Ingredients:
active sourdough starter (from 5 spoons of rye flour)
150 g rye flour
350 g wholegrain spelt flour
1 heaping teaspoon salt
220 ml warm water
​Method:
  • Add salt to the flour, stir it and add the starter. Gradually add warm water. Not all flours need the same amount of water!
  • Bring the dough together. The structure of the dough is the same as any normal bread dough, it should come off the bowl nicely. If the dough is to wet and it sticks to the bowl, simply add a bit more flour.
  • Dust the baking tray (or a mould), put the dough on it and cover it with a cloth. Leave it to rise in a warm place. I usually prepare the dough in the morning, go to work and come back after 7 hours. The dough forms a bit of a crust, but that’s fine, because we won’t knead it anymore. You can leave to rise for less or even more, depending on how much active the bacteria in the starter are.
  • If you don’t have the time to bake the bread on the same day, save the proofed dough in the fridge. Take it out the next morning and leave in a warm place to rise for another 5-7 hours.
  • Place an oven proof cup, filled with water, on the bottom of the oven and set the temperature at 240°C. Because I bake all my breads on a baking stone, I warm up the oven for 20 minutes at 240°C to really heat up the baking stone. The really hot baking stone is crucial for the crunchy crust. Sprinkle some corn semolina over the stone and lay the dough on it. Lower the temperature to 220°C.
  • Bake the bread 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of the loaf. The bread is done, when the crust is firm and nicely brown, and it sounds hollow when you tap on it with a wooden spoon.
  • Wrap the bread with a kitchen cloth and leave it to slowly cool down.

SOURDOUGH STARTER MADE ​FROM RYE FLOUR


​Ingredients:
5 heaping spoons rye flour (120-130 g)
200 ml home-made kefir
1 teaspoon sugar


Method:
  • Mix the ingredients together. This will give you around 330 g of sourdough starter.
  • The amount is enough for a bread prepared with 500 g of flour.
  • Simply mix together all ingredients and leave it in a warm place for 6 hours (I leave it on a radiator), for bacteria to activate, multiply and do their thing. You can prepare sourdough starter with any other flour, but with rye flour it activates faster.
  • When preparing bread, simply add sourdough starter to the flour, add other ingredients and bring the dough together as you would with any other bread recipe. Then leave it to rise for 6 hours, in a mould or on a baking tray in which you are going to bake the bread.