Rye-wheat wholegrain sourdough bread 70/30

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 130 g sourdough (starter)
• 700 g wholemeal rye flour
• 300 g wheat flour type 405
• 18 g salt
• 500 ml water, lukewarm
• 2 tsp spice(s), e.g. caraway, fennel, coriander or anise

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 20 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 55 minutes; Total time approx. 21 hours 55 minutes

With tried-and-tested instructions for success! Makes two loaves of bread, approx. 800 g

A proper sourdough starter is made in four stages: starter, initial sourdough starter, basic sourdough starter, and full sourdough starter. Don’t worry, that’s what bakers call it, but it’s not complicated at all: Starter: First, you need a good sourdough starter. If you don’t have one, take half a cup of whole-grain rye flour and half a cup of lukewarm water and stir them vigorously so that a good amount of air is absorbed from the surrounding air. This is because the air contains the bacteria and yeast that react with the enzymes in the water and make our starter nice and sour. Now you repeat the addition of water and flour exactly as you did on the first day, every day for another four days. This works best in a large, very clean mason jar. You can seal it after adding the ingredients and store it in a fairly warm, but not too warm, place. Yeast and bacteria like temperatures between 25 and 35 degrees. Colder or warmer might already be too cold or too warm, respectively. Shaking it occasionally is good for the microorganisms. After five days, everything should smell nice and sour, like sauerkraut and a faint hint of wheat beer. A pleasant smell. If it smells bad, the starter might have been taken over by putrefactive bacteria; in that case, it’s better to make a new one. Now you have your finished starter. You should also know that after each sourdough starter (this comes next), you take about 130 g of the sourdough, or more precisely the basic sourdough, and add it back to your starter in the jar, because the basic sourdough is really nothing more than starter. We’ve just increased the amount. Incidentally, this feeds the bacteria and yeast, becoming stronger each time in terms of leavening power and resistance to other bacteria. You then use this amount for your next starter. And you do this every time you want to bake bread. This way, you’ll have your very own starter, which will become more and more powerful each time. I’ll come back to that later. If you’re not baking for a few days, keep the jar of starter sealed in the refrigerator. The microorganisms will hibernate and will revive as soon as you take them out of the refrigerator, stir them thoroughly, and place them somewhere warm, perhaps adding a little warm water and whole-grain rye flour. After a few hours, the first bubbles will form. Now you can use it again as a starter. One day before you want to put your bread in the oven, you need to start making your sourdough. To be precise, about 20 hours beforehand. To do this, we’ll first make the sourdough starter: Take the 130g of the sourdough starter (as per the recipe, or a multiple thereof, depending on the number of loaves you want to bake), and mix it well with a wooden spoon or whisk in a sufficiently large bowl with 400g of the 700g of wholemeal rye flour and the lukewarm water. Cover and let everything stand in a warm place for 15 hours. Base sourdough starter: The next day, the day you’re baking, add the remaining 300g of wholemeal rye flour to your sourdough starter and mix everything well. That’s it. Let everything stand, covered, in a warm place for another 3-5 hours. Now it’s time to take 130g of the base sourdough starter and put it back in your jar. This is your new starter for the next baking session. To ensure the recipe’s quantities are correct, add 65 g of water and 65 g of wholemeal rye flour to your basic sourdough. This is the 130 g you removed earlier. Full-fat sourdough: Now add the 300 g of wheat flour and the salt. You can also add spices, such as caraway, fennel, or coriander, if you like. Anise also adds a wonderful flavor. You can also create your own spice blend. Experiment with it. Now knead everything thoroughly for 5-6 minutes to allow the “glue,” the gluten, to develop properly. There are great instructions on YouTube for proper kneading. Of course, it works even better with a good dough kneading machine. Resting the dough: When weighing the loaf according to Adam Riese and adding up all the ingredients, you should end up with a raw loaf weighing 1.648 g. Now divide this dough into two portions of 824 g each. Take two round or oval baking pans made of plastic, ceramic, etc. with a 6-8 cm high rim, each of which can hold about one liter of water. Take two smooth, clean cotton towels, place them over the bowls so that they extend well over the rim, dust them generously with whole-wheat flour, and place your round loaf of bread on the towels in this bowl, with the “end” facing down. Now cover everything, preferably with a plastic bowl or foil, and let it rise for 1-3 hours in a warm place. You may also want to preheat the oven and let it rise in the oven at about 35 °C. Be patient, this takes a while. When the loaf has almost doubled in size, preheat the oven to 210 °C. When the oven has reached the right temperature and the dough has doubled in size, carefully tip the two loaves of bread onto the floured baking tray, carefully remove the cotton cloth from the bread, open the oven, place a ceramic or tin container of water on the oven floor, put the baking tray with the bread on the middle rack in the oven and add half a cup, depending on the oven and oven size, directly onto the oven floor (steam). Be careful, it’s hot steam. Now quickly close the oven and set the timer for 55 minutes. After 10 minutes, steam again, i.e. add another half cup of water directly onto the oven floor, which is very important for the crust formation, and then reduce the temperature to 185°C and bake for the remaining 45 minutes. Then let the bread cool for a few hours. Note: You can vary and experiment with the different types of flour within the amount of 1000g of flour, e.g. For example, instead of type 405 wheat flour you can use whole wheat flour or 900g whole rye flour and only 100g wheat flour, etc.