Working Out a Rye Sourdough Recipe

More rye bread research. Last time the bread flour I blended in — Golden Yacht — stretched too readily, fermentation ran too far, and the shaping never quite came together.

One of the pleasures of sourdough, to my mind, is that you do not have to knead it hard. Not (flour + water) × pressure = gluten, but (flour + water) × time = gluten. That is part of the appeal. But give Golden Yacht that time and the dough loses its structure, goes slack, and ends up impossible to shape properly.

So this time I want to shorten the autolyse and the fermentation to keep the dough from going slack, while still fermenting it properly, and see how the rye loaf turns out.

Notes on Rye Bread

All the quantities are the same as last time.

Ingredients:

• Starter (rye and whole wheat)60g
• Bread flour (Golden Yacht)175g
• Rye flour75g
• Water (around 20°C)168cc
• Salt4g

1. The night before, take the sourdough starter out of the fridge, discard a little from the top, add rye flour, whole wheat and water, mix well and leave it on the counter.

2. The next morning, add 60g of sourdough starter to 168cc of water and stir until dissolved.

3. Add the bread flour, rye flour and salt to the starter water from step 2 and mix. Use the scraper, turning the flour and water up from the bottom of the bowl. Do not knead, do not overmix — just bring the water and flour together.

4. Once the dough has come together, cover the bowl and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes (autolyse).

5. The first stretch and fold. Work around the dough, stretching and folding six to eight times.

6. Cover the bowl and leave it at room temperature for about an hour to ferment.

7. The second stretch and fold. More gently than the first: work around the dough four to six times.

8. Cover the bowl and leave it at room temperature for about an hour and a half to ferment further.

9. Using the scraper, ease the dough gently away from the bowl and onto a floured surface.

10. Stretch and fold in from all four sides, about four times.

11. Rest the dough for about 30 minutes, then shape it once more, gently stretching and folding in from all four sides.

12. Dust a cloth-lined basket with flour, put the dough in, and leave it at room temperature for about two hours for the final proof.

13. Preheat the oven to 250°C with the Dutch oven inside.

14. Once it is up to temperature, turn the dough out of the basket onto baking paper and score the surface.

15. Put the dough in the Dutch oven, bake covered at 230°C for 25 minutes, then uncovered at 240°C for 10 minutes.

For the stretch and folds and the shaping in steps 5 to 11, the recipe page for "basic sourdough loaf " has video that should make it clearer.