- 300g Sourdough Starter
- 600g Water (lukewarm)
- 350g Wheat Flour (I use Shipton's #4)
- 500g Rye Flour (I use Organic Dark Rye Flour - Type 1350)
- 20g Sea Salt
- Mix everything except the salt. (I use a KitchenAid Mixer with dough hook for about 5min, but you can mix by hand as well). Make sure all is well mixed and the flour is well hydrated. Cover with a towel and rest for one hour.
- After one hour, add the salt. I add two tbsp of warm water to easier dissolve the salt before turning on the mixer with dough hook for another 10min or until the dough passes window pane test. Then perform a set of stretch and fold.
- After 30min, perform another stretch and fold
- After a further 30min, perform the third and last stretch and fold and let the dough rest for about 2.5-3hrs.
- Lightly flour your work space and divide the dough into 2 halves of about equal size (but do not take from one dough and add to the other if the size is not equal, simply have a small and a large bread)
- For each portion, pad it down a bit and fold from top 2/3 down, then from bottom 2/3 up followed by 2/3 from left and 2/3 from the right. Turn over the dough and form into a ball. At the end, drag the dough over an unfloured part of you workspace, turn it by 90 degrees, drag it over again and repeat until the bottom is sealed.
- Put the doughs down into two well-floured proving baskets (or into bowls lined with a well-floured towels), cover with towels and let rest for about an hour or until dough passes finger-poke test.
- Pre-heat over to at least 250 degrees centigrade (480F) with a Dutch oven inside. (I bake at 260 degrees)
- Turn-over the proving basket onto a sheet of baking paper, score the bread to your liking and lift it with the baking paper into the Dutch oven
- Bake for 28-30min with lid on, then take the lid off and bake for a further 7-10min, depending on how dark and crunchy you want the crust. Repeat with the second loaf (Be aware of the timing, you may have to put the first loaf in a bit earlier to ensure the second loaf is not over-proved. Ideally, you have two Dutch ovens and can bake in parallel)
- Cool on wire racks for at least one hour before cutting, ideally only cut the bread the next day.
In case you do not have a Dutch oven, put a roasting tin into the oven when it is heating up (step 8. above) and fill with boling water just when you put in the bread. Make sure you have a hot baking stone or a baking sheet in the oven as well (at step 8.). Take out the roasting tin with the water after 28-30min and let the bread bake a further 7-10min (essentially the equivalent of taking off the lid from the Dutch oven).