Lithuanian Rye...making it yourself

Has anyone been intrepid enough to try this? My mother, who move to Indiana a few years ago, is desperate. She used to be able to get some Baltic Bakery Lithanian Rye when she'd visit my sister in the far, far, far south burbs. But, alas, that is no more.

She's never been a bread maker, but in recent years has made a few yeast-based things and seems to be branching out. She's always been an excellent cookie/cake baker. I've stopped making bread with gluten because DH has celiac., so I can't even test a recipe in the house to try and help her figure it out. It's too bad she's not a bit closer so we could experiment together.

Any advice, recipes, thoughts, etc. is appreciated.

Oh, I did the obligatory web search. I came up with three resources. They look interesting from an historical perspective, but I'd love to hear some personal experiences.

ViewsAskew,

Sounds very interesting. Never have heard of Lithuanian rye even though that is my ancestry. I love to make a NYC-style rye. Can you say how does it differs? My MIL used to make a killer pumpernickel-like bread that was very black and dense and tangy.

Bill/SFNM

In taste, it's tender, fine-grained (NO air bubbles), and dense with a dark brown chewy (really, really, chewy) crust. Like other breads made without wheat flour, it has a low rise (low gluten), is about the color of Idaho potato skins inside, and has just a bit of a tang. Not like a strong sourdough. It's not at all like the dark Bavarian rye as it's both lighter in color and very tender in texture. It's not like a "traditional" rye you'd buy for a sandwich as it's denser, shorter, and the tang is somehow different.

This man's post sort of explains the history of how he started making it. Looks like some starter is involved.

This guy must really love food; this series of posts are very interesting.

The replies to this recipe make it sound like the process must be similar to a Lithuanian Black bread, but that would be different.

More history....

I did find this recipe- from a recipe written in Lithuanian - but I have no clue what it makes! It sounds good, but I don't remember kefir in Baltic Bakery's list of ingredients....then again, it's been so long since I've had it, well, it might be.

Hmmm, now this one - that I didn't find last time I looked, seems promising. The starter is actually a bit of leftover dough. But, I am guessing that Baltic may have used some all purpose flour, simply because it is so light in interior color. If it were all rye, it would be a bit darker, I'd think.

If I'm remembering the right bread, it should have a decent amount of wheat flour in it. Breads made from all rye are pretty much solid bricks. At least in my experience. The Lithuanian rye I remember was pretty soft, with a uniform, but dense, crumb.

From Views' description it sounds a lot like this dark rye bread I made before.


It has a dense and creamy crumb, a chewy crust, and a bit of sourness from using a wild yeast starter. The spicy rye aroma is very pronounced in it.
It might come close with a few tweaks to my recipe. Do you have an active starter?

I do... but I won't be making it, my mom will. My starter is gluten-free, too, so I can't give here mine, I don't think,

It's looks similar to yours, Kanin, except the exterior is almost black it's such a dark brown.

I'm going to Gene's Sausage Shop in a few minutes....if they have anything similar, I'll get it and bring it. I saw some at A&G a few months ago that looked about right. I guess I could overnight it to her, lol, but that would remove the fun of trying to figure it out.

Gene's had a loaf of Lithuanian Rye from Racine Bakery. No starter listed....but it might not be called starter as it's water and flour.

It lists:
Bleached wheat flour
water
Rye flour
oil
sugar
salt
yeast
vital gluten
onion
ground caraway
calcium propionate
potassium bromate
enzyme

From this list, the wheat flour is definitely much greater in weight than the rye flour. The bread is a bit less dense than Baltic Bakery's was. The vital gluten and greater wheat flour would help with that. The taste is very similar, but I don't remember the onion or caraway in Baltic; then again, I haven't had it in a long time, so could just be misremembering.

I was hoping someone would have some experience with it....here or somewhere, but I'm not finding much at all. If it were me, I'd assume it a great challenge and would immediately be making loaves. Sorry, Mom.

For what it's worth, here's the ingredient list (in the listed order) that I saw on a loaf of Lithuanian rye today at Stanleys -- this was from Today's Temptations bakery:

Rye flour
Wheat flour
Water
Malt
Sugar
Onion
Yeast
Caraway Seeds
Salt
Yeast

Thanks! Very different from the one I tried in terms of the rye/wheat mix. Of course, the rye, wheat, and water could all be very similar amounts so they might not be so different.

This one also didn't say anything about a starter. Huh.

Is it usual to list the presence of a starter/motherdough in sourdough bread ingredients, or is it not usually covered by "flour, water, yeast"?

I've been wondering that myself. I think when I've looked at sourdough breads that they do list a starter...but that could be a faulty memory.