Rye Bread - The First Sourdough Bread

Elena Butuc

This bread is delicious and, as someone put it, after you try the sourdough bread once, you become addicted. It has a specific sourdough taste, denser consistency (hole grain breads) and large pores (white breads) - to be honest, we haven't had other than sourdough bread for 4 months already.

This is a very good recipe and it reminds me of how bread used to be some time ago. There were these round loaves with denser crumb inside which my parents would buy from the bread factory in town.

Actually, what I wanted to show you here is not as much the recipe (there are plenty), but the techniques I use to knead the dough and bake the bread, adaptable to various home baking conditions.

I would love to have special containers for rising the dough or a bread stone, but I couldn't find these in Romania. So, I improvised, I read, I experimented and I succeeded, using what I had in my kitchen.

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Ingredients

Metric US

●

Sourdough

300 g

obtained from the starter

●

Rye flour

300 g

●

White flour

100 g

or whole wheat flour

●

Water

215 ml

●

Active dry yeast

5 g

only if the starter is new

●

Salt

15 g

Step by step

Step 1

Measure the rye and wheat flour and place in a bowl.

Step 2

To this bowl, add:

- the sourdough, you can find recipes here and here, on how to prepare it on my website

- water

- yeast, if it's the case

- salt

Rye Bread - The First Sourdough Bread - Step 2

Step 3

Because the rye flour dough is sticky (and there is no point in adding more flour, it will still be sticky), I recommend mixing it with a spatula or a wooden spoon, not with the hands.

Mix all the ingredients very well, at the end, you will have a gluey and denser dough. Leave in the bowl for 30 minutes, covered with a kitchen cloth.

Rye Bread - The First Sourdough Bread - Step 3

Step 4

After that, turn dough onto the work space, dusted with flour.

Step 5

We start to bring the dough together: here you can watch a more detailed video.

- flatten with your hands

Rye Bread - The First Sourdough Bread - Step 5

Step 6

- and start to bring the edges towards the middle

Step 7

- keep bringing all the edges to the middle until you shape it into a round bread.

Step 8

Line a deep round plate with a kitchen cloth and dust it with plenty of flour.

Step 9

Place the dough ball in the plate, seam-side up and the beautiful round side down.

Step 10

Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until about 1.5-2 times bigger - it can last from 1-2 hours to even 4, if the starter is new and weak.

Step 11

Tip the risen bread onto a tray or parchment paper (if you use a baking stone).

Slash the top 2 times with a sharp knife or a cutter.

Rye Bread - The First Sourdough Bread - Step 11

Step 12

Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven to 230-250 degrees C.

Place a tile on the grill inside the oven and a baking tray underneath. Heat the oven very well before baking the bread.

As soon as you put the bread in the oven, pour about 200ml water in the hot baking tray from the bottom of the oven and close the oven door.

Rye Bread - The First Sourdough Bread - Step 12

Step 13

After 15 minutes, turn heat down to 200 degrees C and bake for another 35-45 minutes.

When it starts to brown, you can brush the top with water (maybe 2 times) so that the crust looks shinier after baking.

Rye Bread - The First Sourdough Bread - Step 13

Step 14

You'll know it's ready when golden brown everywhere and sounds hollow when tapped.

Remove from the oven and, if you want a softer crust, brush the top with some water and cover with a kitchen cloth. Let cool completely before serving.

Rye Bread - The First Sourdough Bread - Step 14

Step 15

Tasty, healthy and good-looking - you must try the homemade sourdough bread. It might look complicated at first, but it's not and the result will make up for everything.

I will show you some other bread recipes that we like and I'm sure you will want to try some of them, too.

Enjoy!