Sourdough Rye- My first Sourdough Experience

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I have just completed making my first rye chef from Leader's Bread Alone, and am unsure which sourdough rye I should try as my first experience.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

 

Thanks for your suggestion, Mike.  I do not have Leader's Local Breads book which I believe the Silesian recipes are in.  Could you relate the recipe to me?

Oh, sorry about that - I have both and like Local Breads so much more, so when someone says "Leader" I automatically think they refer to LB.  I don't have the book with me here at work :) but according to my notes the recipe goes something like this:

200 g. white rye starter 
350 g. bread flour
150 g. finely ground whole rye flour
350 g. water
10 g. salt

Mix the ingredients, knead (he suggests speed 4 on KA, I believe for up to 10 minutes), fermentation 2-2.5 h until it doubles, divide, shape 2 boules and proof in bannetons for 1.5-2 h, until they increase ~50%.  Transfer to whatever you use as a peel, spray with water, sprinkle with caraway seeds (optional), slash, and bake 50 min at 400 F with steam, spray with water one more time before taking out of the oven. 

Dmsnyder bakes it quite often, I think, so I'm sure he'll correct me if I'm wrong somewhere.

Mike

Thanks, Mike.  I think I will give it a try.  Question:  Since the starter takes 8-10 hours to make from the chef I assume you can refrigerate for use the following day?

I never refrigerate my starters, so I can't really help you there.  Typically, I mix the starter before leaving for work, and pick it up once I get home from work.  One thing I can say is that it is a very mild bread, and I don't think it'll benefit from excessive sourness that overnight refrigeration may produce.

Mike

Since when does rye bread require a starter?  Check out Michel Suas N.Y. Rye in Advanced Bread and Pastry.  As for "not really a rye bread..."  There's light, medium, dark...

Howard

Edit: You might also want to look into the definition of a levain, as in Nury's light rye bread.

You know, I was brought up in a place where it was not even called bread if it wasn't rye sourdough based, so, yes, for me unsoured rye bread is somewhere between joke and abomination.  That being said, Nury's light rye is a white starter leavened wheat bread containing less than 10% of rye flour, whereas the original question was about potential uses of rye starter.

Mike