I confess, I am not a fan of caraway seeds. I think maybe I over loaded on them when I was a child, or maybe I never liked them. Recently, however, I have used them in cooking (rather than baking) as they are called for in my recipe for cabbage rolls (which I LOVE) and I have come to appreciate that a teeny tiny amount of caraway seeds taste rather delicious.
Simple recipe for rye and spelt sourdough bread with caraway seeds
This is a traditional mixed grain bread recipe off the boat from any of the Northern countries where rye rules and caraway is a frequent and honoured guest. It's simple to do and the results are delicious.
Ingredients
- 130 g Rye sourdough from the vat in the fridge
- 125 g Dark or light rye flour
- 275 g Whole or white spelt flour (or a mixture)
- 210 g Water
- 50 g Malt syrup (or use honey, agave, or molasses)
- 8 g Salt
- 50 g Lard (oy you can use butter)
- 1/2 tsp caraway seeds (really, no need for more)
Instructions
Day One
- Measure the sourdough starter into a large bowl and return any remaining starter to the refrigerator.
- Add 25 g of the rye flour, 25 of the spelt flour and 60 g of the water. Stir and cover with plastic wrap, and leave on the counter for around 8 hours.
Day Two
- Add the remaining ingredients and knead well for 10 minutes. Cover the bowl with a shower hat and let it rest for 1 hour on the counter.
- Generously flour a medium sized (around 800 g) round proofing basket.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a floury work surface. With wet hands and a scraper, gently stretch and fold it and then shape it into a tight ball.
- Cover it with a shower hat and let it rest for 3-5 hours. It's hard to do the probe test with rye but the dough will have risen a lot and will be soft to touch – your finger tip will easily leave dents in the dough.Image: Caraway rye resting
- Sprinkle a lot of flour over the dough and pick it up with a scraper and put it floury side down in the basket. Cover it with a shower hat and let it rest for 3-5 hours. It's hard to do the probe test with rye but the dough will have risen a lot and will be soft to touch – your finger tip will easily leave dents in the dough
- Preheat the oven to 230 degrees celsius and turn the dough out of the basket onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Put in the dough.
- Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the heat to 200 degrees celsius and bake for a further 30 minutes.Image: Inside of caraway rye
- Remove from the tin and let cool completely on a wire rack.Image Rather lovely pattern on outside of caraway rye.
Another great recipe from the all-new, re-written Home Made Sourdough (UK edition) that comes out sometime soon! Click here if you need to learn more about making and using a rye starter before you begin.
I only (so far ..) maintain an all-purpose flour sourdough starter. If I use that, can I follow theater if the recipe as written?
Hi Sarah, this is a rye starter recipe which behaves a little differently from wheat. Actually a lot differently. Howver, if you would like to try this with a wheat starter, (now I am going to kind of make this up but it should work) try this:
50 g of your starter + 50 g spelt flour + 50 g water. stir, leave on counter overnight covered.
add the rest of the spelt and rye flour called for and add about 260 g water. you may need more (like quite a bit more – don’t worry if you do) because there is quite a bit of rye. Knead and follow the recipe!
Let me know how it works out! And while you experiment, you can make a rye starter. I use mine more than the wheat starter, to be honest, because it’s much more active and punchy!
Thank you so much. I look forward to trying this and will let you know how it goes.
I grew my own sourdough starter 3 years ago with the recipe from Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman and have mostly been using his sourdough bread recipes, modifying my starter/liquid ratio as necessary as I maintain a stiff culture and the book has recipes using stiff or liquid cultures.