Country Rye Sourdough with Rye Porridge and Rye Sprouts
Hubby has been asking for a light rye so I checked out my fridge and found some rye flakes that had been there for a while. I also have 25 lbs of rye berries at my disposal so this what I came up with after searching the web and several bread books including Tartine 3.
Recipe
Makes 3 loaves
Sprouts
60 g rye berries
Porridge
56 g rye flakes
112 g water
30 g yogurt
Main dough
100 g sifted Rye flour (120 g Rye berries)
100 g sifted Selkirk flour (115 g Selkirk berries)
100 g sifted Red Fife flour (115 g Red Fife berries)
690 g Unbleached flour
650 g water + 25 g
25 g salt
250 g Rye levain (125 g milled and sifted Rye berries, 125 g water - Procedure in recipe)
Three days before:
- Weigh out 60 g of Rye berries for sprouting and rinse them well under water. Soak in filtered water about 6-8 hours, drain well, and leave to sprout, rinsing every 8 or so hours. When they have sprouted, dry them will in a towel and refrigerate until needed. Mine were taking forever probably due to the cold snap (-18 F/-28C with a windchill of -33F/-36C) we are having even though the house is kept at 73F. After 48 hours, I could see barely see white rootlets on a few of them so I put them in a warm spot overnight with the second stage of the levain hoping to speed them up a bit.
Morning or Mid day of the day before:
- For the first build of the levain, mill 125 g Rye berries for the levain and sift it to separate out the bran. Take 18 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 18 g of filtered water and 18 g of Rye bran. Let rise in a warm place (oven with the light on and door cracked open - 82F). Save the rest of the bran and the flour for the levain builds.
- Mill the various berries for the main dough and sift to obtain the required amount for each grain (Rye, Selkirk and Red Fife). Save that bran for dusting the bannetons and for another use.
- Place the high extraction flours in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. Cover and set aside.
The night before:
- For the porridge, cook the rye flakes until the water has been all absorbed. Cool. Mix in the yogurt and let ferment overnight.
- Before going to bed, do the second build of the levain. Feed the levain 36 g of water and the rest of the bran as well as some sifted rye flour to equal 36 g. Let that rest in a warm place overnight.
Dough making day:
- Make the final leaving build by feeding the levain 72 g of filtered water and 72 g of sifted Rye flour. Let rise 4-5 hours in a warm spot. Mine had almost doubled after 5 hours.
- Two hours before the levain is ready, mix the water with the flour on the lowest speed in the bowl of a stand mixer until all the flour has been hydrated. This took a couple of minutes. Autolyse for a couple of hours.
- At the same time, take the sprouts out of the fridge to warm up to room temperature if you put them in the fridge. Mine were still sprouting. For some reason, it looked like only a third or so sprouted. I used them all anyhow.
- Once the levain is ready, add the salt, the extra 25 g of water and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed 1 for a minute or two to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 5 minutes. Add the sprouts and the porridge, and mix until everything is well integrated. You may want to switch the dough to a plastic tub at this point. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Do 4 sets of folds at 30 minute intervals, then do one more set an hour or so later. Let rise for 45 minutes.
- Then put in the fridge to continue rising for 3 hours. The dough rose about 30%.
- Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~745 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest one hour on the counter. Refrigerating the dough really helps with shaping. It holds its shape, is less sticky and there is less risk of deflating it.
- Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.
- Sprinkle some of the leftover bran in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons, cover, let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge for 9-10 hours.
Baking Day
- The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully place the dough seam side up inside.
- Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 30 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 25 minutes. Internal temperature should be 205F or more.
Once again, I am quite pleased with the shape and oven spring resulting from the method I am using. Dough making takes all day but it sure is worth it!