100% Rye and Spelt wholegrain sourdough bread is a very dense bread. It does not rise like breads based on wheat, or mixtures of wheat. It can also be quite claggy if not baked correctly. This is a no-knead process.
It has taken me a lot of experimenting to perfect how to make this. Lots of failures!!!!
Ingredients
- 200 gm Wholemeal Rye Flour.
- 200 gm Wholemeal Spelt Flour.
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) Flax seeds (also called Linseed).
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) Sunflower seeds.
- 1 level teaspoon salt.
- 1 tablespoon olive oil.
- Sourdough starter. I use a couple of cups.
- 500 ml water. Adjust to get a sticky mixture.
Equipment
- Cast iron pot. I use a 2.5 liter pot
- Two dough scrapers
- Rubber spatula
- Mixing bowl. I use a 2 liter plastic bowl
- Kitchen scales
- Measuring cup
- Spoon
Mixing and Rising
You need good ingredients to make good bread! Supermarkets do not usually stock rye or spelt flour, flax seeds or sunflower seeds. You will need to get them from a wholefoods supplier.
Mix all the ingredients up in a bowl. The bowl needs to be big enough to allow for the dough to rise a little. I use a 2 litre bowl or bigger.
Make sure there are no dry patches of flour. The dough needs to be quite wet and sticky, much wetter than normal dough. If it’s too dry then add some more water. The dough will not rise if it’s too dry and you will end up with a brick. Still tastes good, but really dense. Rye dough does not rise any where near as much as wheat dough. Typically it will only rise from 1 to 2 cm.
Cover the bowl with a lid to keep it moist. I just use a chopping board. Leave it at room temperature to rise for about 12 hours.
Once the dough has risen you need to put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. This will stop the dough from slumping when you try to shape it to fit in the pot to bake. I usually leave it in overnight and bake early in the morning.
Baking
Get the pot ready by preheating it in a Fan Forced oven at 200 Deg C. You can do this while you get the dough ready.
Once the pot is up to temperature you will need to use oven Mitts to take it out and place the shaped dough in it. This must be done while the pot is hot. Be careful!!!!
To shape the dough you will need two dough scrapers. You can use spatulas but this is awkward. The dough scrapers are much better and about $5 each at kitchen suppliers or eBay.
Spread out enough flour to so the dough does not touch the bench.
Extract the dough from the bowl with a rubber or plastic spatula.
Now shape the dough so you can pick it up with the dough scrapers and drop it into the preheated pot. Use the flour on the board to push the dough into shape. Make sure the sides of the dough are covered in flour or it will cement itself to the pot.
Pick the shaped dough up and drop it into the pot. Be careful not to burn yourself on the pot. It does not matter what shape the dough is. It will slump down to fit the pot as it bakes.
Place the pot and dough in the oven at 200 Deg C with the lid ON. Bake with the lid on for 40 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake for another 55 minutes.
All up the bread is baked for 1 Hour and 35 minutes. Take the pot out of the oven and tip out the bread onto a rack to cool.
Wait for the bread to cool before you try to cut it. It can still be quite claggy until it cools.
If the bread is still claggy after it has cooled then it hasn’t baked long enough. Extend the last baking step with the lid off by another 5 minutes. Usually this only happens near the bottom of the loaf.
This is what happens when the dough mixture is too wet. You end up with a big bubble at the top.
Starter
To manage the starter I use two old preserving jars. Each time I bake I feed the starter with the flour left over from the shaping step. Then I transfer it all to the second bottle. Then I can wash the first bottle up ready for the next bake.
A lot of articles on baking discard half of the starter each day before feeding. I don’t bother with this. I just keep adding two spoon fulls of flour and two of water each day. When I bake I just use most of the starter each time. No waste!!
