Rye bread with live sourdough starter
Description
Making bread with a live sourdough starter that will be “everlasting” and can serve you for more than one year is very simple. However, it will take several days to prepare the live starter itself. The older the starter, the stronger it becomes, gaining activity and strength. You can adjust the ratio of rye and wheat flour as you like; you can omit wheat flour altogether and bake using only rye flour—that is a matter of taste. The step-by-step recipe will help you prepare both the starter itself and the bread using it. The bake is ready. Serve at the table.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Prepare the ingredients for kneading bread. By this point, however, you should have prepared a sourdough starter, which takes about five days to mature.
- 2
Step 2
To make a live sourdough starter, take 50 ml warm water and 50 g rye flour.
- 3
Step 3
Mix the water with the flour until smooth, cover with plastic wrap, and place in a warm spot for twenty-four hours.
- 4
Step 4
After about twenty-four hours, light fermentation begins in the starter.
- 5
Step 5
For the next 3–4 days, at one-day intervals, feed the starter according to this schedule: 50 grams of starter, 25 ml of warm water, 25 grams of rye flour. In the end, you should always have 100 grams of starter.
- 6
Step 6
After 3-5 days, the starter develops a characteristic pleasant slightly sour aroma and active bubbles. This starter can be used to knead bread. The activity of the starter’s maturation depends on the room temperature and on the activity of the previous starter used as the base starter.
- 7
Step 7
If you plan to bake bread, feed your sourdough starter using the same formula: 50 grams of starter, 25 ml water, 25 grams rye flour. Store it in the refrigerator—it can “live” for years this way, while its activity and strength only grow.
- 8
Step 8
Pour warm water into your bread-mixing bowl, dissolve the salt and sugar, add 40 grams of sourdough starter, and mix until smooth.
- 9
Step 9
Add the sifted flour.
- 10
Step 10
Using a dough mixer, a stand mixer, or your hands, knead the dough.
- 11
Step 11
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to ferment for 2–3 hours. Fermentation time depends on your starter’s activity and the air temperature in the room.
- 12
Step 12
During fermentation, the dough should increase by 1.5–2 times in volume.
- 13
Step 13
Sprinkle flour over the work surface and lay out the dough.
- 14
Step 14
The dough is somewhat sticky, so you can use a scraper to help or grease your hands with vegetable oil. Shape the bread. You can place the bread in a loaf pan, or shape it into a round loaf.
- 15
Step 15
Place the bread seam side down on a baking sheet, cover with a dry tea towel, and let proof for about 2 hours.
- 16
Step 16
After 2 hours the bread has increased in volume, and small cracks have appeared on the surface. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
- 17
Step 17
Bake the bread for the first 10 minutes at 250 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 180 degrees and bake for another 40–50 minutes. Cool the finished bread completely on a cooling rack.
- 18
Step 18
Bread made with live sourdough ends up very aromatic and extraordinarily tasty, and it keeps its flavor for several days without going stale.