
This Bread uses 15% rye flour and 85% wheat flour. As long as the rye flour does not exceed 30% of the loaf, it’s does not qualify as a rye bread. The original recipe called for 500ml cold water, 250g fermented dough, 250g starter, 750 plain flour, 85g rye flour etc. which was too much for our consumption, and the preparation was too complicated. So I simplified the recipe and modified it to bake a smaller loaf. Here’s what I did.
Modified recipe.
Ingredients:
400g unbleached bread flour
60g light rye flour

The sticky round ball of mixed dough.
345g water (75% hydration)
8g sea salt.
1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 1/2 Tbs caraway seeds

Next day, the risen dough.
Method:
Mix both flours, caraway seeds and salt in a bowl. In a separate jug, measure in the water and the yeast and stir till homogenous. Then add the liquid to the dry mix and stir for a few minutes till you get a round sticky ball of dough. Leave this covered, overnight in the bowl. Next day, transfer the risen dough gently on to a floured mat and fold the dough a few times to form a loaf.

Let this proof further for 2 hours. About 1 1/2 hours into the proofing, start up your oven and heat this to 235˚C or 240˚C. Have a shallow metal tray in the oven for steaming. When the dough has risen, and does not bounce back when you depress the surface with your finger, slash the dough surface 4 to 5 times with a bread knife to make 1/2 inch deep cuts and then transfer the dough to the oven and place in 1/2 cup of hot water on the tray for steaming. Bake at 230˚C for 25 to 30 minutes or till golden brown. I spritz once with water in the first 10 minutes.

Remove the hot loaf to cool on a metal rack. Best eaten same day with strong cheddar cheese.
“Christ knew that by bread alone you cannot reanimate man. If there were no spiritual life, no ideal of Beauty, man would pine away, die, go mad, kill himself or give himself to pagan fantasies. And as Christ, the ideal of Beauty in Himself and his Word, he decided it was better to implant the ideal of Beauty in the soul. If it exists in the soul, each would be the brother of everyone else and then, of course, working for each other, all would also be rich. Whereas if you give them bread, they might become enemies to each other out of boredom.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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