Sour Milk Rye Bread Recipe
You’ll love this bread machine recipe for sour milk rye bread. It’s moist and tastes a little like sourdough bread because of the sour milk.
Last Updated on May 24, 2026 – Originally posted on November 13, 2017
This variant of the sour milk bread recipe was suggested to me by a reader, NoMercy. I tried it out, and it’s a winner!
The bread is moist and tastes a little like sourdough bread because of the sour milk. It doesn’t have a rye flavor, but it has a subtle heartiness that’s great for sandwiches.
Sour Milk
Traditionally, this recipe was a good way to use milk that had started to sour slightly in the refrigerator but was still safe to use for baking.
If sour milk isn’t your thing, no worried. This recipe tastes great with regular, fresh milk.
Or if you don’t have naturally soured milk, you can create a similar tangy flavor by adding vinegar to regular milk. Just add one tablespoon of vinegar to one cup of room-temperature milk. (You can use either white vinegar or apple cider vinegar.) Then stir and wait about 5 minutes.
So in this case, I added 1.5 tablespoons of vinegar to 1.5 cups of room-temperature milk. I gave it a good stir. In five minutes, I stirred it again. Then I removed 1.5 tablespoons of the sour milk mixture, so I had 1.5 cups of liquid.
Type of Milk
I’ve used 2% and whole milk when making this recipe. I suspect that fat-free milk will work fine too.
However, the more fat in the milk, the better the rise.
This Sour Milk Rye Bread Recipe, is a variant of my Sour Milk Bread Recipe. For years I made that recipe using 2% milk. It worked great.
I started wondering if the type of milk might make a difference in the bread’s rise. So I did an experiment.
These loaves of bread were both made with the quick cycle and rapid rise yeast. The only difference is that the loaf on the left was made with 2% milk and the loaf on the right was made with whole milk.
Here’s another look at the two loaves of bread. The loaf in the front (#1) contains 2% milk. The loaf in the back (it’s #4 but the flag got cut off in the photo) was made with whole milk.
The result of the experiment is the discovery that you get a slightly better rise with whole milk.
Rye Flour
A Field of Rye
This recipe contains some rye flour.
Rye is a cereal grain that contains a good amount of fiber. The Man of the House doesn’t enjoy whole wheat bread, however, he likes rye bread. So rye bread is a good choice for us in terms of nutrition.
You can use either dark or light rye flour in this recipe.
Making Sour Milk Rye Bread
This makes a two-pound loaf of bread. Use the basic setting with medium crust.
Follow the instructions that came with your bread machine in terms of which ingredients to put in the machine first. With my bread machine, as with many others, you add the liquid first.
Make sure you check on the dough after five or ten minutes of kneading. Just pop the top of the bread machine and see how the dough is doing. It should be a smooth, round ball. If it’s too dry, add liquid a teaspoon at a time until it looks right. If it looks too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time until it looks right.
Sour Milk Rye Bread Recipe
Again, this makes a two-pound loaf of bread. Use the basic setting with medium crust.
1 ½ cups sour milk (Regular milk will work fine too.)
3 cups bread flour
1 cup light rye flour or dark rye flour
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons sugar
1 ½ Tablespoons olive oil
1 ¾ teaspoons active dry yeast
See below for metric measurements, as well as nutrition information, for this bread machine recipe for sour milk rye bread.
Sour Milk Rye Bread
Recommended Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (354.9 ml) sour milk Regular (not soured) milk works fine too
- 3 cups (375 g) bread flour
- 1 cup (102 g) light rye flour Dark rye flour works fine too
- 1 ¼ teaspoon (1.2 teaspoon) salt
- 4 Tablespoons (3.9 Tablespoons) sugar
- 1 ½ Tablespoons (1.5 Tablespoons) olive oil
- 1 ¾ teaspoons (1.7 teaspoons) active dry yeast
Instructions
- This makes a two-pound loaf of bread. Use the basic setting with medium crust.
- Follow the instructions that came with your bread machine in terms of which ingredients to put in the machine first. With my bread machine, as with many others, you add the liquid first.
- Make sure you check on the dough after five or ten minutes of kneading. Open the bread machine and look at the dough. It should be a smooth, round ball. If it’s too dry add liquid a teaspoon at a time until it looks right. If it looks too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time until it looks right.
Notes
Nutrition
All information presented within this site is intended for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and any nutritional information on breadmachinediva.com should only be used as a general guideline. This information is provided as a courtesy and there is no guarantee that the information will be completely accurate. I try to provide accurate information to the best of my ability; however these figures should still be considered estimates.
i would add some caraway seeds if a more “rye bread” flavor is desired. Maybe a tablespoon when the machine beeps during to early mixing phase. if your machine doesn’t have that feature, just stir into the flour before starting the dough.
Sour milk is not a common term where I grew up. No store sells sour milk. When milk gets old and goes bad in the fridge we say it’s gone sour but that spoiled milk certainly isn’t used for baking. When I looked it up it said buttermilk or kefir. A reference to the common terms in the US for sour milk would have been helpful.
Thanks for the feedback! 😊 This recipe is actually based on the older practice of using milk that had started to sour slightly in the refrigerator but was still fine for baking. The vinegar method is just a way to mimic that tangy flavor if you don’t happen to have naturally soured milk on hand.
Can you use brown sugar
Great question! I haven’t tried it, but it should be fine.
Rather than sour the milk, I used unflavored kefir, and the bread turned out great. It’s a family favorite!
Thank you, I had the same question!
Do I have to use so much sugar, I dislike the sweet taste of bread made with lots of sugar. Great web site love the recipes
The great thing about a bread machine is that you can adjust the recipes. You’ll need to play around with the recipe to compensate for the lower sugar content. You may need to increase the yeast or decrease the salt.
When making sour milk, what type of vinegar do you use?
You can use either white or apple cider vinegar.
In this recipe, what percent butter fat milk is “regular” milk? I can’t rate the recipe before I try it, but I do thank you for posting it.
Great question! When I say “regular” milk, I mean milk that isn’t sour. I’ve used both 2% and whole milk in the recipe. You’ll get a little more rise with the whole milk.
Dusted off my bread machine (I use it to make my dough because I’m not happy with the automatic baking cycles) so I’m liking your site. One quibble — your instructions for souring milk is a but wasteful because you call for the entire amount of milk required, add the souring agent, then discard the equivalent (say 1.5 tbsp) after the milk is soured. It makes more sense to pour the vinegar or whatever into a glass measuring cup, then fill with milk to the amount called for. That way there’s no need to discard any excessive amount of soured milk. Thanks.
Good point!
Can you add eggs to this recipe? Or to any rye or wheat bread recipe?
What specific oil do you use?
Thank you for this informative and yummy website! Your recipes are so much better than the ones in the ZO book that came with the machine. I generally don’t like soft airy bread and your recipes I’ve made all have a nice, rich texture. Thank you! (
Annie,
Thanks so much for leaving a comment!
I’m not sure about the eggs. You’ll have to experiment. If you do add them, you’ll need to decrease the liquid in order to compensate.
Thanks for asking about the oil! I use olive oil. I’ve got that added to the recipe now.
Take care and stay safe!
First, I’d like to thank you for your emails, I look forward to them. I recently purchased the Virtuoso Zojirushi , so I am still a novice at bread making. The accompanying recipe book always calls for instant dry yeast . Should I use the instant or regular yeast when following your recipes?
It’s so confusing trying to figure out what yeast to use. I have a Zo as well and I use Red Star active dry yeast. It doesn’t need to be proofed. Check out my article on yeast for more information.
could you use buttermilk for this recipe or is the sourmilk recommended
I haven’t done this, but it’s worth a try.