It's coming up to Thanksgiving here and apparently everyone has been hit by the baking madness. That is to say: The grocery store was completely sold out of 2.5kg bags of white flour when I went to restock the other day. Not a huge problem, but it did mean that I needed to find a whole grain bread recipe to make this week. And, of course, preferably one that I hadn't made before. And this was the first one that I hit upon that I had all the ingredients for.

This recipe makes a lovely, dark, flavourful bread. It came out a bit sweet for my tastes, but still very good nonetheless. I might try reducing the molasses to 1/2 c. next time, just to see how that goes.

As expected, the dough was fairly sticky and challenging to work with due to the high percentage of rye flour, but it did come together eventually. Although it never got quite as supple and elastic as a predominantly wheat dough.

Pumpernickel Bread

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. cornmeal
• 1/2-3/4 c. molasses
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 Tbsp. caraway seeds, bruised/lightly crushed
• 15g dark chocolate
• 250g sourdough discard @ 100% hydration (optional)
• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 c. mashed potatoes
• 300g rye flour
• 200-300g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour, divided
• 1 egg white
• 1 Tbsp. cold water

Directions

1. Combine water and cornmeal and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer until thickened (10-20 minutes).
3. Remove from heat and stir in molasses, butter, salt, caraway seeds, and chocolate.
4. Mix in the sourdough starter, yeast and mashed potatoes.
5. Add the rye flour and ~150g of the whole wheat flour and mix well.
6. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead (the dough will be very heavy, wet, and sticky) for ~20 minutes. Gradually work in the remaining flour while kneading.
7. Round the dough and place it in a covered bowl to rise.
8. Once dough is well-risen (60-90 minutes), knock it back and divide into two equal portions.
9. Round each portionn, cover, and allow to rest for ~10 minutes.
10. Meanwhile, flour two bannetons (preferably with rice flour).
11. Shape each portion into a loaf and place, seam-side-up into the floured bannetons.
12. Cover and allow to rise at room temperature for 45-60 minutes.
13. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
14. Grease a baking sheet and dust with cornmeal.
15. Turn the loaves out onto the the prepared baking sheet.
16. Beat the egg white with the cold water and brush it onto the loaves.
17. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 40-50 minutes.
18. Turn off oven and allow to stand in hot oven for 5-10 minutes.
19. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

I don't tend to make very many rye breads. I find the low-gluten flour difficult to work with and I still haven't mastered the technique. This one came out quite nicely though! It takes a while to get it going. The sour needs to ferment over three days. But it's worth the wait!

Old Milwaukee Rye

Slightly adapted from Berndard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

Sponge

• 250g rye flour
• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 Tbsp. caraway seeds
• 2 c. warm water (~40°C)

Dough

• 1 c. hot water (~50°C)
• 1/4 c. molasses
• 2 Tbsp. caraway seeds, divided
• 2 large eggs, divided
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 250g rye flour
• ~500g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• 3 Tbsp. butter
• 1 Tbsp. milk

Directions

1. Combine the flour, yeast, caraway, and water for the sponge and beat for a minute or two.
2. Cover the bowl tightly and set aside at room temperature to ferment for 6-72 hours, stirring once every 24 hours.
3. Once ready to bake, add the hot water, molasses, 1 Tbsp. of the remaining caraway seeds, 1 of the eggs, and salt to the sponge.
4. Stir in the remaining rye flour and ~250g of the white flour.
5. Beat for 3-4 minutes, then mix in the butter.
6. Work in the remaining white flour a little at a time.
7. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10-20 minutes until smooth.
8. Round the dough and place it in a covered bowl to rise (~1 hour).
9. Knock the dough back, allow to rest for 5-10 minutes.
10. Divide the dough into two equal portions and round each one.
11. Cover and rest for another 10 minutes.
12. Grease a baking sheet and dust it with cornmeal.
13. Shape each loaf as desired. If you have bannetons, then a standard letter fold + coil fold works well. If not, then I like to do a letter fold and then round them again. Or do a letter fold and then fold in half lengthwise and pinch the seam together.
14. If using bannetons, place the loaves seam-side-up in the bannetons. If no bannetons are available, place the shaped loaves directly on the prepared baing sheet (seam-side-down).
15. Cover and allow to rise at room temperature for ~45 minutes or as long as overnight in the fridge.
16. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
17. If the loaves have been rising in bannetons, turn them out onto the prepared baking sheet now.
18. Beat the remaining egg with the milk.
19. Brush the tops of the loaves with the egg mixture and sprinkle with the remaining caraway seeds.
20. Slash as desired. (3-4 diagonal slashes for long loaves or a # pattern for round.)
21. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 35-45 minutes.
22. Turn off oven and allow to stand in hot oven for 5-10 minutes.
23. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Pumpernickel au Ferment Aigre

This is another "faux" sourdough recipe from my new Bernard Clayton book. It makes a fantastic crusty rye loaf full of molasses and caraway. This may be one of my favourite breads ever. I think it would be interesting to try it as a pure sourdough -- without the added commercial yeast on day 2 -- but this approach certainly works fine and does speed up the process a bit.

I'm still getting used to how to work with rye flour. It is much lower in gluten than wheat flour and the dough tends to be somewhat sticky and flow-y even when at a reasonable hydration and properly kneaded. I think that I got this one just about right, but I know that I definitely need more practice with rye to get a better feel for it. That said, I'm certainly happy with how these loaves came out. They pancaked a bit during baking (possibly slightly overproofed), but the flavour and texture were both excellent, so no complaints here!

Sourdough Pumpernickel

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

Sponge

• 3/4 c. potato water (from cooking potatoes for dough)
• 250g active (fresh/fed) sourdough starter @ 100% hydration
• 1/4 c. molasses
• 300g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour

Dough

• 1 c. boiling water
• 1/4 c. cornmeal
• 1 c. mashed potatoes
• 1/2 Tbsp. instant yeast
• 1-2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 1-2 Tbsp. caraway seeds
• 360g rye flour
• 1/2 c. hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• 1 egg
• 1 Tbsp. water

Directions

1. Cut up one or two potatoes (more if they're very small) and boil until tender. You want enough to make at least 1 c. of mashed potatoes.
2. Reserve 3/4 c. of the potato cooking water, then drain and mash the potatoes. Do not add any salt or butter!
3. Put the mashed potatoes in the fridge to be used in the dough tomorrow.
4. Combine the starter, molasses, whole wheat flour, and reserved potato water and mix well.
5. Cover and allow to ferment at room temperature for 8-12 hours.
6. When you are ready to continue with the recipe, whisk the boiling water into the cornmeal.
7. Mix in the mased potatoes.
8. If the potato-cornmeal mixture is still very hot, set it aside to cool a little before adding it to the sponge.
9. Once cooled (body temperature or slightly warmer is fine), add the potato mixture to the sponge.
10. Mix in the yeast, then mix in 1 Tbsp. of the salt.
11. Add the oil and 1 Tbsp. of the caraway seeds.
12. Mix in the rye flour ~1/4 c. at a time.
13. Once most of the rye flour has been incorporated, spread the last 1/4 c. or so on the work surface and turn the dough out on top of it.
14. Knead the dough, gradually working the remaining rye flour in.
15. Keep kneading the dough until it becomes supple. The dough will probably stick to your hands, so keep them well-floured. Once the rye flour is fully incorporated, use the white flour to flour your hands and the work surface as needed. It should hit a point where it starts to smooth out and become somewhat elastic. It will still be sticky at this point, but markedly smoother. Don't try to knead it until the stickiness goes away, it won't. Don't keep adding flour either; the dough will become too stiff. Just use what you need to get it to the point of smoothing out.
16. Once done kneading, round the dough (as best you can) and place it in a covered bowl to rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
17. Once the dough has fully risen, knock it back and divide into two equal portions.
18. Round each portion, cover, and rest for 10-15 minutes.
19. Shape as desired and place on a prepared baking sheet or in bannetons to proof.
20. Cover and proof at room temperature for ~1 hour or overnight in the fridge.
21. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
22. If loaves are not already on a baking sheet, grease a baking sheet, dust it with cornmeal, and turn the loaves out onto the prepared sheet.
23. Beat the egg with the water and brush the loaves with the egg wash.
24. Sprinkle each loaf with either 1/2 Tbsp. of caraway seeds or 1/2 Tbsp. of coarse sea salt.
25. Slash as desired.
26. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 40-50 minutes.
27. Turn oven off and leave loaves in hot oven for another 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool.

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Variations

Vegan Version

Ingredients

Sponge

• 3/4 c. potato water (from cooking potatoes for dough)
• 250g active (fresh/fed) sourdough starter @ 100% hydration
• 1/4 c. organic molasses
• 300g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour

Dough

• 1 c. boiling water
• 1/4 c. cornmeal
• 1 c. mashed potatoes
• 1/2 Tbsp. instant yeast
• 1-2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 1-2 Tbsp. caraway seeds
• 360g rye flour
• 1/2 c. hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• 1 Tbsp. non-dairy milk
• 1/2 tsp. agave syrup

Combine the non-dairy milk and agave syrup and brush it on the loaves before baking. Sprinkle with caraway or coarse salt and bake as directed above.

Pane di Amore

I'm not sure what makes this "love bread", but Valentine's Day is coming up and I had a little bit of rye flour left over from a previous bake that needed using, so I figured I'd give it a try.

This is an interesting bread. It has a little bit of everything in it. The recipe calls for regular (white) bread flour, rye flour, milk, potatoes, a bit of sugar, and, optionally, whole wheat flour. I also tossed in a little pâte fermentée since I had some that needed to be used up. I also put in significantly more whole wheat flour than the recipe recommended. (The instructions said that up to 160g of the white bread flour could be replaced with hard whole wheat flour. I think I ended up using ~600g of whole wheat flour for my rendition of this bread.)

I've only tried a small piece so far, but the rye flavour seems to have come through surprisingly well considering that there's only ~60g of rye flour in the whole thing!

Pane di Amor

Slightly adapted from Northwest Sourdough

Ingredients

• 200g ripe (active/fed) starter @ 100% hydration
• 600g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 60g rye flour (preferably freshly ground)
• 20g sugar
• 100g pâte fermentée @ 60% hydration
• 550g water
• 100g potato, boiled and mashed
• 80g milk¹
• 320g hard (strong/high grade/bread) white flour
• 20g coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Feed your starter up and get it nice and active.
2. Combine the whole wheat flour, rye flour, and sugar and make a well in the centre.
3. Pour in the starter, water, and pâte fermentée.
4. Mix everything up. Start by mixing up the wet ingredients in the centre of the bowl. It's okay if there are some lumps of pâte fermentée. Then begin gradually incorporating the dry ingredients into the wet, working from the centre outward.
5. Cover and let rest for an hour or two.
6. Boil, drain, and mash the potato. Make sure it is very tender and mashed very well.
7. Add your milk to the potato and mash it in.
8. Add the potato-milk mixture to the sponge, cover, and let ferment in the fridge overnight.
9. The next morning, combine the white flour with the salt and work it into the sponge. You may need to add a little more flour or water depending on the humidity and how thirsty your flour is. The dough should be fairly soft and loose.
10. Cover and let rest at room temperature. Stretch and fold the dough every hour or two for 4-8 hours.
11. Once the dough is nicely risen, divide and shape as desired.
12. Cover and proof in the fridge overnight.
13. The next morning, remove from fridge and allow to rest at room temperature for an hour or two.
14. Preheat oven to 250°C (475°F).
15. Grease a baking sheet and dust it with cornmeal. (Or, alternatively, preheat your pizza stone in the oven and dust a peel generously with cornmeal.)
16. Place a pan of boiling water on the bottom rack of the oven.
17. Turn the loaves out onto the prepared baking sheet. (Or turn one out onto the peel.)
18. Slash as desired.
19. Reduce oven temperature to 230°C (450°F) and bake loaves on middle rack over pan of boiling water for 15-20 minutes.
20. Remove water pan, reduce oven temperature to 200°C (400°F) and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
21. Turn off oven and allow bread to rest in hot oven for 10 minutes.
22. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

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¹ The original recipe recommended using evaporated milk. I didn't have any on hand, so I just used regular whole milk. I suspect that powdered milk would also work well here. You'd probably need ~2 Tbsp. of milk powder to be equivalent to 80g of evaporated milk. And, of course, if you did this, you may find you needed to add a little extra water to compensate for the missing liquid from the milk. Could be a useful option if you don't have any liquid milk readily to hand though. ^Back

I can never seem to get the hang of rye breads. No matter what I do, the dough always seems to end up sticky and sludgy with little to no gluten development. I like a good dense rye every now and again, but I wish I could get the hang of making lighter rye breads. The example photos for this bread show nice little bubbles in the crumb. It looks dense, but not brick-like. Mine came out as a brick.

I think, what I probably need, is to have someone who is very comfortable working with rye to show me how to work it and what to do. Either that, or to try turning it over to a good stand mixer with a dough hook and see if that produces any better results than my hand kneading.

In the meantime, here's a rye bread recipe. Maybe you'll have better luck with it than I did.

100% Rye Sourdough

Slightly adapted from The Fresh Loaf

Ingredients

• 400g (wholemeal) rye flour¹
• 300g water
• 200g ripe/active sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 100g rye berries², cooked
• 40g honey
• 10g salt

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
2. Knead for 20-30 minutes.³
3. Cover and rest for ~12 hours.
4. Grease a 20cm by 10cm (8"x4") loaf pan.
5. Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface, press flat, letterfold, roll up, and place, seam-side-down, in prepared pan.
6. Gently wet the surface (preferably by spritzing with a spray bottle), cover, and proof at room temperature for 3-6 hours.
7. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F) and boil some water.
8. Pour a few cups of boiling water into a large pan and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.
9. Bake the bread on the middle rack (over the pan of boiling water) for 20 minutes.
10. Remove pan of boiling water and reduce oven temperature to 200°C (400°F). Cover bread with foil and bake for another 20 minutes.
11. Remove bread from pan and turn off oven.
12. Place bread on middle rack in hot (but turned off) oven for another 10 minutes.
13. Remove from oven brush all over with either butter or sunflower oil.
14. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
15. Wrap bread in a tea towel and rest at room temperature for 24 hours.
16. Place wrapped loaf in a plastic bag and chill in the fridge overnight.
17. Slice with a sharp, non-serrated knife. Store in the fridge.

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¹ I can be difficult to find rye flour that hasn't been sifted or otherwise processed to remove bran or other bits of the grain. Also, rye flour has a fairly short shelf life. I generally find it easiest to just get rye berries and grind my own flour as needed. That said, it might be interesting to try this with commercial rye flour sometime and see how that affects the final results. ^Back
2 I used up all of my rye berries to make the flour for this recipe, so I opted to cook 100g of hard wheat berries instead. I just boiled them in a bit of water until they seemed molto al dente, then drained them and let them cool a bit before adding them to the dough. ^Back
3 The original recipe suggests that the gluten should be "well-develped" by this point. It was most definitely not behaving like dough with well-developed gluten for me. Maybe this means that I should've kept kneading it, but I was tired and the dough was really not well-behaved and I found it very difficult to handle so, after 30 minutes, I gave up and just left it to its own devices. ^Back

Just a quick write-up because I'm tired, but I also don't want to forget. Again.

Barley-Rye Sourdough

Ingredients

• 100% flour: 80% hard whole wheat, 10% rye, 10% barley
• 65% water
• 20% active (ripe/fed) starter (100% hydration)
• 4% honey
• 2% salt

Directions

1. Feed your starter and make sure it's nice and active.
2. Combine whole wheat flour and water. Mix well, cover, and let stand for 1-12 hours.
3. Add the starter and honey and work them into the dough.
4. Add the salt and work it in as well.
5. Use the rye and barley flour to generously flour the work surface and turn the dough out onto it.
6. Knead in the remaining flour.
7. Once the flour has been worked in, wet your hands and try to work in a little more water if you can.
8. Place dough in covered bowl and set aside to ferment. Rising time will vary depending on room temperature and starter activity.
9. Knock dough back and shape as desired.
10. Cover and allow to rise again (either at room temperature or in the fridge).
11. Bake at 230°C (450°F) with steam for the first 15 minutes, then remove steam pan and reduce heat to 180°C (350°F) and bake until done (usually ~20 minutes for my standard sized loaves, but will vary depending on loaf shape and size and how well-proofed it was).

Ontbijtkoek (Dutch Spice Cake)

I've been scrambling to use up sourdough starter over the last couple days. I mixed up some bread dough yesterday and another small batch today, but I still had starter to use and was feeling in the mood for something in the cake/muffin/quickbread family. My original intent had been to make a gingerbread cake. I knew I'd seen a recipe kicking around on Northwest Sourdough blog a while back, so I figured I'd give that one a go. Rather than searching the blog for it though, I just googled "sourdough gingerbread". And that did indeed turn up the recipe I was looking for. But it also turned up a gingerbread cookie recipe on a blog I'd never heard of before. But with a name like "Bubbling Starter", I figured I had to check it out!

It didn't take me long to stumble across this ontbijtkoek recipe. (No, I don't know how it's meant to be pronounced.) The recipe looked interesting: rye flour and lots of spices and brown sugar. And it used sourdough discard, so I was sold!

According to the author this is a classic Dutch breakfast cake and is usually served topped with butter and/or Gouda. As far as I can tell, the name actually literally translates as "breakfast cake". I decided to buck tradition and have a bit for dessert and oh my goodness, is it ever delicious! I will definitely be making more "breakfast cake" in the future!

If I have one small disappointment with the recipe it's that the cake fell in the centre. I know it wasn't underbaked, because it was already sunken before I took it out of the oven. And I didn't open the door or peek at it during baking, so that's not the culprit either. My best guess is that maybe there was a bit too much leavener in it. I thought 1 tsp. of baking soda seemed like a lot for the amount of batter, especially considering that it already contained 2 tsp. of baking powder. The cake is still delicious! No issues there. But I'll probably try scaling the bicarb back to just 1/2 a tsp. next time to see if that helps at all.

Ontbijtkoek

Slightly adapted from Bubbling Starter

Ingredients

• 120g (1 c.) all-purpose flour
• 120g (1 c.) rye flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods)
• 1/8 tsp. coriander seeds
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1/8 tsp. anise seeds
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 125g sourdough discard
• 3/4 c. milk
• 120g (1/2 c.) brown sugar
• 1/4 c. molasses
• 1/4 c. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour a loaf pan¹.
2. Combine the flours and sift in the baking powder and baking soda.
3. Add the salt, cardamom, coriander, peppercorns, and anise seeds to a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder (or use a mortar and pestle).
4. Stir in the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
5. Add the spice mix to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
6. In a separate bowl, combine the sourdough discard, milk, brown sugar, molasses, honey, and vanilla and mix well.
7. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 40-45 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes.
10. Turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.
11. Serve with butter and/or Gouda cheese. (The cake should be sliced thin and the butter spread thick!²)

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Variants

Vegan Version

Ingredients

• 120g (1 c.) all-purpose flour
• 120g (1 c.) rye flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom seeds (from green pods)
• 1/8 tsp. coriander seeds
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns
• 1/8 tsp. anise seeds
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 125g sourdough discard
• 3/4 c. nut or soy milk
• 120g (1/2 c.) brown sugar
• 1/4 c. molasses
• 1/4 c. golden syrup, corn syrup, or agave syrup
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

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¹ The recipe didn't specify the size of loaf pan. I ended up going with an 8.5x4.5" pan. I might try an 8x4" (20cm by 10cm) pan at some point just to see how it compares, but I think either one is probably acceptable. ^Back
2 Although I won't judge you if you also want to slice the cake thick. ^Back

I'm very tired and I was seriously tempted to just post this recipe as a list of ingredients with baker's percentages. That would be sufficient for most wheat breads. But I'm not super confident with rye yet. So it probably makes sense to try to document exactly what I did. So, here we go!

Sourdough Rye

Slightly adapted form Sourdough Companion

Ingredients

• 188g (100% hydration) starter
• 200mL water, plus a bit extra for kneading
• 122g all-purpose flour
• 122g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 122g rye flour¹
• 11g olive oil
• 11g molasses
• 7g coarse sea salt
• 4g carroway seeds

Directions

1. Feed up your starter and get it good and active.²
2. Mix the water, all-purpose flour, and whole wheat flour, cover, and let sit for at least an hour.
3. Spread a little of the rye flour on your work surface and turn the dough-like flour-water mixture out onto it.
4. Add the starter on top of the dough and knead it a few strokes to begin working the starter into the dough.
5. Once the starter and flour on the work surface have been incorporated, add the oil and continue kneading.
6. Add a little more rye flour to the work surface under the dough and add the molasses and salt on top of it. Knead to work it in.
7. Add a bit more flour to the work surface and add the carroway seeds on top. Knead to incorporate.
8. Once the carroway seeds have been worked in, wet your hands.
9. Continue kneading, wetting your hands every few strokes, until the dough begins to get sticky.
10. Add the rest of the rye flour to the work surface and continue kneading to work it in.
11. If the dough starts to seem tight or dry, wet your hands and add more water, a little at a time.
12. Once the dough seems to have reached a good consistency and is pleasantly supple, return to bowl, cover, and allow to rest until well risen³.
13. Wet your work surface slightly and turn the dough out onto it.
14. Press the dough flat and fold in thirds (letter fold).
15. Fold in thirds the other way.
16. Roll up jelly-roll-style and place seam-side-up in a well-floured banneton.
17. Cover and let rest until well-risen. (Timing will depend on temperature.)
18. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
19. Grease a baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal.
20. Place a pan of boiling water on the bottom rack of the oven.
21. Turn the loaf out onto the baking sheet and slash as desired.
22. Bake on the middle rack for 15 minutes.
23. Carefully remove steam pan from oven and reduce temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for another 20 minutes.
24. Turn off heat and let bread sit in hot oven for 10 minutes.
25. Remove from oven and transfer bread to wire rack to cool.

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¹ I usually grind my own rye flour fresh. If you're using store-bought rye flour, look for "dark" or "whole" rye if possible. That said, any rye flour should work for this recipe. ^Back
2 I like to start with 10g of starter 24-36 hours before I want to mix the dough. I add 20g each of flour and water to the starter and let it sit for 8-16 hours. Then I give it a second feeding of 70g each of flour and water and let it sit for another 12 hours or so until it looks nice and bubbly. The flour and water for the dough can be mixed any time during this second feeding/fermentation. ^Back
3 The original recipe calls for ~3 hours of rising at room temperature, but this will vary with your room and the activity of the starter. I didn't want to have to deal with mine until the next day, so I put it in the cold room overnight and it still didn't seem quite ready to go yet 16 hours later. Use your judgement (and your fingers) to determine when your dough has finished rising and is ready for the next step. ^Back

German (Faux-)Sourdough Rye

I'm still learning how to work with rye flour. I struggle to get good structure, even with rye-wheat blends. I feel like I did fairly decently with this mixed wheat-rye sourdough. It sitll wasn't perfect, but it was much better than my previous ventures into rye breads.

I will note that this isn't a "true" sourdough. It does use sourdough starter to add some flavour and acidity, but it also relies on commercial yeast for much of the leavening power.

German Sourdough Rye

Slightly adapted from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

Basic Sour

• 1/3 c. ripe/fed sourdough starter
• 60g whole rye flour
• 70g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• ~1/4 c. water

Full Sour

• basic sour (see above)
• 1 c. water + 2-4 Tbsp. water, divided
• 255g whole rye flour

Dough

• 4 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1 Tbsp. instant yeast)
• 1 1/2 c. warm water
• full sour (see above)
• 385g whole rye flour
• 450g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 3 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. caraway seeds
• up to 1 1/2 c. water

Directions

Basic Sour

1. Combine the starter, flours, and enough water to make a stiff dough.
2. Cover and allow to rest at room temperature for ~12 hours.

Full Sour

1. Soften the basic sour in the water.
2. Work in the flour to make a very stiff, clay-like dough. You may need to add a little bit of extra water, but the dough should remain quite stiff.
3. Knead the dough a little bit, working in another 2-4 Tbsp. of water to soften it slightly. Do not add so much water that the dough becomes sticky.
4. Cover and let stand for ~4 hours.

Dough

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.
2. Combine the yeast mixture with the full sour, rye flour, wheat flour, salt, and caraway seeds to make a stiff dough.
3. Begin kneading the dough, working in up to another 1 1/2 c. of water to make a soft dough. Do not add so much water or knead for so long that the dough becomes sticky. (Rye doughs can become sticky or slimy if overworked.)
4. Cover and let rest for 10-15 minutes.
5. Divide dough into two equal portions and shape into loaves. (Round/freeform is preferable for this bread.) Use lots of water during shaping to prevent the dough from tearing.
6. If desired, you may transfer the shaped loaves to well-floured bannetons at this point. If not using bannetons, let the dough rise in greased bowls instead.
7. Cover and let rise until dough becomes soft. (This will likely only take 30 minutes for a warm rise or up to an hour for a room temperature rise. You may also choose to do a cold rise in the fridge. This will likely take 4-8 hours depending on the dough and its treatment up to this point.)
8. Preheat oven to 230°C (450°F) and prepare a baking sheet and/or Dutch oven. (I recommend using parchment paper in the Dutch oven. On the baking sheet greasing and dusting with cornmeal works well.)
9. Carefully transfer a loaf to the baking sheet or Dutch oven.
10. Bake with steam (by adding water to the Dutch oven and covering it, adding ice cubes to the baking sheet, or placing a pan of boiling water below the baking bread) for 15-20 minutes.
11. After 20 minutes reduce the temperature to 190°C (375°F). At this point you can remove the source of steam/uncover the Dutch oven. Continue baking for 45-60 minutes.

Icelandic Thunder Bread (no molasses)

I tried another version of Icelandic thunder bread a few weeks back. I liked it, but I felt like the combination of brown sugar/molasses and whole grain flour made it taste more like a giant bran muffin than bread. It's honestly a nice option if you're looking for a lower fat alternative to the standard bran muffin!

I wanted something that let the rye shine a little more though. This recipe doesn't call for any brown sugar or molasses and uses a higher proportion of rye flour in the batter, so I was hoping it might provide a better rye flavour. That said, there's a lot more sugar in this recipe than the first one I tried. It's not a bad loaf, but it is very sweet. I think I'd probably halve the sugar if I was making it again. I've adjusted the recipe below to reflect this.

Icelandic Thunder Bread

Slightly adapted from The Travel Bunny

Ingredients

• 320g whole rye flour
• 85g all-purpose flour
• 100g sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 450mL milk

Directions

1. Combine flours, and sugar.
2. Sift in baking powder.
3. Add sugar and thoroughly mix.
4. Pour in milk and mix until just comgined.
5. Pour batter into greased and floured casserole dish.
6. Cover casserole dish and place on trivet inside slow cooker/InstantPot with enough water to come about halfway up the side of the dish.
7. Set slow cooker to high and allow bread to steam for 4 hours.
8. Carefully remove casserole dish from slow cooker/InstantPot, uncover, and allow to cool for 10-20 minutes.
9. Turn bread out onto wire rack to cool.

I liked this cake. It had a nice flavour that was pleasingly distinct from banana bread. There was a bit of banana flavour, but it didn't take centre stage. I didn't really feel like the crumb topping contributed much though. It contained all the spices, but I think I would've preferred having the spices mixed into the main batter and giving the whole idea of a topping a miss. I also felt like an 8" round pan made this cake a little too tall. I think I'd try it in an 8" square next time to give it a little more surface area and a little less height. Other than that though, it was great! Nice use for some sourdough starter and extra bananas.

Although the picture shows the cake with its crumb topping, for the recipe below I've left out the topping and incorporated the spices into the cake batter. If you really want to try the crumb topping, just bump up the cinnamon to 1/2 Tbsp. and the nutmeg to 1/2 tsp. and mix them with 1/3 c. brown sugar and 2/3 c. all-purpose flour and cut in 1/4 c. of unsalted butter. Sprinkle this mixture over the cake before baking.

Brown Butter, Rye, and Banana Sourdough Cake

Adapted from Bread and Basil

Ingredients

• 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 c. rye flour
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 2/3 c. (100% hydration) unfed sourdough starter
• 3 medium eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Butter and flour a 20cm (8") square cake tin and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Melt butter over medium heat and simmer until water evaporates and butter is browned but not burnt.
3. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
4. Combine flours, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt and mix well.
5. In a separate bowl, stir sourdough discard into mashed bananas.
6. Add the eggs and vanilla to the banana mixture and whisk to thoroughly combine.
7. Stir in the browned butter.
8. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
9. Pour batter into prepared tin and smooth the top.
10. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-40 minutes.

This is a bit of an unusual bread recipe. It's technically a "quick bread" as it's leavened with baking powder rather than yeast, but rather than spending a quick 30-60 minutes in the oven as most quick breads do, it gets steamed for several hours. Apparently the traditional way to bake this bread is by place in a pot and burying it near a geothermal spring to slowly steam its way to perfection. Given that geothermal springs aren't exactly commonplace here, I decided to steam mine in the InstantPot. This seems to have worked very well except for the part where I assumed that just having a lid on the casserole dish inside the pot would be enough and didn't bother trying to seal it. This resulted in a rather large amount of water finding its way into the baking dish so that the bread became quite wet around the edges. A quick blast in the dry heat of the oven seems to have dried it out without any ill effects though, so no major harm done!

There are a wide variety of recipes for Icelandic thunder bread floating around the internet. They all involve rye flour and baking powder. Interestingly, baking powder isn't always the only leavener; I came across one recipe that called for baking powder and yeast. Most just stick with a chemical leavener (like baking powder and/or baking soda) though. All the ones that I looked at also involved at least some amount of refined wheat flour. They also all call for a relatively high proportion of sweetener, but what that sweetener is varies from recipe to recipe. Some recipes call for granulated sugar, some use brown sugar; some add molasses, some don't. There's also usually some sort of dairy involved: usually milk, but sometimes buttermilk. There doesn't generally appear to be any fat added -- no oil or butter. So, quite a bit of variation overall, but the recipes still have enough in common that they're recognizable as thunder bread. They're a relatively sweet, steamed, chemically leavened, rye bread.

After browsing a few different recipes, I decided to go with the one I found on Spruce Eats as I liked the sound of all the brown sugar and molasses in their version. The smell and flavour is wonderful. It had a certain familiarity to it that I couldn't put my finger on at first. Then I realized... bran muffins! The flavour is very similar to bran muffins. The crust is chewier and the crumb is a little drier and less tender, but the flavour it definitely there. There is, of course, no wheat bran in this bread, but the whole rye flour means there's a fair bit of rye bran. That combined with the molasses is enough to tick the "bran muffin" box in my brain. This isn't necessarily a bad thing -- I quite like it honestly -- but it is a bit different than I was expecting. The molasses completely drown out any rye flavour. I think it'd be interesting to try one of the recipes that uses granulated sugar and no molasses next time to see how it compares. I'm hoping the rye will have more presence in those versions. As a side-note though, this does make a really nice low-fat alternative to bran muffins. Most bran muffins are just chock-full of oil! Often as much as half a cup of oil for a small batch of a dozen muffins. This bread hits a lot of the same notes for me without any of the added fat. (It's not fat-free; there's still some fat in the flours and the milk, but it's definitely much leaner than your typical bran muffin.) Neat!

Icelandic Thunder Bread

Slightly adapted from The Spruce Eats

Ingredients

• 330g whole rye flour
• 220g all-purpose flour
• 15g (~1 rounded Tbsp.) baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. milk, scalded and cooled
• 1 Tbsp. molasses

Directions

1. Find a baking dish that will fit inside your InstantPot or slow cooker and grease it well.
2. Combine flours and sift in baking soda.
3. Add salt and brown sugar and mix well.
4. Dissolve molasses in cooled milk and add this mixture to the dry ingredients.
5. Stir to combine. Dough should be fairly wet, if it's not add a little water to loosen it up (1/4-1/2 c.)
6. Turn the dough out and knead it for a few minutes. It should become a little less sticky as you work it. If it reaches a point where it starts getting stickier or seems to be developing a slimy texture, stop working the dough immediately.
7. Place the dough into the prepared baking dish and cover. If you don't have a lid to fit the dish, cover it with foil. Make sure the edges are well-sealed in either case.
8. Put a trivet in the bottom of the InstantPot/slow cooker and add a few cups of hot water. (How much you need will depend on the size of your InstantPot/slow cooker and the size of your baking dish. The water should come about halfway up the side of the baking dish once it's lowered into the InstantPot/slow cooker.
9. Place the lid on the InstantPot/slow cooker and set to slow cook on "high" for four hours.
10. Remove the baking dish from the InstantPot/slow cooker at the end of the four hour cooking period and check on your bread. If any water has gotten into the baking dish, you may need to dry it out in the oven for a few minutes.
11. Once the bread is fully baked and dry, turn it out onto a wire rack to cool.
12. Once cool, slice thin and enjoy with smoked fish, paté, and/or cream cheese for a savoury option or nut butters, jams, and/or butter for a less traditional but equally delicious sweet option.

I abused this recipe quite a bit. First I halved it. Then I converted it to use sourdough starter. And then I converted that to a sponge method. I think it's gonna be okay in the end but it was touch-and-go for a while. I was going for a very stiff sponge since I wanted to do a long room temperature ferment. I think I may have made it a bit too stiff though. I also didn't properly feed and activate my starter before using it. (I've been a bit stingy on my feedings and the starter is a bit more sluggish than it probably should be.) This all contributed to a very, very slow rise. The sponge hardly did anything overnight and the full dough, once it was mixed and kneaded, took ~9 hours to complete its first rise!

I think next time I'd try making the sponge a little wetter. If I'm still not happy with the results I get from that, I'll see if adding a bit of fresh yeast when mixing up the full dough improves matters. If nothing else, it should help speed up the rise (which is mostly what I'm after here). I think I probably also should've swapped the buttermilk out for milk since the starter is already lowering the pH. Leaving out the lemon juice might've been a good idea as well.

What follows is not what I did this time, but rather my notes-to-myself ideas for what I'd like to try next time.

Petaluma Rye

Adapted from the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

Sponge

• 100g hard (bread/strong/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 6 Tbsp. water
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1 c. sourdough starter (100% hydration)

Full Dough

• 1/2 c. + 2 Tbsp. milk
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 175g hard (bread/strong/high grade) whole wheat flour
• 65g rye flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. caraway seeds

Directions

Sponge

1. Combine the flour and salt.
2. Dissolve the honey in the water.
3. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the starter and the honey-water.
4. Mix to form a stiff dough.
5. Cover and let sit at room temperature for 18 hours.

Dough

1. Combine the lemon juice and oil with the milk.
2. Combine both flours and the caraway seeds.
3. Add milk mixture to sponge and squish and squeeze until it's thoroughly mixed.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the sponge mixture.
5. Mix, working from the centre outward.
6. Once most of the flour has been incorporated, turn the dough out onto a work surface and begin kneading.
7. Knead for ~10 minutes.
8. Shape into a ball and place in a covered bowl to rise.
9. Once dough no longer returns a wet fingerprint, knock it back.
10. Shape into a ball and return to bowl to rise again.
11. Knock back again, shape into a ball, and pull gluten taut across the top surface.
12. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
13. Shape into a loaf by pressing flat, folding into thirds, and rolling up.
14. Place in a greased loaf pan, cover, and set to rise for ~45 minutes.
15. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 45 minutes.

I made up a rye sour a little while back for tasty sourdough goodness. I haven't been making much use of it lately though. I like a good sourdough bread, but it's nice to mix it up sometimes too. I've had enough other bread recipes to try that the sour has kind of gone begging.

I'm gonna be taking another crack at the whole wheat sourdough tomorrow. But, in the meantime, I decided to try out some sourdough crêpes. They worked out very well! They're really quick and easy to throw together and all they really need is starter and eggs. There are, of course, lots of other things you can do to use starter/sours but, for sheer simplicity, I think this may become my go-to.

Delicious served warm and filled with Cheddar!

Sourdough Crêpes

Slightly adapted from Cultures for Health

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. sourdough starter OR rye sour
• 1/4 c. whole wheat bread (hard/strong/high grade) flour (optional)

Directions

1. Beat eggs with salt.
2. Whisk in starter and whole wheat flour (if using).
3. Preheat over medium-high heat. If the pan isn't well-seasoned, oil it lightly before you begin cooking.
4. Pour ~1/4 c. of batter into the pan and spread it very thin (either by using the back of a spoon or tilting the pan).
5. Flip when top looks mostly dry and full of bubbles.
6. Cook for another minute or so before removing from heat.
7. Serve with Cheddar or whatever toppings you prefer. (Spinach goes nicely.)

I love this bread! It's quick. It's easy. It's delicious. It appeals to the cornbread lover in me. It has a texture and mouthfeel very close to my ideal cornbread with a hit of molasses and caraway-rye to mix it up a bit. Usually I prefer recipes that have close to a 1:1 ratio of flour to cornmeal, but I think this one gets away with the slightly higher flour ratio by dint of using whole rye flour and not being too sweet. (I do like a little bit of sugar in my cornbread, just not too much.)

This definitely isn't to everyone's tastes. It's a dark, savoury, crumbly cornbread. If you're not a fan of both dark rye and cornbread, you probably won't be a huge fan of this loaf. That said, if those qualities all sound promising to you, this might end up being one of your new favourites!

Corn Rye Quickbread

Slightly adapted from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. whole rye flour
• 1 c. cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 tsp. caraway seeds
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 3 Tbsp. molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 c. buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and grease a loaf pan.
2. Combine flour, cornmeal, caraway seeds, and salt.
3. Sift in baking powder and baking soda and mix well.
4. Beat oil and molasses with egg.
5. Stir buttermilk into egg mixture.
6. Dump dry ingredients into wet and mix until just combined.
7. Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake at 350°F (180°C) for ~1 hour.

I've always been hesitant to get into sourdoughs because I worry I won't make them enough to make keeping the starter around worthwhile. The Laurel's Kitchen approach to sourdoughs though seems to be a sort of hybrid method. They use a rye sour to achieve the distinctive sourdough flavour (and to help "condition" the dough), but the actual leavening power still comes from active dry yeast.

The fact that the sour isn't expected to provide any of the leavening and is simply there to help flavour the dough makes it a bit more forgiving than what I tend to think of as your "typical" sourdough starter. It can sit neglected in the fridge for months on end and still be good to go when you finally get around to making sourdough again. Thus, it doesn't come with quite such a high level of commitment to these tangy baked goods as a more all-in-one starter might.

Manuel's Rye Sour

Slightly adapted from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

• 1 c. rye berries, milled into flour
• 250mL water
• 1/2 tsp. milk
• 1 grain/granule active dry yeast

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
2. Keep in a covered non-metal container at room temperature -- ideally between 20 and 25°C (68 and 77°F) for 3-5 days, stirring twice a day.
3. Mixture should smell pungent and sour, but not unpleasant. If it smells bad, it has likely gotten too warm and should be discarded.
4. Store in an airtight, non-metal container in the fridge.
5. Let mixture come to room temperature before using.
6. Whenever you want to use your sour, simply take out as much as you need and replace it with equal quantities of fresh rye flour and water. (eg. If you use 3/4 c. of sour, replace it with 3/4 c. rye flour and 3/4 c. water.)

This bread did come out with a mild, but detectable sourdough tang. The loaves were a little smaller and flatter than I would've liked though. The recipe calls for only 525g of flour (plus 175mL rye sour) rather than the usual 900g of flour called for in the rest of the 2-loaf Laurel's Kitchen recipes that I've made so far. I'd be inclined to increase the amount of flour and water next time to produce the usual amount of dough.

Whole Wheat Sourdough

Adapted from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

Starter

• 175mL sourdough starter or rye sour
• 225g whole wheat flour
• 175mL water

Dough

• 2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 120mL warm water
• 500g whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 250mL water

Directions

1. Combine all starter ingredients (sourdough starter, flour, and water), cover, and set aside at room temperature for 12-18 hours.
2. The next day, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Set aside for 10 minutes.
3. Combine the flour and salt and mix well.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the starter mixture as well as the additional 250mL of water.
5. Mix the flour into the liquid working from the centre outward.
6. Once mixture comes together into a loose dough, turn it out and begin kneading¹. Knead for 20-40 minutes².
7. If, after 10 minutes of kneading, dough seems too loose, add a little more flour. (Be very sparing with the flour!) If dough is too tight, add more water. Knead a few more strokes and continue to adjust as necessary.
8. Once dough is supple and elastic and gluten is well-developed (usually ~40 minutes for me), form into a ball and place dough in a bowl to rise at room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap, a shower cap, or a damp cloth. Check proof after ~1 hour: Poke a damp finger ~1cm into the dough. If the hole fills in fairly rapidly, the dough is still under-proved and needs to rise for a bit longer. If the hole stays or only fills in a tiny amount/very slowly, it's ready to be knocked back. (If the dough sighs and/or sinks back around the hole, it's over-proved and should've been knocked back a bit earlier.)
9. Knock the dough back. (Sometimes I like to knead it a little bit at this point to help press out the bubbles and move the yeast around.)
10. Set to rise again³.
11. Knock dough back again, pressing out as many bubbles as possible.
12. Divide into two equal portions and shape each one into a ball, stretching and smoothing the gluten across the top. Set aside for 10 minutes to allow gluten to relax.
13. Shape into loaves as desired. (I prefer to bake mine in loaf tins. The recipe recommends making hearth loaves.)
14. Set to rise one final time. This time you're looking for a fingerprint that does fill in, but only slowly.
15. Steam at 450°F (230°C) for 10-15 minutes⁴.
16. Reduce heat to 325°F (160°C) and continue baking for ~40 minutes.

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¹ I actually find it easiest to turn the dough out before all the flour has been completely incorporated. It will be wet and sticky. It likely won't hold together very well. But if you turn it out and start working it, it will take up the rest of the flour as you do and gradually get less sticky and crumbly. I strongly advise against adding any more flour until the dough has had at least 10 minutes of kneading. And, even then, do so with extreme caution. Don't be afraid of dough that's a little wet and loose. In my experience that's probably going to be better than dough that's too tight and dry. ^Back
2 Exact timing will depend on your technique and speed. Aim for 600-1000 strokes. It's nearly impossible to overwork dough when kneading by hand, so err on the side of more rather than less. If kneading by machine, you may need much less time. Check gluten development after 10 minutes. ^Back
3 The recipe advises that the second rise should take about half as long as the first, but mine always seems to take about the same amount of time. Start checking around the 30-45 minute mark, but don't be alarmed if it takes an hour or more. ^Back
4 Steaming can be done a bunch of different ways. I prefer either baking the bread in a covered dish with a few tablespoons of water poured over the top crust before the lid is added or placing a pan of hot water on the rack directly below the baking bread (no lid for this method). ^Back