your counter at room temperature.
Day 2: add 2 oz Rye flour and stir (1 deciliter or 60 gram)
Day 3: stir dough.
Day 4: stir dough.
Day 5: in the morning or evening mix 1/2 of the sour dough starter with the following ingredients.
Rugbrød (makes 1 loaf)
Ingredients:
1/2 of the sour dough starter (approx 7 oz or 1 1/2 deciliter)
9.7 oz Dark Rye flour (275 gram)
11 oz Cracked Rye (Bob’s Red Mill) (5 deciliter or 315 gram)
10.5 oz Whole Wheat flour (300 gram)
2.8 oz Flaxseeds (1 deciliter or 80 gram)
23.7 liquid ounces cold water (7 deciliter)
1 tablespoon molasses
1 1/2 tablespoons sea salt
Directions:
Oil a 13 x 4 x 4 inch bread pan and set aside. Mix all of the ingredients together, stirring to make sure there are no dry pockets left within the dough. Pour into oiled pan and smooth top of dough. Cover pan with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 10 to 12 hours. Before baking, pierce the dough with a skewer 20 times. Brush top of dough with an oil/water mixture and bake in a 400 degrees F preheated oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. After baking allow bread to cool in the pan on a baking rack. When bread is still a little warm place in a plastic bag. The condensation inside the bag will help soften the very hard outer crust. Once completely cooled remove the bread from the moist bag, wipe the bag dry before placing the bread back into the bag. The bread is now ready for slicing or freezing. Enjoy!
Sliced Rugbrød
This recipe has been submitted to YeastSpotting.
Source: adapted from Camilla Plum
My Danish Kitchen 
Thank you very much for the small details like piercing the dough and wrapping it in plastic while still warm to soften the crust. I made a recipe a bit different from yours and these tips will solve the problems I encountered.
Gina, I am glad I could be of some help.
[…] to slow down and pay attention or things can go horribly wrong. The Danish enjoy making their own sourdough rye bread, which takes at least two days to make. And what could be cozier than a selection of amazing Bundt […]
I am looking forward to making this bread, quick question though, Is it everything dark rye flour or is some of it light rye flour?
Missie, yes I use Dark Rye flour but I dont see why you couldn’t use maybe half dark, half light if you like.
Hi: I love the bread from this recipe. I have made it many times always with a good result. For the people that are having trouble finding cracked rye… I just use rolled rye that I get in bulk at the health food store. Works perfect. Also, when I out one time I used some cracked buckwheat that I had, that worked fine as well. So I guess my message for people is… don’t get hung up in the details, you can’t go wrong with this recipe.
I just finished baking a loaf, now I am going to have a slice with some sild and a glass of aquavit… maybe two
Barry, thank you for your advice and I’m glad to hear you love the bread. Rugbrød with sild sounds super delicious, skål 😛
It’s true, he makes great rye bread based on this recipe, and now I’m going to try it and make some for my Danish mother.
Hi Gitte,
I love this recipe and have made hundreds of loaves for family and friends. Over the holidays we were gone so my starter was ignored for 6 weeks. There is a 1 inch layer of black liquid and a little mold on top. Any experience with a neglected starter? It is obviously mad at me for going on vacation!
Thanks for your help and keep up your great work! 🇩🇰
Marcia
Marcia, I don’t have personal experience with mold on a sourdough starter but I would not use anything that has had mold on it. I looked around a little and here are some links.
http://www.culturesforhealth.com/troubleshooting-sourdough
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2012/04/08/maintaining-your-sourdough-starter-food-water-and-time/
Thank you, those articles are great and very informative. I did toss the starter And am starting fresh today. I appreciate your help.
I love this bread. I’ve been making a batch each month with your recipe since I found it last year. I even converted my mother onto it, even though she has never had rugbrød before. :-)The only thing I have noticed is that mine turns out several shades darker than yours in the pics….perhaps because the dark rye mix we have here is different? Oh well still taste great and very similar to one we used to buy in DK. So thanks heaps for this one 🙂
Morgwn, I’m so glad to hear that you like the recipe. You are probably right about the darker color of your bread, it’s probably due to a different brand of dark rye flour. Happy baking 😀
In Denmark Roasted Barley Malt is often added to the dough for color and taste, so don’t be worried about the dark color.
Thank you Jens
Oh that’s interesting to know. Thanks Jens 🙂
I made a much larger batch of rye bread yesterday, I used an electric meat slicer that had been taking up space for the past 35 years to slice it. It did a great job. All slices were neatly cut and uniform in size. I then vacuum sealed it in 8-slice packs and froze it.
Sounds perfect Ron 🙂
My wife is Danish, I thought I would surprise her by making her rye bread using your recipe. I was unable to find cracked rye, so I purchased rye flakes. Cracked rye is similar to steel cut oats, it takes much longer to cook steel cut oats than rolled oats. Should I reduce the cooking time or simply cook the rye bread until it reaches the temperature another reader suggested above?
Ron, I think you’ll be fine following the baking directions and perhaps checking the internal temp as the bread bakes if you like.
Everything turned out great, my wife was really pleased with the results. She immediately cut a slice, went to the fridge, took out a container of saved bacon fat, spread it on her slice of rye bread, sprinkled it with sea salt and ate it.
Ron, I’m so glad she loved it 😄
I have tried you recipe twice now being careful to follow the instructions exactly. I have dark rye flour, cracked rye kernals yeast etc. The dough seems very moist and sticky and when baked comes out sticky in the middle. I am using 13X4X4 pans and baking at 350F for over an hour.
Any suggestions?
Thank you
Hi Keld, the recipe says to bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour and 15 min. If the bread browns quickly at the end of baking, cover it loosely with foil while finishing baking.
My husband and I are about to make our first loaf of your bread but we cannot find the size pan that you use. Do you know if the recipe will work with two smaller loaf pans?
Yes another size pan will work, you just won’t get the tall bread that we’re use to and you may have to alter the baking time. Keep a close eye on the bread so it doesn’t overbake.
You can use a meat thermometer to check the temperature in the bread. When the temperature reaches 96°C (205°F) the bread is baked.
Thank you for the tip Jens.
Hi, I have tried making this a couple times and it never rises the way you describe. For me it only rises for about four hours and then starts to collapse. After 10 hours it is totally flat.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks,
Paul, are you talking about the sour dough starter rising or the actual bread rising before baking? My sour dough starter gives a quick big rise on the first day and then just a slight bubble during the following days. Once I mix all the ingredients and the bread is rising before baking, it is a slow steady rise. Make sure it’s not cold where it is set to rise. Here is another Rugbrød recipe with a shorter rise time.
https://mydanishkitchen.com/2015/03/23/rugbrod-uden-surdej-rye-bread-without-sourdough-starter/
Hi Gitte,
My husband and I are going to attempt to make rye bread again when our surdej starter is ready.
Just wondering if you have tried using barley malt syrup instead of molasses? I found a Danish recipe online that uses a barley malt extract to give the rye bread a darker color and stronger taste. http://denmark.dk/en/lifestyle/food-drink/recipes-baking-that-dark-sour-bread/
When my husband and I are in Denmark we buy our bread to take home from Lagkagehuset. They have two wonderful rye breads we like, one is gulerrødder and one has Chia seeds on top. I tried to make rye bread here in the states quite a few years back but it didn’t turn out well so I basically gave up. We made the surdej starter last night but used keifer and rye flour instead of yeast (as per a recipe online). Not sure if it will turn out well. Do you have any advice?
Valerie,
as far as any advice, I don’t really have any as far as the starter goes, since I have never used Keifer to make my starter. But if you end up having trouble making your starter, you do have an option to make a very wonderful rugbrød which does not require a starter. Here is the link.
https://mydanishkitchen.com/2015/03/23/rugbrod-uden-surdej-rye-bread-without-sourdough-starter/
I lived in Denmark for a year when I was a teenager and I absolutely loved the food. The Rugbrod, the breakfast rolls, boiled potatoes and the brown gravy was among my favorites. I’m not the best at baking can you give me any hints as to where to buy Rugbrod. Also any tips on how to make the fantastic brown gravy would be greatly appreciated. Blessed Be
Tracey, you can buy Rugbrød mixes online, in IKEA or you can try and look for already baked Rugbrød in some of your local stores. Here are some online stores:
http://www.nordiskimport.com/category/Breads–Baking-Items-10
http://scandinavianbutik.com/product-category/food/baked-goods-food/
http://www.nordichouse.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=58
As far as the gravy, there are many different ways to make a brown gravy. Generally, you use the fat and/or liquid which you are already frying or boiling with (it can be potato water, drippings from roasting, warm milk or stock). Most commonly flour is used as a thickening agent and what gives the gravy its distinct brown color is an ingredient called Kulør which you can also buy in the online stores I mentioned above, however, Kulør is not nessesary to make a good gravy. A little bit of red currant jelly gives a wonderful flavor, season with salt and pepper to taste. Here is a link to a site which has a video where she’s making a gravy.
http://madhjaelp.dk/2013/01/18/sovs-til-flaeskesteg/
[…] when I was there. Yes you can get rye bread, but not Danish-style, so for these I made my own with this recipe. I was fairly pleased with how it turned out (you’ll have seen my progress making it last […]
We just went to Copenhagen in July, and I became somewhat obsessed with this rye sourdough bread! I am so glad I found your blog. I am on day 3 of the starter now (I just stirred it), but it doesn’t look very active or excited to be here. It is somewhat bubbly and doesn’t seem to be dead, but it hasn’t really grown at all. Do you have any suggestions? I’m wondering if I should start over. I have even resorted to giving it pep talks, but that doesn’t seem to be helping! Thank you!!
Ha ha, a pep talk. Good one! If it is bubbling a little, I would say it’s alive. I usually get the most growth on day one, then it settles down and the remaining time it just bubbles a little. The pictures on my rugbrød page of the Sourdough, were taken on day one. With a few bubbles I think it’s ok.
I just want to thank you for posting this wonderful recipe – I have been making it regularly for the last two and a half years and it has worked beautifully every time. My husband emigrated from Copenhagen to Canada (for me) two years ago and this was the one staple that he couldn’t live without! I can’t find cracked rye locally so I use a combination of rye kernels and rye flakes in place. I also occasionally add some pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds – especially tasty when browned on the top of the loaf! Tusind tak! Jill
Jill, I am so happy you like the Rugbrød and thank you for sharing your alternative ideas, for when you can’t get cracked Rye. Sometimes finding the ingredients can be difficult so I really appreciate you sharing your experience. 😃
Thank you so much for the recipe and perfect instructions! My bread turned out exactly as it should and we all love it. I did not have cracked rye so just used the same amount of rye flour and it still very good. I just want to mention that I did weigh the ingredients as recommended and I think that’s important with euro recipes especially breads. Thank you again, this will be a staple in my kitchen too. Lisa Oliver
Lisa, I have to agree, weighing out the ingredients it’s super important. I am so glad that you enjoyed the bread 🙂
Hej! I am on my third attempt trying to bake rye bread with your recipe. It’s fairly easy, except that I am having trouble with the top getting too dark (almost burning) and the inside never cooking all the way through. It’s almost there but still a little gummy inside. Tak for any advice! Alicia
Alicia, my guess is that your oven may be running a little hot, ovens can vary quite a bit. Try lowering the oven temp by maybe 25 degrees, keep a close eye on your bread while it’s baking and if you notice it still starting to get too dark take a piece of foil and cover the pan LOOSELY to stop the browning. I know the crust is hard at this point in the process, and I have never done this myself with rugbrød, but you can try and test for doneness by inserting a wooden skewer into the center of the bread. It should come out clean, not sticky. If it is not done give it a little longer with the foil on. Hope this helps you.
You can easily lower the temperature in the owen. I bake rugbrød at 170°C, but I use 1 hour and 45 minutes for 1,5kg loafs, You can use a meat themometer to check the temperature inside, When it is 96-98°C (204-208°F) it is finished.
/sejer
Just got back from Copenhagan yesterday and find I must make this bread! It was so delicious there!
Jean, it’s not at all difficult and I hope you like it.
When traveling to Aarhus and Grenaa, I always looked forward to Rugbrod being served for breakfast and lunch. I have introduced it to my family and now am spreading the joy with my friends. Thank you for sharing your recipe with us.
Brent, all my pleasure and I’m so glad you and your friends are enjoying the Rugbrød.
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I visited Denmark last summer, and Rugbrød was one of the culinary highlights. I followed your recipe, using my own whole wheat starter (based on the starter available here: http://carlsfriends.net/ ) fed a few times on dark rye. It’s fantastic. Thank you!
Thank you for your kind words….it really is a wonderful bread 🙂
I finally have a good sour going and am really enjoying having fresh rugbrod. I have not been able to find cracked rye so am using cooked soft wheat berries instead. This is also very good with unsalted sunflower seeds. Thanks for posting this recipe
Aly
Nothing better than fresh rugbrød, I am so glad your enjoying it.
This bread looks very good! I want to try it, but I think I will use less salt. Thank you very much for all your pictures and detailed instructions.
Just wondering why you need the bread pan with the lid. Do you bake it with the lid on?
No I don’t bake the bread with the lid on, the pan just came with the lid.
Hi again,
Amazon won’t ship the bread pan to Canada, but I may be a le to get one up here but it is a little longer at 11 3/4″. Do you think that would work? They are fairly expensive so I don’t want to order if it will not work with the recipe.
I think if it’s not too much longer it should work, of course your bread will be a little lower.
I’m heading down to the kitchen to get my surdej started. I use some Buttermilk or even greek yoghurt sometimes to help with that special ‘sour’ tang that good Rugbrød has to have.
Thanks again for all the great recipes.
I like that your using buttermilk in your bread, good idea!
Flotte brød du laver. Jeg kan se du bruger melasse i stedet for malt. Det giver også samme dybe smag. Et tip til sikker surdej er at lave æblesurdej.For mig har det været en åbenbaring, og brødet kommer ikke til at smage af æble.
Se på http://www.culinaren.dk/2012/12/ble-surdej.html
mvh
Jens, ser spændende ud. Det må jeg prøve. 🙂
I have to save this recipe! Love dark seedy bread and would love to be able to bake it at home!
Hope you give it a try, it’s wonderful.
It looks so delicious, and absolutely perfect. And a little note for John; there actually is a rye bread brand called “Viking” in the Danish stores. 🙂
Your bread looks wonderful.
As a child of Danish parents, growing up in southern Ontario, I was always teased at school for having home made rugbrød sandwiches. That was until one day when my brother joined me for lunch at school. As the verbal jesting began regarding my sandwiches my brother said, hitting is chest at the same time, this is viking bread and, hitting his chest again, I am a viking. After that there was no more teasing.
Keep up the good work on your blog.
regards,
John Hansen
John, makes me smile 🙂 Viking bread indeed.
Du kan også få hele rugkerner fra Bob’s RedMill. Dem bruger jeg til at lave et fuldkorns rugbrød. De levere til døren via UPS. Jeg bruger selv lidt mere molasses (circa 45 ml) per 3 liter brød for at runde smagn ud. Nu kan jeg ikke se hvad størrelse du laver så det kan godt være det samme.
mvh