Rye Sourdough baking attempt #1

In my ongoing campaign to teach myself to bake (or rather, to bake well), one of my prime goals has been to learn to bake bread. Sourdough has long been one of my favourite types of bread and I was fortunate a couple of months ago to receive some sourdough starters (one rye, one wholemeal) from Johanna of The Passionate Cook (thank you very much Johanna!).

Below are the results of my first attempt which, whilst not an unqualified success, was certainly a great deal better than I was expecting. I used a very basic recipe by S. John Ross, from here and used a mix of rye and wholemeal.

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Rye Sourdough Loaf

The bread took a long long time to rise - in fact due to its sluggishness I turned the oven onto 'Warm' and left the dough on the bench overnight, and the next morning it had risen. This actually works out better for me for future sourdough making, as the 'whole day bread making' shtick is logistically awkward for me, as I'm sure it is for anyone else who spends 12 - 13 hours a day away from home during the week.

During baking, the bottom didn't seem to want to harden, so I baked the loaf on its back for the last five minutes - which, although it probably isn't recommended, did the trick.

The resulting loaf was quite dense and heavy with a good rye flavour and sour taste. I ate mine with a skimming of butter and thick slices of Red Leceister cheese, and it was very yummy (in addition to the warm glow of self-satisfaction). I gave half to Tanya (tatanatanya), who as a native of East Europe was brought up on the stuff, and she said it was a bit too dry, but the taste and texture were really good.

I came to the same conclusion. When I was kneading the dough (which was a lot more fun than I expected, except for the part where my mother rang me up right in the middle) I thought it wasn't elastic enough, but lack of experience made me unsure - and cookbook photos and You-Tube can only be useful to a certain point. So next time, definitely more liquid.

I think I'll also try with a lighter flour/s (I didn't have any strong flour other than rye and wholemeal at the time) and use a lesser portion of rye if included. On the whole however, I think I can definitely rack this one up as a step in the right direction.

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Cut Rye Sourdough Loaf

Comments

[Merouda]

::briefly delurking::

Wonderful! I've been doing a lot of sourdough baking lately, myself. I'm so happy for you that your came out right enough, an I'm encouraged by seeing that I'm not the only one!

I'm actually finding sourdough baking easier than making bread with bakers yeast. :-)

Merouda/Elyse

[Christina]

Yeast bread is next on my agenda!

[Helen]

That's a fabulous looking sourdough you have there! Very impressive.

[Jeanne]

Baking bread is my "final frontier", so always disproportionately impressed when somebody else does it - very well done on your lovely looking loaf!

[natalie]

There is something very emotive about the smell of a freshly cooked and cut load. Very beautiful. Natalie

[Christina]

Thank you Helen, Jeanne and Natalie!

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