In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day and having leftover corned beef, our bread this week will be a loaf of sourdough rye.
Rye bread has been my nemesis. I have tried a number of different recipes and not been satisfied with the texture I achieved. This is my first time making a sourdough rye loaf. I am using a recipe I found on the website www.breadtopia com It is called Artisan Sourdough Rye Bread. For flours I used King Arthur Organic Bread Flour and Hodgsons Mill Stone Ground Whole Rye Flour. I have no affiliation with either of those companies.
This is as close to a “do nothing” bread as I have ever made. It is a high hydration dough at around 83% hydration. It is 50% rye flour which makes it a very sticky dough. Those two things together make it difficult to work by hand so instead, it gets mixed with a danish dough whisk a total of 3 times over an hour or so. The dough then bulk ferments for 12 to 14 hours at room temperature. That works out well for mixing in the evening and then baking the next day. In my case I am tired by the time evening arrives so I like to mix earlier in the day. So I mixed the dough late morning and put it in the fridge until 8:00pm. Then it sat on the counter until next morning. I had expected the time in the fridge to slow down fermentation more but it was ready to go by 8:30am. I stretched, folded and shaped the dough into an oval loaf and placed it in an oval banneton with a liner that was well floured with rye and rice flour. Final rise only took an hour and into the oven it went. The aroma coming from the oven was enticing. With out a doubt this is the best loaf of rye I have ever made. Texture and flavor are spot on. I will be reluctant to make any other rye going forward.
The Formula
| Ingredient | Amount | Bakers % |
| Water | 400 g | 82% |
| Starter | 70 g | 14% |
| Rye flour | 245 g | 50% |
| Bread flour | 245 g | 50% |
| Total flour | 490 g | 100% |
| Molasses | 44 g | 9% |
| Fennel seed | 8 g | 1.6% |
| Anise seed | 2 g | 0.4% |
| Caraway seed | 3 g | 0.6% |
| Salt | 10 g | 2% |
| Zest of 1 orange |
The Process
- Mix together the water, starter, fennel seed, anise seed, caraway seed and the orange seed.
- Mix together the rye flour, bread flour and salt.
- Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the water mixture using a dough whisk or spoon. Continue until all flour is incorporated into the water. Cover and let rest 15 minutes.
- Stir dough for 1 – 2 minutes, cover and let rest 15 minutes.
- Stir dough dough 1 – 2 minutes then cover.
- Let dough bulk ferment for 12 – 14 hours at room temperature. If mixing dough early in the day, place covered dough in fridge to retard fermentation until early evening. Then remove from fridge and place on counter overnight.
- When dough is ready the next morning stretch and fold dough with we hands to minimize sticking. Let rest 15 minutes. This is a very sticky dough so make sure to flour surfaces and hands while shaping the dough. Preshape the dough. Let dough rest 15 minutes. Heavily flour a cloth lined banneton with a mix of rye and rice flour. I was making an oval loaf so I used a 10” x 6” x 4” oval banneton.
- Final shape the loaf and place in the banneton. Cover with plastic and let rise for 1 to 1-1/2 hours.
- Meanwhile, place baking stone in oven and preheat oven to 475 F. I use a roasting pan to trap steam so that goes in the oven 10 minutes before baking. Depending on the shape of the load a dutch oven or some type of clay baker could also be used.
- When dough is ready invert out of the banneton onto a heavily floured peel or onto parchment. Transfer to the oven and cover.
- Bake at 475 F covered for 20 minutes.
- Remove cover, reduce oven temperature to 450 F and bake another 10 minutes.
- Remove bread from oven and let cool on rack at least 1 hour before slicing.
Here is the reason for making rye bread this weekend. A grilled Rueben sandwich! What is better than corned beef with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and homemade russian dressing on rye? Probably my favorite sandwich of all time.
