Quick Swedish Rye Bread

This all-rye bread, called matbrod or "food bread" in Sweden, is incredibly simple to make. The cumin seeds impart a unique but delicious flavour. You could use caraway seeds instead. Recipe found in Canadian House and Home and is from Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World (2003 Random House Canada).

• Ready In: 1 hr 10 mins
• Serves: 32
• Yields: 2 loaves

Ingredients

• 5  cups  light rye flour
• 2  teaspoons baking soda
• 1  teaspoon baking powder
• 1  tablespoon salt
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons whole cumin seeds or 1 1⁄2 teaspoons caraway seeds
• 2  cups plain yogurt (don't use reduced fat yogurt)
• 1⁄2 cup milk
• 1⁄4 cup liquid honey

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and butter 2 8" x 4" loaf pans.
2. In large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cumin seeds.
3. In separate bowl, mix together yogurt, milk and honey; stir to blend well (if the honey is stiff, warm it a little to make it more liquid before mixing with the yogurt and milk).
4. Pour yogurt mixture into flour mixture and stir until dry ingredients are well moistened (mixture will be sticky but quite stiff).
5. Stir vigorously for several minutes.
6. Divide dough evenly among prepared pans, smoothing tops with wet spatula.
7. Place in centre of oven, lower heat to 385°F and bake for 30 minutes, then lower heat to 350°F and bake another 20 minutes or until loaves have pulled away from sides of pans and a skewer inserted in centre comes out clean.
8. Turn loaves out of pans onto rack. (The loaves will be about 2" high.).
9. Allow bread to cool for at least two hours before slicing to give loaves time to firm up.