Farmer Style Rye (Bauernbrot)

Today I put together a simple sourdough starter for a farmer style rye bread. Rye bread comes in many forms and is near and dear to the hearts of every Germanic bread eater. Rye breads range from the very dark, moist and slightly sweet pumpernickel to the Jewish-American white rye loaf often served with smoked meat or pastrami sandwiches. The most common rye breads we find are the mixed flour breads (Mischbrot), blending the rye flour with white or whole wheat flours to create lighter rye loaves. Rye breads are very commonly made with a sourdough starter and this, combined with its denser and moister crumb makes for bread that keeps well for a long time. Rye breads typically also include ground or whole spices, such as caraway and often have additions of coffee, molasses and cocoa.

Starter Song: Tiger B. Smith, Tiger Rock (1974)

Im going to leave this starter out for two days to try encourage some nice sour fermentation in the dough. Sourdough starters typically are cultivated over a week and longer and require feeding and care...Im just going to wait two days and add some vinegar if its not sour enough. Ill try out a long term sourdough starter later, when it gets a little warmer.

Farmer Rye Sourdough Starter:

3/4 cup Rye Flour
3/4 cup Bread Flour
1 1/2 cup Water
2 tsp. Active Dry Yeast
2 tsp. Brown Sugar or Honey

Combine water, yeast and sugar in a large bowl, mix well and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Add Flour, mix to form wet dough and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place for 2 days.

I am planning to add some cracked rye seeds for extra flavor and texture. Before adding the seeds to the dough you need to do a few things to prepare them. Firstly you need crack the seeds open. I don't have a grain mill, which would make this process very simple, so I am using my mortar and pestle to crack the seeds. You don't need to pulverize the grains into a powder, the idea is just to crack open the outer shell of the seeds. The next step is to place the cracked seeds into a non-reactive container and soak them with water for 24 hours.