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Real Deal Rye Bread

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 6 hours
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 day 6 hours 40 minutes
Servings: 8
Course: Bread
Cuisine: American, German
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

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

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

Method
 

For Levain
  1. In a medium to large stainless bowl, add the 300 g water, add 1-2 Tbsp Active Sourdough Starter
  2. Stir with Chopstick or Bread Whisk
  3. Add the chopped read onion
  4. Add the 300 g Dark Rye Flour. Mix well.
  5. Let sit on counter for 24 hours
For Dough
  1. After 24 hours, the Levain should have risen, or risen and fallen back a bit.
  2. Add the 154 g of Dark Rye Flour and mix
  3. If dough still seems sticky, add Additional Dark Rye Flour in 30 g increments until dough is kneadable and shapeable.
  4. Add the salt and caraway seeds, mix in
Kneading
  1. 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
  1. Shape the dough into a round or oblong loaf, depending on the shape of your banneton and dutch oven
  2. Line banneton basket with floured tea towel
  3. Place shaped dough in lined banneton basket. Cover with the other tea towel.
  4. Let sit on counter for 6 hours, or until dough is noticeably larger. It will not double, but will look puffier.
Baking
  1. Put empty dutch oven into cold oven. Turn on oven and set to 500 degrees F
  2. When oven comes to temperature, set timer for 5 minutes.
  3. 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.
  4. Score dough with Lame. An easy way to do this is make three diagonal cuts. Refer to photo, above
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Set timer to 20 minutes
  8. 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.
  9. Set timer for 20 minutes
  10. When timer is up, using potholders or gloves, take the bottom of dutch oven holding the bread out of the oven.
  11. 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.