Rye and Wheat Sourdough Bread
Photo: Maria Grossmann
Doris would welcome me home from school with a freshly baked loaf. Her question would be, “Lady’s slice or a doorstep?”, meaning a very thin slice or a doorstep, a one cm thick slice. She would tell me it is more polite to ask for a lady’s slice.
Makes 1 loaf
— 120g rye flour
— 480g wheat flour
— 50g rye grain
— 12g salt
— 2 tbsp sourdough mix
— 390ml warm water
Take out 2 tbsp sourdough and place in a jar together with 1 tbsp wheat flour and 1 tbsp water and mix well. Leave covered or with a lid overnight. Replace the 2 tbsp sourdough you removed with 2 tbsp wheat flour and 2 tbsp water.
The next morning or evening, mix all the ingredients together. Cover and leave 12 to 18 hours at room temperature.
Fold and knead the mixture and then leave another 2–8 hours.
Place on a floured work surface and knead so that the air is worked out a little and form the dough into a ball.
Place into a roasting tin with a lid. Sprinkle first a little flour on the bottom of the tin and add a metal bowl into the corner of the tin with around 50 ml of water; this will help to create some steam during baking.
Preheat the oven to 250 °C. Then reduce the heat to 230 °C and bake the bread in the roasting tin for 35 min. Remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes.
The bread should sound hollow when it is ready. You can check this by lifting it with oven gloves and knocking on the bottom with your bare knuckles. Just like you would knock on a front door.