Wholemeal rye bread
Rye dough has no gluten in a form you can knead — it is a sticky paste rather than a springy ball, and that is fine. That is why you shape it with a wet spoon in a tin, not with your hands on a counter. And why rye bread is cut no sooner than 12 hours later, ideally after a full day: any earlier and the crumb is gummy.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Rye preferment 480 min
- Mixing the dough 15 min
- Proving in the tin 150 min
- Baking 70 min
- Maturing the loaf 720 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneSet the preferment in the evening
Mix the active starter with 200 g of rye flour and 200 ml of lukewarm water. Cover and leave for 8 hours at room temperature. By morning it should have doubled, be full of bubbles and smell sour, not vinegary.
Ingredients: 60 g rye starter · 200 g rye flour · 200 ml water
TipA vinegar smell means over-fermentation. Cut the preferment to 6 hours or move it somewhere cooler.
Doubled in volume and densely bubbled — the preferment is ready.Mix the dough with a wet spatula
Add the remaining flour, water, salt, honey and caraway to the preferment. Mix with a wet spatula for 5 minutes — the dough should be a sticky paste you can only stir, never knead. Fold in the seeds.
Ingredients: 300 g rye flour · 280 ml water · 12 g salt · 1 tbsp honey · 2 tsp caraway seeds · 60 g sunflower seeds · 2 tbsp rye or oat flakes
TipDo not add flour to make it kneadable. Rye simply looks like this, and trying to knead it ruins the bread.
A sticky paste rather than a springy ball — that is rye.Transfer to a loaf tin
Line a 25 cm tin with paper and scrape in the dough with a wet spoon. Smooth the top with a wet spoon or hand so there are no cracks — a dry surface splits unattractively while baking. Scatter over the flakes.
Ingredients: 300 g rye flour · 280 ml water · 12 g salt · 1 tbsp honey · 2 tsp caraway seeds · 60 g sunflower seeds · 2 tbsp rye or oat flakes
A wet spoon smooths a surface a dry hand cannot even touch.Prove to three quarters of the tin
Cover and leave for 2–3 hours somewhere warm until the dough reaches three quarters of the tin's height and small holes or cracks appear on the surface. Rye never rises as high as wheat — that is normal. Towards the end heat the oven to 230°C.
Ingredients: 300 g rye flour · 280 ml water · 12 g salt · 1 tbsp honey · 2 tsp caraway seeds · 60 g sunflower seeds · 2 tbsp rye or oat flakes
TipDo not wait for doubling. Over-proved rye collapses in the oven and gives a dense, wet base.
Bake at two temperatures
Bake 15 minutes at 230°C, then reduce to 190°C and bake another 55 minutes. The hot start gives lift, the lower heat cooks the dense centre through. The internal temperature should reach 96°C.
Ingredients: 300 g rye flour · 280 ml water · 12 g salt · 1 tbsp honey · 2 tsp caraway seeds · 60 g sunflower seeds · 2 tbsp rye or oat flakes
Wait a day before slicing
Turn out and cool on a rack, then wrap in a linen cloth and wait 12–24 hours. Rye starch needs that time to bind the water. Cut earlier, the bread is gummy and drags on the knife.
Ingredients: 300 g rye flour · 280 ml water · 12 g salt · 1 tbsp honey · 2 tsp caraway seeds · 60 g sunflower seeds · 2 tbsp rye or oat flakes
Before you start
Shelf life
Rye sourdough keeps a week, and its flavour keeps deepening over the first few days. Store it in a linen cloth, never in plastic.
Without a starter
A rye starter takes seven days to build from scratch — just rye flour and water. Yeast cannot replace it in rye bread: without the acidity, rye's own enzymes break down the starch during baking and the crumb stays gummy.
Add-ins
Pumpkin seeds, linseed, sunflower and dried cranberries all work well. Do not exceed 100 g in total — a heavier dough rises noticeably less.
