Real Deal Rye Bread

This Rye is not for sissies.  It is heavy, dense, made with almost 100% dark rye flour, red onion, salt, and a sprinkle of caraway seeds.  Sourdough only, no commercial yeast. Real Deal Rye Bread!

Real Deal. As opposed to fluffy deli style rye, where a little rye flour is sprinkled as an afterthought over a mostly white flour dough.  Nothing wrong with that kind. Makes great sandwiches.  But this recipe is for serious rye lovers.

Rye flour is earthy.  Substantial.  When it is baked, it transforms into something that could just about be a hearty meal in itself.  Maybe with a good sharp cheese and sliced apples.  Fall is coming and this is so good with fall foods!

You take a bite of this bread, it fills your mouth with earthy, salty, sour, oniony nourishment.  You can’t ignore it.  Real Deal Rye takes center stage.

It is not just a blank canvas for great sandwich fillings or other accompaniments.  This bread is kind of the planet around which all other foods orbit!

It is the star of the show. Not like a prima ballerina (perhaps, a buttered popover with raspberry jam could be a ballerina)  but like a good, honest peasant who comes to save you from the king’s dainties that go down fast and easy and leave you feeling sick, and well, surfeited.

A word about being surfeited

Yes, I did use the word  “surfeited”!  I have appreciated that word ever since one of my Titus 2 moms used it to describe what we do at Christmastime.  And if you are a word nerd as well as a foodie here’s an article I found written by David Judson in 1752 New Town Connecticut.  It contains a good definition of surfeiting from a Biblical perspective:

“That to eat or to drink to Excess, so as to have the Heart overcharged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness, is a very ruinous and destructive Sin, of which it concerns every one, to take Heed to themselves, lest at any Time, they be over taken therein.

Timely warning, against surfeiting and drunkenness. Shewing the nature of intemperance, with the sad effects and fatal consequence of this sin, how it is to be guarded against, and the important necessity of taking heed thereto, with constancy and diligence. In a discourse preached at New-Town in Connecticut. Jan. 12. 1752.

First, you make a “levain”, or a preferment.  For this loaf I put one Tablespoon of my regular sourdough starter (this has wheat in it) into a stainless bowl.  I added 300 g water, mixed it with a chopstick, and then added 300 g of Bob’s Red Mill Dark Rye Flour .

I then chopped 100 g of fresh red onion into small dice and mixed into levain.

I made the levain in the late morning and let it sit covered for 24 hours.  This gives the sourdough a chance to ferment through the whole levain and the red onion. You want a good sour flavor.

 

The next day when I uncovered it, the levain had risen and fallen back.

I added a teaspoon of caraway and 1 teaspoon of salt to the levain.  Then I added 154 g of dark rye flour.  Now it is officially dough. It was a humid day for Arizona, and it still looked pretty sticky.

Sprinkled some rye flour on the board in anticipation of a sticky dough! .

 

I kept adding more flour.  Dough was stickier than usual.  This is about the consistency you are looking for.  Rye dough will always be sticky, but you should be able to begin to form it.  We ended up adding 113 g more flour in the kneading process.  I had to scrape my hands more than usual with a plastic scraper.

I covered this with another towel and let sit on counter for about 5 hours.  I was checking it for proofing progress.

It was finally time to set the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and put in the empty dutch oven in the oven to preheat.

When the oven was at 500 degrees, I set the timer for 5 minutes.  This allows the dutch oven to reach 500 degrees.  It is really really hot so make sure you have heat protective gloves handy, or whatever you use.

Meanwhile we inverted the dough on to a piece of parchment paper.

Scored it…

Put it into dutch oven covered for 20 minutes at 500 degrees.  Then uncovered it and baked at 350 degrees for another 20 minutes.

Looks good to me! It isn’t exactly a sandwich bread.  Unless you like narrow sandwiches.  But it is so satisfying.  A dark, moist slice of it goes really well with cheese, olives, eggs, ripe tomatoes and mayo.

Real Deal Rye Bread

Godsproutstheseeds

As opposed to fluffy deli style rye, where a little rye flour is sprinkled as an afterthought over a mostly white flour dough, this is real deal rye bread.  For serious rye lovers.

Rye flour is earthy.  Substantial.  When it is baked, it transforms into something that could be a hearty meal in itself.

You take a bite of this bread, it fills your mouth with earthy, salty, sour, oniony nourishment.  You can't ignore it.  Real Deal Rye takes center stage.

Print Recipe

Prep Time 1 day d 6 hours hrs

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 1 day d 6 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Course Bread

Cuisine American, German

Servings 8

Equipment

• 1 Oven
• 1 Dutch Oven with top Can be round or oblong, shape bread accordingly
• 1 Sheet Parchment paper, to fit inside your dutch oven. It should be big enough to lift bread up and in, but not so big it gets in the way of closing dutch oven
• 1 pair heat proof gloves or good potholders
• 2 Heat proof pads for protecting counter from heat of dutch oven and lid
• 1 Banneton Basket Can be round or oblong, shape bread accordingly
• 2 Flour sack towels or other tea towels
• 1 Lame, or scoring razor blade for scoring
• 1 Chopstick or Bread Whisk, for mixing
• 1 Medium to large Stainless Bowl

Ingredients

  

For Levain

• 1-2 Tbsp Active sourdough starter
• 300 g Water
• 300 g Dark Rye Flour I used Bob's Red Mill
• 100 g Red Onion, chopped into small dice

For Dough

• 154 g Dark Rye Flour
• 1 tsp Caraway seed
• 1 tsp Salt
• Up to 90 g Additional Dark Rye Flour add if dough seems excessively sticky
• 1-2 Tbsp All Purpose White Flour for dusting towel in Banneton

Instructions

 

For Levain

• In a medium to large stainless bowl, add the 300 g water, add 1-2 Tbsp Active Sourdough Starter
• Stir with Chopstick or Bread Whisk
• Add the chopped read onion
• Add the 300 g Dark Rye Flour. Mix well.
• Let sit on counter for 24 hours

For Dough

• After 24 hours, the Levain should have risen, or risen and fallen back a bit.
• Add the 154 g of Dark Rye Flour and mix
• If dough still seems sticky, add Additional Dark Rye Flour in 30 g increments until dough is kneadable and shapeable.
• Add the salt and caraway seeds, mix in

Kneading

• Turn out on floured board and knead with wet or floured hands. Dough will still be sticky. Use a plastic scraper to clean hands. If still too sticky, add additional Dark Rye Flour in small amounts until desired consistency. Refer to pictures, above.

  This dough is susceptible to humidity changes, so go for the feel and look rather than the exact weights given

  I knead it for about five minutes as I continue to add flour.

Shaping and Second Rise

• Shape the dough into a round or oblong loaf, depending on the shape of your banneton and dutch oven
• Line banneton basket with floured tea towel
• Place shaped dough in lined banneton basket. Cover with the other tea towel.
• Let sit on counter for 6 hours, or until dough is noticeably larger. It will not double, but will look puffier.

Baking

• Put empty dutch oven into cold oven. Turn on oven and set to 500 degrees F
• When oven comes to temperature, set timer for 5 minutes.
• When timer is showing around 1 minute left, turn out proofed Rye dough on to parchment paper. Coat with flour if desired so scoring shows more against the white background.
• Score dough with Lame. An easy way to do this is make three diagonal cuts. Refer to photo, above
• Remove empty dutch from hot oven using potholders or heat proof gloves. Set on heat proof pad on counter. Have another heat proof pad next to it so you can place hot lid on it.
• Carefully remove lid using oven proof gloves, then lift dough using parchment paper and gently place in dutch oven. Replace lid and place covered dutch oven inside oven, using gloves or potholders.
• Set timer to 20 minutes
• After 20 minutes, using gloves or potholders, remove just the lid. Keep the bottom of the dutch oven and the bread in it in the oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F.
• Set timer for 20 minutes
• When timer is up, using potholders or gloves, take the bottom of dutch oven holding the bread out of the oven.
• Turn off oven and place bread on rack to cool

Notes

The cheapest we have found for Bob's Red Mill Dark Rye Flour at a regular grocery store is about $3 , and that was at Walmart.

I don't use a stand mixer for this. Mixing with bread whisk or wooden spoon plus kneading by hand works fine.

Keyword Real Deal Rye Bread