Bread

Light rye sourdough bread

A moist and spongy sourdough loaf, made with strong wheat flour and light rye flour.

I particularly like this recipe as the bread it makes lasts for longer than a 100% wheat flour loaf. One loaf can keep for up to a week.

Ingredients

Makes one loaf of around 500 grams:

Recipe

Start the bread by mixing together in a bowl:

Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rest for 30 minutes to an hour. This helps the flour absorb water.

Once rested for at least 30 minutes, add to the bowl:

Knead the dough until the salt is completely integrated within the dough and you can not feel the grains of salt anymore.

As the sourdough will be proofing for a long time, there is no need to knead the dough for too long. The gluten will develop over the long proofing time.

Cover the bowl with cling film, and leave the dough to rest for another 30 minutes.

After the dough has rested for 30 minutes, fold the dough over itself four times.

To fold the dough, grab one side of the dough out of the bowl with wet hands, and place it over the other side, folding the dough in half as you do so. Rotate the bowl by a quarter turn, and repeat the folding process, until each side has been folded over.

Once folded, place the cling film back on top of the bowl, and leave to rest for another 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, repeat the folding process.

Leave the dough to rest for an other hour, before repeating the folding process again.

Finally, leave the dough to rest for a final two hours before moving to shaping the loaf.

To shape the dough, start by folding it over four times again in the bowl.

Tip the dough out of the bowl on a wooden surface, seam facing down.

Flour lightly the top of the dough to dry it a little bit and make it less sticky. Flour the wooden surface next to the dough as well, and flip the dough so that the dry side now rests on the floured wooden board.

Fold the dough one last time, with four folds at 90 degrees each. This should close the loaf, with all sides being covered with flour.

Flip the dough over and rotate with your hands to ensure it has a round shape.

Cover with a tea towel and leave to rest over the wooden board for at least 10 minutes.

Once rested, transfer to a proofing basket dusted with flour to prevent the dough from sticking to it.

Cover with a tea towel, and leave to rest for three to four hours for the final proofing.

To check if your dough is fully proofed, tap it gently with your index finger. The dough should spring back up, leaving a small dent where you pressed it.

Once fully proofed, tip the dough to a sheet of parchment paper.

Score the top of the dough with a razor blade, and transfer to a hot Dutch oven for baking.

Bake for 20 minutes at 250℃ (gas mark 9) in a closed Dutch oven. After 20 minutes, remove the lid to open the Dutch oven and bake at 210℃ (gas mark 7) for another 25 minutes.

Once baked, let the loaf cool down on a wire rack until it reaches room temperature.

This loaf should keep for about a couple of days to a week.