My number one among rye breads: packed with sunflower and pumpkin seeds and it's a sourdough on rye starter.
Tip to start with: make two loaves with double the amounts of ingredients. This is so incredibly tasty you’ll wish it hadn’t gone quite so quickly if you bake just one small loaf.
Blonde Pumpernickel, only better
This is a blonde Pumpernickel without the Pumpernickely crumbliness. As all rye breads it is best after a couple of days’ rest, sliced thinly, not toasted (though some will argue).
The seed content will satisfy the harshest fibre-obsessed nutritionist and the small addition of white flour makes it less stodgy.
Is it gluten free?
It isn't. Rye isn’t the holy grain (haha) for gluten free diet, this little I know, but it is more digestible for those lighter affected with intolerance.
You can replace the white wheat flour addition with spelt and that way you can probably feed a sensitive stomach.
Borodinsky, eat your heart out!
I was making this alongside the Borodinsky, the true blue (black) rye because I didn’t want to waste my rye starter. We sliced both loaves in turn over a few days and the prize actually went to this seeded number: a third of Borodinsky loaf was still left after the seedy one was long gone.
Rye sourdough bread on rye starter
If you'd like to get a rye starter running, see the recipe for basic rye sourdough, it explains step by step how to go about it. There are two types of rye flour: dark and light; similarly to white and wholemeal wheat flours.
The dark rye is very heavy indeed but good to start and maintain your sour. Light rye flour is better used in the actual bread dough.
Once you have a lively starter, bubbling away in your airing cupboard or the warmest spot of the kitchen, making the bread is a two-stage process. The ferment, which is the first or initial dough, will need twelve to eighteen hours to mature.
But then the dough proper does not have to rise in bulk, unlike wheat dough. It is shaped immediately - as much as you can shape the gloopy muddy mass - and sets for a long rise. Oh yes, rye is a slow and serious affair.
When it's risen to the top of the tin, it can be baked. Don't expect any oven rise: what you see after the proof is what you will take out of the oven.
And like all rye breads, you have to be patient with it. Let it rest overnight, wrapped in linen or parchment. The next day you'll be able to slice it thinly and marvel how wonderfully delicious it is.