From the same flour I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I made this delicious Rye loaf.
Cookings time: (5 hours for the sour dough to acclimatise) 15 minutes prep + 2hour resting+ 5 minutes of massaging + 5 hour developing on the mould + 10 minutes prep + (30+10) minutes bake
Quantity: This mix makes 2 small loafs of “450gr” each
Ingredients :
300 g rye flour
200 gr wheat white flour
370 ml warm water
150 gr of sour dough
1 table spoon of oil
10 gr salt
90 gr of quartered walnuts
Poppy seeds
Tips:
1. Take 150 gr of sourdough from the fridge at least five hours before starting. I always feed the sourdough mix with 50 gr of rye flour and the same amount in water as soon as I take it out of the fridge . I mix it with a chopstick and leave it. (As you have fed the mix, you must subtract the amounts from the totals I listed on the list of ingredients)
2. I have used the same baking method I described on the Easy bread for beginners recipe
3. For the water temperature i generally mix 270 ml of cold water with 100 of boiled one. Make sure it is not hot or you will kill the sourdough.
4. Despite the fact that sounds a bit wasteful, preheating the oven helps the fermentation process by bringing the room temperature up.
5. If you can, it is worth investing on good quality loaf baking tins because you will use them a lot and your life will be much easier. London is full of specialist kitchen shops: Andrews of Hampstead, Kitchen ideas in Westbourne Grove, Nisbets London or Leon Jaehgi and sons in Shaftesbury Avenue and if all fails, i am sure that Google will show you where to buy.
Cooking instructions:
Preheat the oven to 250 degree celsius
In a bowl mix the flours, the water and the sour dough. You can use a wooden spoon to do this.
Add the oil, the salt and walnuts and continue to mix.
When the mix smooth , mix with your hands. You have to build up some air so you may stretch it and fold it in for a while until the texture changes from sticky to elastic. Then place it in a clean large glass or plastic bowl. Cover the bowl with clear film and let the mix double the size in warm room ( the oven should have ensure that the kitchen is) at least for 120 minutes
The sour dough is slower than the other yeasts so be patient.
Prepared the working surface: clear film with a layer of flour on it.
Running a spatula around the bowl , separate the mix from it. Pour the the mixture on a flowered sheet .
For two loaves, separate the mix in two equal parts, oil your fingers, massage the mixes and give it a shape without loosing the air.
Because you are going to leave the mix rest for such a long time, it is important that you oil the interior of the tins. You can oil the tins, using butter, but I prefer to use vegetable oil.
Cover with a clear film and a tea towel, if your house is not too dry a floured tea towel would suffice, and leave to rest for at least five hours.
As time is up, preheat the oven at 200 degree C (gas mark 6), wet your hand and pass it over each loaf, sprinkle poppy seeds on them.
Bake for 30 minutes in the middle of the oven, until you hear the hollow sound when tapping the bread.
Take the bread out of the tin, and place it upside down in the middle of the oven. Bake for further 10 minutes.
Leave it to cool down on the baking wire or similar to allow the crust to crisp up.
If you are going to freeze it, wait until is totally cooled.
Photograph by Cristina Lanz-Azcarate
Recipe by Cristina Lanz-Azcarate
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