German Style Rye
Total time: 13 hours. Hands on time: 30 minutes.
This bread is everywhere in Germany, Austria (where I was born!) and Switzerland but here in the US we’ve lost our love of dark, dense breads.
It has savory spices- fennel, coriander and caraway- and it’s made with primarily whole grains. It has a deep earthy flavor and will last on your counter for over a week. Slice it thin and top it with your favorite toppings!
Ingredients:
Levain:
50g starter (you can convert your white flour to rye, but I like to just maintain one type of starter so I just use white and I am ok with a tiny portion of the final loaf having regular flour in it)
100g whole rye flour
100g water, at 90-100 degrees
Levain instructions: Mix all ingredients and let it ferment at a warm temperature for 5 hours. Rye needs warmth to activate so make sure to keep it in a warm spot! My #1 favorite tool for making sourdough that’s extra is this proofer. See below for what it looks like.
Dough:
300g rye flour
200g whole spelt flour (you can sub whole wheat)
420g warm water
all of the levain from above
12g salt
8 g spices, toasted and ground- 2g fennel, 3g caraway, 3g coriander (you can adjust this to your personal taste)
Method:
Mixing: Mix the levain, flours, spices, water and salt for 5 minutes. I suggest you use a mixer because this dough is very sticky, but hand mixing works too!
Ferment: Cover the dough and place it in a warm spot, ideally around 85-87 degrees and let it ferment for 4-5 hours. You’re looking for a domed shape, that leaves an indent when you run your finger through it and signs of bubbles under the surface.
Shape and final proof: Lightly oil a loaf pan. Using very wet hands and a wet dough scraper, scoop the dough out and gently flatten it into the pan. Don’t press too hard, you want to keep as many of the little bubbles as you can. Use a wet bowl scraper to smooth the top of the dough and cover it with a light coating of rye flour. Let it sit in a warm spot for 60-90 minutes, until the top is cracking, you see some tiny holes and it reaches the top of the pan.
Bake: Bake at 450 with steam for 25 minutes and an additional 25 minutes without steam. I really like to bake this loaf in either a Challenger or Fourneau oven because I can’t keep steam in my gas oven. Make sure to temp your dough, it must reach 200 degrees internally. Do not cut it for at least 8 hours. This loaf is best sliced thin, and will develop more flavor over the next few days.
