|
Light Rye Semi Leaven Bread is another recipe which was popular at our Leura Bakery back in 1995 to about 2000. It was well known as 'French Country Bread'. Again, it's a 'Semi Leaven' bread, because it contains some sourdough starter and a tiny amount of yeast, which creates a substantial bread, and which has just a hint of rye for colour and flavour. The rye also provides a great crust - not too crisp, but chewy and with a distinctive earthy colour.
All light rye breads have their origins in northern Europe and Canada, where only rye grain can survive the cold temperatures experienced in winter. Because it's blended with about ten parts wheat, the rye flavour is very subtle, and contributes to the greyish colour and open texture. Rye flour is enzyme rich, and really does provide a good basis for leavening the bread.
Still much faster than the typical sourdough recipes we have in the sourdough recipe section, this one can comfortably be made at lunchtime in time for dinner. There are only ten or fifteen minutes of actual handling time.
The Light Rye Semi Leaven Bread from this recipe is very suitable for daily use, especially good with cured meats and salted fish, strong ripe brie, avocado, salmon, marmalade or other tangy jams. It looks very rustic on a plate, served with dips or flavoursome pastes, and the list goes on. The flavour is milder than a sourdough, but still you get that sensational aftertaste, making you just want to eat more.
This bread can use any form of starter you have - wet sourdough starter, old dough sourdough starter, over ripe or unripe sourdough starter. Just remember to adjust the water level a bit, according to how dry or wet your starter is. If the flavour of rye is still too much, it's worth experimenting with using half as much, and giving the balance of flour weight to the white flour. Yes, even 50 grams of rye makes a difference!
Light Rye Semi Leaven Sourdough Recipe (French Country Bread)
You'll need:
1kg of organic white flour (regular white flour will do if you are unable to access organic flour, or are a cheapskate, like me, at times...)
100g of organic light stonemilled flour (you can substitute plain flour, but if you are already using supermarket wholemeal flour, you might as well use it here too. It's already a white flour with bran added back in. See wheat flour in the site.
300 grams of sourdough starter - old dough, wet starter, leftover dough, whatever you have.
550 - 750 mls of warm water
12 grams of dried yeast.
24 grams of cooking salt
You'll also need:
Two Bread Tins. This recipe makes two Loaves of about a kilo each. You can experiment with tin sizes until you find one that suits this slightly-lighter-than-sourdough loaf.
Method:
Mix almost all the fairly warm water (warmer than luke warm) with the Starter, old dough or whatever you have, stirring them together to combine with a heavy whisk or a fork, till it's softened all the starter. You can leave this to stand for ten minutes if you like.
Sprinkle about 200 grams of the light flour over the mixture and add the yeast. Whisk it all together to form a loose paste with a heavy whisk or large spoon.
Allow to stand, covered, in a warm place for an hour to form a sponge. I put mine on top of my coffee machine.
Add in the rest of the flour and combine the wet and dry ingredients. You may need a splash more water to do this, but be sparing - at this stage the dough looks dry, but it will soften soon.
Knead with both hands roughly till they form a big chunk of dough, no matter how rough. Rough is good. Cover, and leave in a warm place. If it's too tight, you can work water through the dough in this phase. It'll come apart, so add gradually - just a tablespoon at a time. This dough will soften as it hydrates, so it's better to start with a stiff dough.
Allow to rest for an hour or so.I've rested this before adding salt for three hours, and it's been fine.
Add salt by wetting the dough with either a spray gun or wet hands, sprinkling the salt over the top of the wet dough. You will notice a dramatic transformation from the rough chunk you left an hour ago to this smooth thing in your hands now. That's 'Delayed Salt' at it's finest.
Knead it in until combined, which will be when the salt can't be felt as you knead. Round the dough, and leave with the seam on the bottom.
Let the finished dough rest and rise for about an hour or two, depending on the season. It's ready when you poke it and there is little, if any, resistance. It feels like it has given up. Your finger marks will stay there for a while. If it resists, it isn't ready. If the weather is warmer, resting times will decrease, so keep an eye on it. In cooler weather, it'll travel along faster than regular sourdough, so still keep an eye on it.
Now cut the dough into two chunks of roughly one kilogram each. Round them, with the seam at the bottom. Rest for an hour or so. Again, if you poke the dough and it resists, it isn't ready yet. If it feels like it is giving in, it's ready.
Form into two cylinders, just by squeezing the bottom in with the outside of each of both hands, as if you are holding an open book in both palms. Spray or wipe with water, and dust with semolina or wholemeal flour or bran. Place dusted dough in a pre oiled bread tin.
Slash deeply in a diagonal direction two or three times. Allow to rise, covered, for about an hour - this bread rises quite a bit, and if it's been made tough to start with, the more the better. When the tin is broached by about a quarter of the dough inside, in other words when the dough has risen well out of the tin, it's ready for baking. If you've made good dough, you can achieve a good height in this loaf.
Bake at 160 degrees in a prepared oven (see 'how to use an oven properly') for 45 to 60 minutes. The honey allows a bit of colour in the crust. It's not burning - it's crusting.
If you like a really thick crust, wind the oven down to 140 and bake for another half hour.
This recipe tends to be a winner every time - keep it in mind when you're a bit time pressed, or want to use some starter which might not be ideally ripenened. Because of the small amount of yeast, the state of your sourdough starter is largely irrelevant to the result.
Other Sourdough Recipes in this site include:
White Sourdough, using a wet starter
White Sourdough, using the old dough method
Spelt Sourdough
Wholemeal Sourdough
Light Rye Sourdough
Medium Rye Sourdough
Continental bread
Light Wholemeal Bread
Feel free to investigate and refer to this site as a resource.
For more Sourdough Breadmaking information, recipes and resources - read on!
If you would like to flesh out your knowledge about sourdough breadmaking at home, have a look at the Recommended Reading section. I have listed a number of my all time favourite breadmaking books there. Follow the links if you would like to purchase any of the books online. Remember, if you buy a book through this site, it will help me to continue building this free sourdough breadmaking resource.
While you're here, have a look at SourdoughBaker's Online Shop. A dedicated shop for the keen home baker.
Right now, you can get the following essentials:
- Breadmaking Kits for hand made bread at home, cleanly and efficiently. Check out the Bakery in a Box!
- Equipment Supply, which will be loaded soon with products to make life simpler when making bread at home.
- Ingredients Supply, which has a wide range of freshly milled organic flours and other essential ingredients.
- Sourdough Starter Supply, which enables you to shortcut the process of making sourdough starter from scratch. A lot of experienced sourdough bakers actually use these to enrich or modify their own ferments too!
- Utensils and Tools which are invaluable and sometimes hard to get. They are here, and available for delivery!
You can find direct links to any of the sourdough recipes in this site by following your favourite looking recipe below:
Happy Sourdough Baking!
...
|
