My favorite doorstop

For a lot of time I've been trying to replicate the vollkornbrot that made me fall in love with rye bread (produced by the german company Pema), but I never succeeded. Since I had some old rye to finish waiting for the new lot to arrive I decided to make one more try.

I mixed together 500 gr of ground rye middlings (it was a mix of  rough pieces of kernel, gross flour and something resembling sawdust), 300 grams of yogurth whey (pH 3.9 according to my cheap pH-meter), 100 gr of milk and 10 gr of salt. No starter whatsoever. I let the dough ferment all alone, just giving a short mix after 1 day. After 48 hours the dough had risen somewhat (~30%) and I decided that it was ready it bake because it smelled heavenly.

I added a couple of tablespoons of rye flour to the dough because it had become too slack to handle, then I inserted it in a 20cm pullman pan and levelled the top with wet hands. After 2 hours I baked it in a gas oven at 130° (measured with a thermometer) after covering the top with aluminum foil until it began to be ready, that is to smell heavenly of malt (3 hours). At that  point I removed the foil and continued baking until the smell became very intense (1.5 more hours).

After 24 hours of rest I could slice it without crumbling. The aroma is extremely intense, the taste is very sweet, malted and fermented, without the slightest note of acidity. It's the most tasty and aromatic rye bread that ever came out of my oven. Yes, it's a doorstop that would break your foot, but if you handle with care it won't disappoint you :-)

The only downside is the lack of coarser rye chops, but they can still be added. For the time being I'm very satisfied.