Adventures in Rye Sourdough Bread

My mother rarely baked bread, but we always kept some at home. The loaf of choice was rye with or without caraway seeds. It had a doughy feel and it was what I brought to school every day with peanut butter. We got it from the local kosher bakery.

I miss that  bread, as all I can find around here is white bread, pita and whole wheat. So on a whim, I picked up a bag of organic, stone-ground rye flour.

A couple of weeks (months?) passed and the flour remained in the freezer. If I was already going to use rye, I wanted sourdough, so I began to look for recipes. But they all involved making a rye sourdough starter from scratch, and that seemed complicated.

I should have known better. After all, making a sourdough starter takes almost no time at all, just patience and a little maintenance. And on the Cooking Manager Facebook page, readers Jimi (Denmark) and Nina (Germany) gave me great tips, like starting the rye sourdough with some of the wheat sourdough starter I keep on hand in the fridge.

I put a little of the wheat sourdough in a jar, added water and rye flour, and by the next day I was ready to go. I added more water and rye flour.  By the day after that, the dough had risen so much it threatened to overflow the bowl I was using.

I set aside some of this sponge, I guess you would call it, for next time and poured the rest into a bigger bowl and added wheat flour, more rye flour, water, salt and whole oats. Jimi recommends adding a variety of seeds but I decided to keep mine plain. Anyway, I didn’t have most of them around. You can see the complete recipe on his site.

The dough ended up sitting several hours longer than necessary, but it didn’t make the bread tangy like I’ve experienced with wheat sourdough. The only problem was with baking. With wheat sourdough bread or muffins I’ve learned to let the bread get really brown on the outside. Otherwise the inside will be too soft. The crust is still the best part, even when well-done. But when I took out the rye, I found it was still soft in the middle. I put it back in the oven a couple of times until it was done inside as well. The crust didn’t burn, but it was quite thick.

Here’s what Jimi had to say about that:

“Usually I bake them for one hour at 200 degrees centigrade, then remove them from the mold, turn off the heat and allow them to bake/dry another hour in the oven.

Then, let them sit at least until completely cold, wrap them in a cloth overnight allowing them to set.

If you don’t like the crust hard, just put them in a plastic bag, the moisture from the bread will soften the crust..

Keeps for 4-5 days on the counter, up to a couple of weeks in the fridge.”

The bread still came out wonderfully, including the crust, and much better than what I remember from my childhood.

Making Sourdough Starter

To make recipes with sourdough, you’ll need a starter. Fortunately you can make it at home very cheaply. I have written instructions for making your own sourdough starter with wheat, and the process for rye is similar. I’ve also uploaded images of the ripening sourdough at various stages.

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