So the other week, I tried to make a 100% rye loaf of bread. It didn't work, and basically I ended up with a crisp and crackly outer shell half filled with a solid fudge-like material under a huge airgap.
While this was a tragedy (though salvageable by incorporating into a soup), it did inspire some cooking experiments.
Basically, it seems that it's possible to make a passable dessert from a carefully cooked rye-flour mixture. I'm still tweaking it, but a sweetened mix of rye-flour, sugar, and water with ground cloves, cinnamon and allspice seems to work very well. I topped it with a layer of water, ginger, brown sugar and lemon juice+zest so that as it cooked down, it formed a thick, treacly, toffee-like glaze over the top, then baked it in a ramekin/bowl in a shallow water bath in the oven at 200 C for around 2 hours (high temp for evaporating and then caramelising surface, water bath stops the dough overcooking at the edges).
End result is a substance about halfway between fudge and cake with a gooey caramelly top, so good.
Some changes I'm gonna make for the next round though;
* I skimped a little on the sugar in the batter itself, so it wasn't dessert-sweet unless I also got some of the topping. Need to up it.
* It really needs to be served with some whipped cream, and maybe some fresh fruit (plums would go well, methinks).
* I'd like to try mixing the rye flour with hot water from a kettle and leaving for a few hours before mixing and sweetening; the result wasn't quite as fudgey as the (overnight-fermented) breadtastrophe had been, and this might give it more time to soften and merge.
* While the rye actually adds hints of almost a chocolate character, a touch of cacao would definitely boost it.
* Similarly, some raisins/craisins/prunes would be good incorporated into the mix.
* Possibly try with some butter or vegetable shortening as well.
Either way, it looks like it could well be a delicious, simple, and surprisingly vegan equivalent to those thick n' lovely fudge brownies.
Defintely a winter sort of dish though...