Easy Sourdough Rye Bread

All you need are some basic ingredients:

• Rye flour: I am using the King Arthur Baking Company’s medium rye flour but you can use dark rye flour, too
• Sourdough starter: if you don’t already have your own sourdough starter, you can easily make one with this simple method
• Salt: this is my favorite sea salt
• Caraway seeds: while these are optional, they are the classic spice for rye breads, especially those in Eastern Europe

Given that people have been baking breads for thousands of years, you really don’t need any special equipment. But since we live in modern times, I like to use the following:

• Large bowl: my favorite one is an enamel bowl but any bowl works.
• Kitchen scale: weighing your ingredients with a digital scale really helps get the recipe right more than volume measurements
• Big beeswax wrap: I love using beeswax wraps to keep my bread doughs from drying out. Alternatively, you can use plastic wrap.
• Bench scraper: while not strictly necessary, using a bench scraper can help manage your dough.
• Banneton: I like letting my sourdough rye bread dough rise in a well-seasoned proofing basket.
• Parchment paper: this helps to transfer the dough to the dutch oven.
• Cast iron dutch oven: you can bake this rye bread on a cookie sheet or pizza stone but baking it in a cast iron dutch oven keeps it from getting too big and flat.

Simply follow this step-by-step tutorial for your first rye sourdough bread:

1. Make sure you have an active sourdough starter. If you don’t, check out my no measuring, no discard sourdough method. Unless you really want a true 100% rye bread, you can use any sourdough starter you have.
2. Add your sourdough starter to a large mixing bowl.
3. Then add warm water and mix it well with the sourdough starter.
4. Weigh your rye flour and sea salt. Add them to the sourdough mixture and stir really well. You can also do this in a stand mixer, using the dough hook. You might notice that this is a fairly sticky dough and that’s ok!
5. Cover your bowl with a beeswax wrap, plastic wrap, or damp towel.
6. Let the dough rise in a warm spot. Even at room temperature, you can still make a great rye bread, you might just need to let it ferment longer.
7. After about 4-7 hours, check your dough. It has a nice rise if you can poke the dough with your finger and feel some spring.
8. Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface.
9. With floured hands gently roll the dough into a ball.
10. Transfer the dough ball into a floured banneton and cover it with a beeswax wrap, plastic wrap, or moist tea towel.
11. For the second rise place it in a warm spot until it has risen by about 50%.
12. Place a piece of parchment paper and a big plate over the proofing basket. Carefully, flip the proofing basket so that the dough ball is now on the parchment paper.
13. Carefully transfer the dough ball on the parchment paper to a preheated dutch oven and put the lid on.
14. Bake in a preheated oven at 400˚F for 30 mins.
15. Remove the lid and bake for another 20-30 mins.
16. Check the internal temperature. Ideally, it should be around 205˚F. When done, remove the bread from the dutch oven and let it cool on a wire rack.
17. Ideally, wait 24 hours before cutting the fresh bread.

• Night of day 1: prepare your sourdough starter if you don’t have it on the counter
• Day 2 – 8 am: mix the dough, first rise
• 12 pm: transfer the dough to the proofing basket for the second rise
• 5 pm: bake the bread
• Day 3: cut the bread and enjoy!

Here are some ideas for variations and substitutions:

• Rye flour: I used a medium rye flour. However, you can use a dark rye flour or white rye flour, depending on your preference and availability.
• Whole grains: I used a finely milled flour for this bread recipe. You can always add some whole rye grains as well. If you like them soft, you can boil them before you add them to the dough. Or you mill them very coarsely, almost like a cracked grain.
• Other flours: Replacing any amount of rye flour with white bread flour will create a lighter, fluffier bread due to the wheat’s gluten structure.
• Other seeds: Feel free to omit the caraway seeds completely. Grinding them beforehand you will barely taste them at all. You can also add some fennel seeds or a small amount of sunflower seeds.
• Sourdough starter: Even though I think you can use any sourdough starter that you already have, you can also use a true sourdough rye starter which will give you a 100% rye bread.

How to eat this simple sourdough rye bread

Obviously you can eat bread any way you want.

However, Europeans eat this popular bread with cheeses and cold cuts that can stand up to the bold flavor.

Also, you can serve slices of rye bread with any hearty soup such as a Russian Borscht, pea soup, potato soup or any other stew.

Sourdough breads last longer than yeast-based breads. I have easily kept it 7 days at room temperature and it was still good. Ideally, you’ll want to keep it in a linen bread bag or in a bread box. There’s a good chance that your bread will last up to 2 weeks if you store it correctly.

And remember that salt makes bread last longer. Therefore you can play with the amount of salt, too.

If you’d like to keep it longer, you can also freeze rye bread. For that, I recommend you cut it into slices before freezing. You can then either take out individual slices or the entire bread at once. For best results, you want to put the bread slices in an airtight freezer container or in another airtight bag. Then it will last several months, 3 at least.

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