Rye Sourdough starter

[yoshka]

Has anyone a recipe how to make a rye sourdough starter and recipes for artisnal rye breads?

TIA

Yoshka

[polack]

Has anyone a recipe how to make a rye sourdough starter and recipes for artisnal rye breads?

TIA

Yoshka

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One way is to look at www.pbs.org/juliachild and pick Nancy Siverton or type www.pbs.org/juliachild/meet/silverton.html and you will get right there. Just sub the white flour with rye flour and you will be good to go. I have Nancy's book and she says, a lot of people use the white starter to make rye, so it's up to you.

Polack

[McDuff]

Make the Levy rye from Roses's Bread Bible. Not bad at all.

[jackal10]

Rye is easy, as it has lots of fermentable sugars and the right bugs.

Just make a slurry with the rye and equal amount of boiled cooled water, and keep at 30C/85F until bubbly - a few days. Then add equal amounts of rye flour and water to one third of the culture every 12 hours or so, and keep warm. After three days its done.

No grapes, sugar, yeast or magic. Just rye and water

[polack]

Has anyone a recipe how to make a rye sourdough starter and recipes for artisnal rye breads?

TIA

Yoshka

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If anyone would know the best way, Jackal10 will. Listen to his advice and you won't go wrong.

[Sobaicecream]

Has anyone a recipe how to make a rye sourdough starter and recipes for artisnal rye breads?

TIA

Yoshka

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Hey Yoshka, if you want a very detailed description of how to make a rye starter, check out this page. The best thing about this site is that there are lots and lots of pictures all along the way.

I just made a starter this year myself, and I think the most important thing I learned is that sometimes it's more important to make sure your starter is the right consistency, rather than just following the amounts a starter recipe gives you. What I mean is that the recipe might say: "mix xxx-grams of flour and xxx-grams of water together," but the mixture you end up with might be too dry or too watery. And if you've never made a starter before, how would you know right?

So if you can roughly compare (of course your starter won't be doing the exact same thing as this guy's starter, hour for hour) your starter's development with this one, you might feel a little more sure.

Good luck!

[devinf]

Equal parts rye flour and water does the trick. Just feed it once a day - take out a portion of the existing starter (say 1 pound) and add equal parts rye flour and water. Rinse, repeat...

Here's a killer recipe I made just last week, sorry for the large numbers, but make big batches. Also made using a large 40 quart mixer, so not sure how this would translate into a home environment. You could divide it up or use baker's percentage I suppose...

Caraway Rye Sourdough

2#2oz. high gluten flour

2#2oz. organic whole wheat flour

1#2oz. coarse rye flour

3#10oz. rye starter

3#10oz. water

1 oz. fresh yeast

2 1/2 oz. salt

2 oz. caraway seeds

1- Straight mixing method (5 minutes at 1st gear on Hobart).

2- Bulk fermentation for 1 1/2 hours, perform a fold/turn at 45 minutes.

3- Scale out 1 1/2 pound loaves. Bench rest before shaping. I make rounds and proof in baskets dusted with rye flour, but suppose you could make batards or some other shape.

4- Final proof 1-2 hours

5- Bake at 425F with steam.

I use a docker on the top of the round before loading it in the oven rather than scoring it. It is a wonderful and fragrant bread. Taste good right out of the oven and even better the next day.

Devin

[artisanbaker]

i would venture to say that jeffrey hamelman's new book covers this as he is one of the most knowledgeable bakers i know on this subject.

getting rye dough to ferment is very easy. gettting rye dough to rise is where the challenge lies.

[yoshka]

Thank you all for your kind suggestions and replies.

I am going to start my rye starter next week and will try few bread recipes.

I will report when its all done.

Yoshka

[jackal10]

Rye dough is very sticky to handle, and the gluten is different.

You might find it easier to start with half rye and half bread flour.

[BakerChick]

Jackal-

Why do you boil the water before using it to start your levain?

[jackal10]

Jackal-

Why do you boil the water before using it to start your levain?

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Two reasons:

One is so that it is reasonably sterile - you want the bugs in the rye, not water bourn ones.

Second is to drive off the chlorine or other sterilising agents the water company adds. In some places these can be strong enough to inhibit the natural yeasts and lactobacilli before they get a good strong population going.

You could use a mild still bottled water instead.