Sourdough Starter
- Mix 1:1 (e.g. 30g/30g) whole grain (organic?) rye flour and lukewarm water
- Let sit for 24h at room temperature
- Mix 1:1:1 of old mix, flour, and lukewarm water. Discard rest of old mix.
- Repeat 2-3 for a week. it should be bubbling by then and smell bready.
- Ready to bake, but you can repeat the refreshing for another week to get the culture really going.
If the starter sits around for more than 1-2 weeks, just scrape off the black surface and refresh it 1-2 times until it smells bready again. Can last several months just on the counter.
Bread
A. Sourdough
- 260g water
- 260g rye whole grain flour
- 35g of sourdough starter
Mix with a spoon; cover bowl with ceran wrap and let rest until the sourdough has doubled in size. You can also just wait for 12h-24h (shorter in summer heat).
B. Main Dough
Take 50g of the just made sourdough and place it in a jar with the lid closed. That’s the starter for when you bake again in a week.
- 500g sourdough from the step before
- 200g rye whole grain flour
- 200g water
- 10g salt
- Mix in a bowl, I use a spoon. Maybe start out with a bit less water and observe the consistency. It shouldn’t be runny.
- Cover and let rest for 30 min at room temperature
- Dust work surface liberally with rye flour and carefully scrape dough onto the surface
- Dust your hands and form a ball; try not to fold in sections that have fresh flour on them; they will create internal cracks.
- Place dough ball in a liberally dusted cheesecloth you placed in a bowl
- Let rest for 2h; you should see it rise and break open
- Place in oven pre-heated at max temperature (260°C is great); dutch oven or dutch oven lid is great. Do not close the dutch oven.
- After 10 minutes, thoroughly vent the oven and reduce the temperature to 200°C
- Bake a total of 70 minutes. Crack the oven open a bit for the last 5 minutes to get a crispy crust.
- Let cool on a cooling rack and wait at least half a day before cutting the bread.
