Sourdough Whole Grain Rye Bread

Daddy and I recently discovered delicious 100% whole grain (mostly rye) bread from our favorite Polish grocer. I tried to replicate them at home, likely at greater expense and more trouble than the store version, but it has been fun to test and settle on a recipe that I and my whole family really enjoy. With its choke full of whole grains and seeds, these breads are THE image of healthy until you slather on salted European butter and Camembert cheese… yummy! I must say that while I like the store bought Polish/German bread a lot, but mine are better.

After taste testing two different Danish sourdough rye bread recipes, and making a third loaf substituting rye with buckwheat flour for a gluten light version, I concluded that this recipe from Foodgeek seems to have the best balance for taste and texture (the middle one in the three bread lineup above), although all three breads turned out to be very tasty. I do like the second rye bread recipe for added variety of seeds. During my experiments, I added 10g of ground fermented rye berries to the buckwheat recipe to make the color darker. I did not notice too much difference in flavor. It is important to use a straight-edge bread loaf tin (pullman’s bread pan) to help shape the bread.

Ingredients:

• Sourdough starter: This recipe calls for a 100% hydration wheat starter which means that you have been adding equal amounts of starter, water, and flour (e.g. 50g each) in growing your starter. I have added rye flour to my starter for a couple of days at 100% hydration. It turns out that rye’s gluten is even stronger than wheat, so the starter really rises a lot.

• Levain or pre-ferment:

  • 80g sourdough starter

  • 140g dark rye flour

  • 260g water

• Bread dough and seeds:

  • 400g levain

  • 20g table salt

  • 50g barley malt syrup

  • 400g dark rye flour

  • 200g water

  • Seeds: 300g rye berries, 50g flax seeds, 50g sesame seeds, 50g sunflower seeds, 50g pumpkin seeds, a total of 500 grams. One may substitute chia seeds. One could substitute rye berries with winter wheat berries, Kamut or whole oat berries.

Instructions:

• Day 1 Morning Soaking Seeds: Soak rye berries early in the morning. The recipe calls for cracked rye berries but my Vitamix grain bowl couldn’t make a dent. Suggest soaking these suckers for a full 24 hours—maybe even longer depending on your teeth. At the end of the day, add the rest of the seeds to rye berries and soak overnight.

• Day 1 Evening Making Levain: Mix levain ingredients in LARGE bowl, cover, and let rise at room temperature overnight.

• Day 2 Mixing and Proofing the Dough

  • Add 400g levain, 20g salt, 50g malt syrup, 400g of rye flour, and 200g water to mixing bowl

  • Add strained and soaked seeds to bowl.

  • Mix everything by hand until well incorporated

  • Oil the pullman bread pan liberally and add dough inside

  • Flatten dough with wet hand and mark the level of the desired rise (30%-50% rise before putting in the oven) and cover

  • Proofing can take 2-6 hours and is ready until you see 6-7 pinholes on top of the dough

  • Heat oven to 465F and bake for 10 minutes

  • Lower oven temperature to 355F and bake for another 40-70 minutes until internal tempreture is 208F

  • Cool on a rack, and then seal in ziploc bag for a day before slicing.

  Notes: Don’t rush to eat the bread which tastes better after the second or third day, and will keep quite well for a long time. Also, it is best to toast thin slices for 5 minutes for a extra nice flavor. The soaked berries and seeds make the bread quite wet and the extra toasting time makes the bread chewy on the inside and crunchy on the outside.