Bread Atlas · Bread
Vollkornbrot with Rye Soaker
- Advanced
- 30 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with an earthy, grounding base, toasted, nutty warmth throughout, with a lingering ferment tang.
Ingredients
- 350 g wholegrain rye flour, 90 g for the sour and 260 g for the dough
- 200 g cracked rye or coarse rye chops
- 200 g boiling water, for the soaker
- 90 g water at 28C (82F), for the sour
- 170 g water at 40C (105F), for the dough
- 20 g ripe rye sourdough starter
- 16 g fine salt, 8 g in the soaker and 8 g in the dough
- 40 g sunflower seeds, toasted
- 10 g neutral oil, for the tin
Equipment
Thermometer
The skills inside
Sourdough starterShaping by hand
Allergen screen
Found: gluten
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Sixteen hours ahead, whisk the starter into the 90 g warm water, beat in the 90 g rye flour, and hold at 26C (79F) until it is domed, webbed inside when spooned open, and sharply acidic.
- At the same time pour the boiling water over the cracked rye with 8 g of the salt, cover, and leave 12 hours until the grains are soft and no free water is left in the bowl. 600 min
- Beat the sour, the soaker, the 260 g rye flour, the 170 g warm water, the remaining salt and the seeds together for 4-5 minutes. It stays a stiff, sticky paste: rye never forms a smooth ball, so do not chase one. 5 min
- With wet hands load it into an oiled 25x11 cm tin, press out the air pockets and smooth the top with a wet spatula. Prove at 28C (82F) for 60-90 minutes, until fine cracks open right across the surface. That crazing is the only reliable signal. 90 min
- Bake at 250C (480F) for 15 minutes, drop to 180C (355F) and give it 60-70 minutes more, to an internal 98C (208F). Cool completely, wrap in a cloth, and do not cut it for 24 hours. 15 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Shaping by hand 85 recipes
- The pieces match: weighed, or judged against each other rather than by dividing the mass by eye, so that no piece is half again the size of its neighbour.
- Surfaces are smooth and unbroken with no cracks, tears, or dry patches, and the seams are sealed and sitting underneath.
- The shape is defined and it holds while the tray waits: it has not slumped, spread, or relaxed back out of its form.
- Nothing is trapped that should not be: no air pocket where filling should be, no filling breaking through the surface, and no excess flour greying the outside.
- They finish together in the heat: no piece done while another is still raw, which is the only test that the first mark was met.
Where it goes wrong The dough was worked past its point or shaped without a rest, so it fought back: the pieces spring out of shape on the tray and bake tight, uneven, and torn along the surface.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Grüner Veltliner
- Also Right
- Vermentino or dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Saison
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water with citrus & herbs
The vegetable whisperers: peppery, high-acid whites that flatter greens, roots, and grains without bullying them.
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