Ingredients (to make 4 loaves of approximately 500 grams each)
Method:
1. Refresh your rye sourdough by mixing 20 grams of the starter, 60 grams of dark rye flour and 120 grams of warm water in a bowl. Cover it and leave it over night.
2. The next day, take 40 grams out of this bowl and put it back with the rest of your sourdough starter in an airtight container and leave it in the fridge until you are ready to use it. There is no need to “feed” your dough at all until you are ready to use it again and then, just follow the instructions above. Now, make a pre dough: Mix the remaining refreshed starter with 300 grams of dark rye flour and 350 grams of warm water. Cover this and leave this until it has doubled in bulk and is all fluffy. This can take 2 hours on a hot day but you can also leave it overnight/all day if you want, either in or out of the fridge.
3. Mix the pre dough with 700 grams of the flour of your choice. You can use a mixture of any flour at this point – some light rye, some white or whole wheat, or white or whole spelt. Really – what ever you have on hand. Just be aware that if you use all dark rye you will have a very heavy loaf. Delicious, but heavy. Add 250 grams of water and 20 g salt. If you are using all rye flour give this a good mix to make sure everything is incorporated and add more water gradually to get the consistency of a mud pie. Don’t bother kneading. It won’t make any difference to the final bread. If you are using any component of spelt or wheat, knead the mixture for a good 10 minutes and then add the salt and up to 100 g more water and then knead for another 5 minutes until you get a dough the consistency of a thick pudding. Depending on your flour you may need to add more or less water.
4. Let the dough rest for 30-60 minutes or so, covered.
5. Shape the dough with wet hands. If you are making 100% rye, make four rectangles and slide each one into a well buttered tin. If you are using baskets to rise the bread, roll the rectangles in dark rye flour and pop them in the baskets. Cover the tin/baskets with clingfilm and let the dough rise until it has doubled in bulk. This will take 2-4 hours depending on the warmth in the kitchen. If you have a component of spelt or wheat, make four blobs and hold them one by one in both (wet) hands. Transfer the blob to one hand and imagine it has four corners. One corner at a time, gently pinch the dough and stretch it away from the blob and fold it back on itself. Gently massage the blob into a sausage shape. Then, slide each sausage into a well buttered tin. If you are using baskets to rise the bread, roll the sausages in dark rye flour and pop them in the baskets. Cover them with clingfilm and let them rise until they have double in bulk. Again, this will take 2-4 hours depending on the warmth of the kitchen.
Sourdough loaves are ready for the oven when this happens: Push the dough gently with a finger. If the indentation comes out again within a minute or so they are ready for the oven. If it takes longer than that they need more time. If you can push you finger in really easily and it is clear that the indentation will never come out again, they have over risen but do not despair! Just scrape the dough out of the tins/baskets one at a time, knead a bit more flour into them until they are somewhat more solid and put them back in the tins/baskets as you did before. Try rising them again and watch them a bit more closely. They will rise again, trust me.
6. Bake the bread at 220 degrees for 10 minutes and then a further 30 minutes at 200 degrees. I am sure I don’t need to say this but you don’t bake bread in a basket. You roll the dough out of the basket onto a cookie sheet that you have lined with baking parchment or liberally dusted with polenta. Ideally, heat the cookie sheet up first and roll the dough onto a hot sheet. If you forget, don’t worry about it.
Take the bread out, lovely and cracked on the top and WAIT until the next day to eat it. Sourdough is very damp and is better the next day. It will stay fresh for 4-5 days.
If you would like to add dried fruit or nuts or seeds it is a nice idea to soak these in water for 12 hours so that they are moist and don’t take any moisture out of the dough.
Hi, Jane! I’ve worked out a way to do my sourdough breadmachine rye bread. I’m halving your recipe :), so disregard my earlier message, please, and sorry about that.
Although I needed to ask you just one thing: You know in step 2. when you say: ” Mix the remaining refreshed starter with 300 grams of dark rye flour and 350 grams of warm water.” I’ve followed your recipe for the actual starter, but If I’m using half the amount in everything, should I then also halve the starter amount that I mix for the pre-dough? Please, let me know. Thank you so much, Jane!
I’m really looking forward to make this sourdough rye bread now!
Hey! I think so – not sure I 100% understand – give me the entire list of the ingredients and quantities you are using and I will be able to tell you for sure!
Hi, Jane. Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough. I think I’ll be using your method with the same ingredients and the same quantities, and just bake twice in two tins, so my loaves will be 1 Kg each in the bread machine. My question is, how much starter do I have altogether before I mix it with the flour for the pre-dough?
Also, if I keep on making bread I should put away some sourdough for the next time. How much should I put in the fridge and at what stage? Thank you, Jane. I really appreciate your help and advice.
Hi, Jane. I think I understand now … Sorry for the many questions. Those 40 grams at the beginning are to put away for the next time, I get it now. I was getting confused. Never mind. Don’t pay attention of my questions. I will make the bread now and tell you how it went! Cheers
Not at all – ask away! It’s tricky I know and then all of a sudden it pops into your head and then it’s all clear.
Jane, the bread turned out beautifully! It tastes less raw, less grainy than the loaves I’ve baked with commercial yeast. It’s not sour at all, actually. It has a gentle taste, almost sweet.
The starter smelled tingey, like a mixture of beer and yoghurt, very interesting. I hope this bread will be better for my tummy as yeast might have produced too much gas.
Thank you so much for allowing us to have your recipe and expertise! The bread machine worked very well with an hour baking, just half of the ingredients per loaf. Cheers!
Ooo That is great news! And your observation is spot on. Sourdough rye is less gummy than rye made with yeast. The acidity of the sourdough does something chemical (don’t ask) that causes the rye to bake in a more “dry” way. That is just great!!!!!! I am sure you will not have a tummy ache at all. This is my very favourite bread and I usually make about 4 at a time (in an oven) and freeze them so we always have some.
Yes, Jane. Thank you so much! People on my Facebook page are going nuts! I will let them know about your recipe. They can’t believe it has no wheat, hehe.
what is your facebook page? ours is (of course) virtuous bread!
Just made my second sourdough loaf. The first one was ok but a bit close textured, but my second effort seemed to be going so much better – the pre dough really worked up a head overnight, and it felt good when I was kneading it (I used to make ordinary bread, so I’m going by that). When I took it out of the oven it was well risen on one side but not the other – probably a case of half a loaf is better than none. I don’t usually bother with the fan on our gas oven, would that make so much difference? Or any other ideas, please.
Hello – sorry for the late response…..have been rather under presser of late. I have never heard of a loaf that was only risen on one side – and would normally attribute that to a fierce fan. Did you bake it in a tin? Do let me know.
When I sliced the loaf it was like the top was a lid and pulled away from the rest of it, with a big gap. Oh well, back to the drawing board
Slightly over proofed! Pop it in a bit earlier next time.
Can this be baked in the slow cooker?
Dear Krystal Thank you for this. I am not sure at all if you can do it in the pressure cooker. Sorry!
For the Rye Sourdough bread how much salt do you use ? In one of the comments you state 5 grams, but that doesn’t seem enough. Thank you in advance for your reply.
Dear Cindy
I have always used 5. Why not give it a go and see how you like it? You can always add more or less according to your taste!
Thank you for your reply. I will try it with 5 grams.
Thank for your informative site.
Hi, Will be making Rye sourdough bread at the weekend. I have supermarket aluminium tin 1.5 l loaf tins bottom of tin is 20(l) x 9(w) x 7(d) cm if I make this recipe and put the dough into 2 of these cheap tins and bake same amount of time it would be OK?
Hi Elaine
I am not quite sure how big there are? The dough in the recipe is around 600 grams and it fits well into one small (500 g, 1 pound) tin. If you are using the aluminium tins, grease and flour them as the dough tends to stick.
Thank you for the recipe, it was a success. I greased, lined with grease paper oiled and filled two tins with the dough and it all turned out very nice. Will make this every weekend and fingers crossed it will continue to be a success and when I get to my home base collect and bring back my bread tins etc. All good.
Hi! Been playing with variations in this for years. I love it! Just wanted to say thank you!
THANK YOU!!!!! How lovely! 🙂
I would be very appreciative if you would give me the amount of each ingredient for just one loaf. Also what is the oven temperature in Fahrenheit? Thank you so much. Karen in Portland Oregon
DEAR Karen, thank you for this. Thankfully bread is super simple – all you need to do is divide everything by 4 and you will have quantities for one loaf. Oven temp in F is 450 and then down to 400. A really great site for comparisons is: https://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking/ there you can find every possible conversion!