Organic Stone-Ground Malted Rye and Wheat Sourdough Loaf

Organic Stone-Ground Malted Rye and Wheat Sourdough Loaf

A delicious, healthy and satisfying naturally fermented loaf, which stays moist and improves in flavour as it matures.

It’s important that your sourdough culture/starter is in peak condition ready for baking before you begin. It should be very frisky, very yeasty and not too acidic and the recipe presumes it is 50:50 hydration (which means that you have maintained it with approximately equal quantities of flour to water).

After resting, and prior to kneading, the dough should be quite soft and tacky, so you will require a dough scraper if you are kneading by hand. Make sure you don’t flour the work surface and don’t be frightened to add more water if the dough feels at all firm or solid; a wetter dough is invariably better.

I suggest that you set up the sponge in the evening, then make-up the dough the following morning. I would leave the dough during the day to bulk prove, and then if you are working in warmer temperatures you can then shape the loaf that evening. Alternatively you can shape the loaf, let it rest for a couple of hours at room temperature and then refrigerate it overnight (bringing it back to room temperature before baking) and baked the following morning.

Malted rye and wheat grains are available from Shipton Mill’s website and can often be sourced from local windmills, if you are lucky enough to have one nearby.

For ’10 Facts about Sourdough’ check out www.hilarycacchio.com or contact me @ hilaryjj@btinternet.com for instructions on preparing your wild yeast/sourdough culture for baking.

 

Sponge:

180g                Very Frisky, ready for baking Sourdough/Wild Yeast Culture (50:50)

320-340g         Water, room temperature

100g                Strong Plain Bread Flour eg Shipton Mill’s Organic No4 (105)

50g                  Wholemeal Spelt Flour

50g                  Dark Rye Flour

40g                  Malted Rye Grains

40g                  Malted Wheat Flakes

Dough:

300g                Stone ground Strong Plain Flour eg Shipton Mill’s Organic No4 (105)

12g                  Malden Salt

 

Equipment:    a  large loaf tin about 28cm x 11cm or 2 smaller tins, lined with parchment paper.  A plastic dough scraper.

Sponge

Mix the sponge ingredients, using 320g of the water, together in a medium sized bowl to make a loose mixture. The mixture will stiffen as the grains hydrate.  Cover with a damp cloth and leave to ferment at cool room temperature for 6-12 hours (or overnight).

Dough

Briefly but thoroughly incorporate the remaining flour and the salt to form a single sticky piece of dough; cover bowl with a damp cloth and leave it to rest for 30 minutes.

Knead the dough for 4 minutes; the dough will begin to stiffen a little, but should remain tacky and should stick a little to the work surface, just use your dough scraper to keep it together; don’t use any additional flour. If the dough feels at all solid or stiff add a little more of the water.  Cover the dough (on the work surface) with an upturned bowl and rest it for 30 minutes.  Knead for another 4 minutes and rest again for 10 minutes before checking the gluten is fully developed (use the window pane technique).

Return the dough to bowl, and cover it with a damp cloth, leave it to rest at cool room temperature (8-14C) to bulk prove until it has doubled in size.  Depending on how frisky your culture is, the room temperature, and the season, it will take around 5-9 hours to double in size.

Spread a thin film of water over the work surface and transfer the risen dough from the bowl.  With wet hands gently stretch the dough out into a rectangle about A4 in size.  Loosely roll the dough, as you would a Swiss roll, and then with wet hands gently lift it into the prepared tin, with the lip of the dough on top.  Drizzle the surface of the loaf with a little extra virgin olive oil using your fingers to evenly coat and drape over a  piece of lightly oiled cling film.

Leave at room temperature to prove, or for a slower pace, place it somewhere cooler at 8-14C until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat Oven: 225C

Drizzle the surface of the dough with a little more olive oil for a crunchy crust and bake the loaf in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 200C and bake for a further 20-25 minutes. The loaf should be a deep brown and sound hollow when you tap the base.