We’ve been making rye bread for a long time now. We first made it not long after we opened the café. It was a bit ropey in those days: not only were we new to the intricacies of rye flour, we were also new to the difficulties of a rye sourdough too.

We struggled on, occasionally producing a decent set of loaves, until we opened the bakery. Then we got a little bit more serious about it. We know a lot more about rye bread than we did eight years ago.

Rye is a grain that used to be grown extensively across the North and is still very popular in the cooler climates of northern and eastern Europe. It has less gluten than wheat and comes both in a wholemeal (dark rye) and a white form (light rye).

You either love or hate the taste of rye bread. A pure rye loaf will be dense with a very distinctive tangy taste. It benefits from being made as a sourdough as this imparts a good deal of flavour into the bread.

Over the years, we’ve struggled to produce a consistent loaf but in the last couple of years we’ve been much more effective. We’ve learnt to use only light rye to feed our sourdough starter (the dark rye contains so many nutrients that the sourdough goes a bit giddy). We’re also making a lot more of it which helps to keep the sourdough starter working well.

In American delis, the rye bread they use will be a rye/wheat combination to produce a much lighter loaf. In Eastern Europe, caraway seeds and molasses are often added for flavour and colour respectively. We’ve just developed our pumpernickel bread which includes cracked rye and soaked pumpkin seeds in it. I thought it was delicious.

In Scandinavian countries, rye bread is used as the base for open sandwiches. Its intense flavour is enhanced by a good old spread of butter and topping with fish, meats and sharp vegetables. These open sandwiches are often displayed together in a riot of colour and taste.

We’ll be developing more rye-based breads this year. Demand is growing and there’s certainly an interest in its lower gluten properties. If you have never tried it before, it’s worth a go. You never know, it might become a favourite.