Rye bread is delicious and healthy and is relatively easy to make – it doesn’t require as much hand skill as wheat bread only a lot of patience and capability to follow instructions. The procedure may look lengthy at first but in fact it fits well in a busy working day. The bread from this recipe has rich flavor, excellent smell and good keeping quality.
Important: the procedure may seem arbitrary but each stage has its purpose. This process is known as three stage rye bread or Detmolder method rye bread.
Total of ingredients: 1 kg wholegrain rye flour, 790 gr water and 19 gr salt.
Part 1:
Dissolve 10 gr of sourdough in 30 gr of water and mix with 20 gr of wholegrain rye flour. The resulting mixture should be soft. Let stand for about 6 to 10 hours. In this stage the yest is refreshed.
Part 2:
Add 50 gr of water and 80 gr of wholegrain rye flour and mix well. The resulting mixture should be thick. The purpose of this stage is to develop acidity. Let stand for 24 hours.
Part 3:
After 24 hours our sourdough should have strong and pleasant smell of fermentation. Add 200 gr of warm water and 200 gr of wholegrain rye flour. We should try to get dough temperature of 28 C. At this stage we may add 2 – 4 gr salt so the dough may wait for the end of our working day. If you add salt at this stage don’t forget to subtract it in the next stage.
Part 4:
Add 510 gr warm water and 19 gr salt and mix well. We don’t knead rye dough so it is important to mix the salt well before adding flour. Add 700 gr wholegrain rye flour and mix well. The resulting dough is sticky but that is OK. Resist the temptation to add more flour at this stage. Best dough temperature at this stage is 29 C
Let the dough rest for 15 – 30 minutes then form loafs. If it is difficult to make the loaf because of dough stickiness you can just press it into the baking form. Let it raise until you see beautiful cracks on top of the loaf. Bake in hot oven. First 20 minutes at 250 C and then 35 minutes at 200 C.
When ready take out from the form and let cool for at least 12 hours
In this recipe i used organic stone ground flour but any wholegrain rye flour may be used to get similar results without changing quantities.
References and similar posts:
- Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman – my favorite bread book
- http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/15577/pure-sourdough-rye-year-1939