Wheat and rye sourdough: the everyday loaf, from a tin
This is the kind of loaf found on many Polish tables every day: darker than white bread, lighter than wholemeal rye and clearly tangy. The ratio of 70 % wheat to 30 % rye is not arbitrary — wheat brings gluten and volume, rye brings flavour and moisture. The dough is sticky and hard to shape by hand, which is why it is baked in a loaf tin. That simplifies matters: there is no shaping at all, only smoothing with a wet spoon.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Levain 720 min
- Dough 135 min
- Baking 55 min
- Cooling 240 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneBuild the levain in the evening
Mix the starter with the rye flour and lukewarm water into a thick paste. Cover and leave on the counter 12 hours. By morning it should have doubled, be full of bubbles and smell clearly sour but pleasant — like yogurt, not vinegar.
Ingredients: 60 g rye sourdough starter · 150 g rye flour · 150 ml water
TipA levain that has collapsed and smells sharply of vinegar is over-fermented. It will still bake bread, but sourer and with less lift. Cut the time to 10 hours next time.
Doubled, bubbled, sour like yogurtMix the dough
To the levain add both flours, the water, salt, honey and caraway. Mix with a sturdy spoon or a dough hook for 6 minutes. The dough will be sticky and heavy, hard to knead by hand — with 30 % rye that is normal.
Ingredients: 500 g strong bread flour · 50 g rye flour · 330 ml water · 13 g salt · 1 tbsp honey · 1 tsp caraway seeds
Sticky and heavy, mixed rather than kneadedScrape into the tin with a wet spoon
Line a 30 cm loaf tin with paper and grease it. Press the dough in with a spoon dipped in water, working out air pockets, and smooth the top. Spray with water and scatter with seeds.
Ingredients: 1 tbsp oil · 2 tbsp mixed seeds
A wet spoon — the dough won't stick to itProve for two hours
Cover and leave somewhere warm 2 hours. The dough should rise by half, to about 2 cm below the rim, and fine cracks appear on the surface. Those cracks, not the clock, are the signal it is ready. After an hour and a half heat the oven to 230 °C with an empty tin on the bottom shelf.
TipBread with a high proportion of rye <b>does not double</b>. Waiting for that means over-proving: the loaf sinks in the oven and leaves a dense band at the base.
Fine cracks on the surface: time to bakeBake with steam, then without
Put the loaf into the oven heated to 230 °C, pour a cup of boiling water into the tin below and bake 15 minutes. Then drop to 200 °C, release the steam and bake another 40 minutes.
A quarter hour in steam, forty minutes withoutCool at least four hours
Turn it out and cool on a rack at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. Rye loaves cut warm are gummy — the crumb only sets as it cools, and that is chemistry rather than caution.
Four hours on the rack before the knife
Before you start
Where to get a starter
Ask a bakery, or make your own: 50 g of wholemeal rye flour and 50 ml of water daily for 6–7 days, discarding half each time. A mature starter doubles within a few hours (usually 4–8) of feeding.
Flour ratios
70 % wheat gives a light, tall loaf. At 50:50 the bread is darker, moister and clearly sourer, but also lower — above 40 % rye the gluten can no longer cope.
How long it stays fresh
Five days in a cloth or linen bag, cut side down. The acids from the starter slow down mould and staling, so the loaf keeps longer than one made with yeast alone.
Without a starter
Instead of the starter use 10 g of dried yeast and 2 tablespoons of natural yogurt, and mix the levain flour and water straight into the dough — the overnight stage goes, and the rise in the tin shortens to about an hour. The bread will be good, only without that characteristic tang, and it will stale faster.
