Sourdough Country Rye Bake

Caroline

Thursday morning, I pull the starter out of the fridge and feed it. With half a loaf left in the bread box, it's time to bake again. Mill some rye kernels into flour; mix with 20 g of starter, bread flour and water. Repeat at bedtime.

What is it about sourdough? Challenge. Why settle for downhill when you can telemark! Crazy isn't it but, it's true. It's also a healthy choice. Good for the microbiome and all that jazz. OK, it's also delicious as heck!

Thursday morning starter feed.

Starter feeds and dough prep take place in the laundry room. Since the process stretches over 3 days, I like to keep the mess contained and out of the way.

An old pine hutch holds all the necessary tools: note book, Tartine Bread book, pans, flours, kernels, dough bowls, bannetons, utensils (and a spurtle to name one), flour mill, etc. Oh, I forgot the Brød-Taylor proofer. Since we keep a cool house at 19ºC, it was necessary to invest in this gadget to keep starter, levain and dough happy.

The right tools make the job much easier

Friday morning 8 o'clock finds me mixing my levain. I measured the flour the night before to expedite this step... after all morning coffee awaits. After 5 hours in the proofer, I start on the dough mix. I quickly realize that I have WAY too much levain. What to do? What to do? What the hoo let's make more bread. You know that feeling you get when you're about to step off the ledge. Well, I experienced it and guess what? I stepped off the ledge and found myself mixing, stretching and folding more dough than I cared to shake a spurtle at! It took sourdough bread making to an Olympic level. Arms of steel!

20 kg of wet dough!

Bulk fermentation comes to an end at 17.00.

Time to divide, shape and conquer.

 

Hero the dog is surprised to see me up at 7 bells on a Saturday morning. I turn on the oven and start scoring. I decide to keep it simple before coffee. Après café, I ramp things up with Anna and her lovely scoring tutorial.

I give it a whirl to discover that the scoring process
is very meditative and pleasant.

Sourdough has a life of its own. Truly. You can try your best. But in the end, the dough has the final say. Needless to say, I was very eager to see the end result.

Although the bread did burst out of the score lines...

...it is still visually appealing!

So, there you have it. That is how I came to bake 10 loaves of Tartine's country rye sourdough bread on Saturday morning.