Spelt-rye wholemeal bread

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 190 g water
• 190 g wholemeal rye flour
• 50 g starter
• 300 g wholemeal spelt flour
• 110 g wholemeal rye flour
• 245 g water, warm
• 12 g salt

Instructions

Working time approx. 25 minutes; Rest time approx. 14 hours; Total time approx. 14 hours 25 minutes

half / half, a juicy pure wholemeal bread with sourdough

In the evening, make a sourdough starter from lukewarm water, 190g of wholemeal rye flour, and the starter (no need to weigh it), and let it mature in a warm, well-covered place for 10-12 hours. For very strong sourdough, 6 hours are sufficient; then the sourdough starter can be made in the morning and baked in the afternoon. I place it in the oven with the light on and wedge a wooden spoon in the door to prevent the temperature from rising too high. I achieve about 28°C this way. The next morning, dissolve the salt in lukewarm water, weigh out 380g of sourdough, and add it to the water (the rest goes into the refrigerator as starter for the next baking day), then add all the flour. Mix all the ingredients evenly using the dough hook of a hand mixer; about 5 minutes is enough. The dough is so moist and sticky that it’s almost impossible to knead by hand. I’ve never done it before, but I get such a fragrant, tasty bread with a light crumb. If your sourdough starter isn’t as strong, add 20g of yeast if necessary. Let the dough rest in the bowl for about 30 minutes. Then transfer it to a greased 30cm loaf pan (no need to knead it again), smooth the top with a wet hand, and if necessary, press in patterns with the edge of a dough scraper. Then place it in the oven as described above for the sourdough and let it rise, covering it with a cloth or foil to prevent the surface from drying out. This takes 1-2 hours or longer, depending on the strength of the sourdough starter (much less with yeast, so you’ll have to check it frequently). The dough will then almost reach the top of the pan. Don’t let it rise for too long, or the bread will collapse again during baking. Once the dough has risen sufficiently, remove the pan from the oven and preheat the oven to 250°C. Heat up the drip tray on the lowest rack. When the temperature reaches 250°C, place the bread on the rack directly above the drip tray and at the same time pour just under 1 liter of boiling water into the drip tray. Caution! The steam is very hot! Bake for 15 minutes at 250°C, then reduce the temperature to 190°C and remove the drip tray. The bread can now be placed on the lowest rack. Bake for a further 45 minutes. 5-10 minutes before the end of baking, I like to remove the bread from the tin and place it on the wire rack until the end of the baking time so that the sides and bottom also brown a little. After baking, let it cool on the rack. For the experts: the bread has a dough yield of 170, a good value for pure whole-grain bread. The crumb is very light and airy, and the bread is very moist without being “gooey.” This is, of course, just the basic recipe. If you like, you can add seeds or bread spice. We like it best as is, or even just cooled and simply spread with a thick layer of butter.