Rye Raisin Bread With Bakery-Style Flavor

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Imagine a Rye Raisin Bread chock full of flavor from the earthy rye flour with beer, raisins and a hint of orange that requires only a wet mixture and a dry mixture combined to achieve. No complicated steps, no long waits, just a bread that feels both rustic and refined. If you love old world breads with character and history, this is the kind of recipe you’ll come back to again and again.

Slices of the Rye Raisin Bread sits on a cutting board with the whole behind it surrounded by a plaid towel and knife.

What makes this rye raisin bread especially rewarding is how approachable the process is, even if you don’t bake with rye often. This old-world–style loaf delivers that bakery-quality experience at home, with balanced rye flavor, a soft interior, and just enough chew to make every slice memorable. And I can tell you it makes the best ham and cheese sandwich you'll ever eat - toasted or not!

If you love bread baking as much as I do here are a few more for you: Stuffed Italian Bread - Pane Bianco, Garlic Oregano Cracker Bread, Stuffed Focaccia and No Knead Sicilian Olive Bread.

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Why use beer in yeast bread?
Why you'll love this recipe
Recipe Ingredients
Important Ingredients
Step by Step Instructions
Recipe FAQ'S
Expert Tips
Hungry for More?
Rye Raisin Bread With Bakery-Style Flavor

Why use beer in yeast bread?

Using beer in bread baking has always facilitated me - and I don't even drink beer. When used for bread, it leaves no hint of it's liquid flavor but the barley, hops and other ingredients add to the character of the dough, especially rye dough. While I prefer a dark beer (Porter's in this case), any beer can be used but the taste will change slightly. The beer is heated in this recipe to release the alcohol so it's perfectly safe for those who don't drink it or for children.

While there is no definitive record of when yeast began to be used in bread baking, it is commonly thought to have occurred in Egypt. The Egyptians loved their beer and one story has it that a bakery was located next to it. With all of the yeast floating around, some of it ended up in the bread mixture and yeasted bread was born.

Why you'll love this recipe

The old world flavor is one you will not find in a grocery store ore even modern bread bakeries.
Eat it by itself, with a meal, stew or soup, or for the best sandwich you'll ever eat.
It's so easy to make. Wet goes into dry, mix, shape, bake.
It has a good shelf life and doesn't stale easily.

Recipe Ingredients

ingredients for the Rye Raisin Bread are beer, yeast, molasses, vegetable oil, orange zest, bread flour, rye flour, brown sugar, salt, raisins.

FRONT ROW: Salt, instant yeast, molasses, vegetable oil

MIDDLE ROW: Orange zest, raisins, brown sugar

BACK ROW: Bread Flour, beer, rye flour

Important Ingredients

Soaking the raisins in really hot or boiling water softens them making and yields more flavor. It is important to squeeze all the water out of them before adding to the bread dough.
Light or brown sugar can be used.
Bread flour is important for it's ability to lift the dough higher, especially when using rye flour which has little to no rising ability on it's own.
Rye flour comes in colors - light, medium or dark and then pumpernickel, the darkest of all. I used medium. But either the light or dark would also work.
The use of beer in this recipe is one of the main flavor ingredients. Water can be used but it won't taste the same. Burning the alcohol off as required in the recipe makes just an ingredient.

Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients and instructions.

Step by Step Instructions

This collage shows the raisins soaking in hot water, the beer heating, the yeast added to the cooling beer and the molasses and oil added.

Step 1. Pour very hot or boiling water over the raisins and let them sit while the rest of the recipe is prepped. Step 2. Heat the beer to a boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and leet cool until lukewarm. Step 3. Stir in the yeast and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Step 4. Add the molasses and oil. Set aside

In this collages the brown sugar, orange zest and salt are added to the bread and rye flours in the food processor., the liquid is poured i, mixed and the raisins have been added.

Step 5. Place the bread, rye flours and salt in the bowl of a processor. Pulse several times to mix then add the brown sugar and orange zest. Pulse to mix in. Step 6. Pour the liquid ingredients in. Step 7. Process until the dough comes together but does not form a ball. Step 8. Squeeze all the water you can from the raisins and add them to the processor.

This collage shows the bread finished in the processor, cut in half, two ropes of dough formed and the end sealed.

Step 9. Process with pulses to mix the raisins into the dough. Do not over process, some uncut raisins are fine. Turn the dough out. It will be a bit sticky. Without adding flour, knead it a few times to bring it together and smooth it out. Let it rise until doubled At this point the dough can be formed or it can be refrigerated overnight. Step 10. When ready to shape it, cut it in half Step 11. Roll each piece into a 16" rope and twist them together. Step 12. Brush a bit of water on the very top and pinch them together.

The dough is twisted together , laced in a loaf pan, risen ad baked.

Step 13. Twist the two ropes together tightly, brush the ends at the bottom with a bit of water and pinch them together then tuck the bottom and top ends underneath. Step 14. Place the rye raisin bread into a pan sprayed with a non-stick baking release. Step 15. Shortly before the bread has doubled in the pan, preheat the oven and Step 16. Bake as directed.

Recipe FAQ'S

Why does rye bread sometimes turn out dense?

Different flours absorb hydration differently. If there is not enough liquid in the recipe the bread can become heavy, dense and/or dry.

Is Rye Flour gluten free?

No, rye flour does contain gluten but at a much lower rate that wheat flour. If someone is celiac free they should not eat rye products.

Should raisins always be soaked before adding to bread?

I always soak mine to ensure they are moist and contribute to the taste and softness of the dough. If the recipe calls for water, I use the raisin water in place of regular water.

Expert Tips

Because this bread uses rye flour it is slower to rise than one made with just bread flour. As such it is to your advantage to use a proofer. Just put it in a container sprayed with a non-stick baking release cover it with a tea towel and put it in the oven with the light on. After about 30 or 40 minutes, check the temperature of the oven so that it doesn't exceed about 85°F. If it does, prop the door open with a wooden spoon. If you don't have a light in your oven, put the covered dough in, turn the temperature to 350°F for 1 minute. Turn it off and don't open the door for about an hour.
The dough will be sticky coming from the processor. Do not use additional flour. Use a bench scraper to pick it up from the table and turn it over and continue kneading until it is soft and comes together. A little sticky is fine.
If there is not enough tension to roll out the ropes without them springing back, put a few drops of water in the palm of your hands. Wipe them quickly together. They should just be damp. Starting at the middle of the rope, roll it out in both directions, stretching it as you go. You do not want a lot of water, just enough to set up tension on the work surface and your hands. So not flour the surface.
Because I once made a loaf of bread where the instant yeast did not dissolve and I had little bumps of yeast on the surface, I make it a habit to add the yeast to a liquid just to moisten it. It doesn't need to dissolve.

Bottom picture of the bread on a wooden board with a napkin and knife the background.

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