Bread Making 101: Whole Grain Rye Sourdough Bread

I love rye bread and Evelyn Fields bakes up a delicious loaf in this post. I hope that you enjoy it!

Just warning, the recipe I'm sharing is complicated but I believe makes a really digestible bread. I started with this rye recipe that is easy to follow & has great pictures. It you don't have a lot of bread baking experience, I would start with the linked recipe.

Whole Grain Sourdough Rye Bread & low temperature cooking:

2.5 c. grain (I used a mix of rye, spelt, barley & wheat)
4 c. whole wheat flour & starter
1 Tbsp salt
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1/2 c. molasses or Rapadura sugar
2.5 Tbsp Caraway seeds
Oats for non-stick

The night before:
1.Soak 2.5 cups grain in water & tsp of whey. (It will increase to 3 cups)
2.In another bowl, mix 3.5 cups flour with your sourdough starter & just enough water to mix (save 1/2 cup of flour for kneading).

The next day:
1.Drain soaked grain & blend in food processor(1-2 minutes).
2.In separate large bowl, mix all ingredients except soaked grain.
3.Once well mixed add grain in & mix with hands & form into a gooey ball.
4.Liberally flour cutting board & roll your gooey dough ball around on it to well coat the outside. This is not a typical knead, you just want the outside of the dough to dry up a bit from the flour. The inside of the ball will still be very moist.
5.Sprinkle oats on cooking stone (I tried it on the stone & in the cast iron pan but I liked the stone better.) & place dough on top.
6.Place in oven for 1 hour on warm.
7.Turn oven up to 210 degrees & bake for around 4 hours.
8.It is done when you can push on it & it feels done & the inside temp is around 190.

*This is pre-cooked dough.
*This bread doesn't really rise so it is pretty dense & moist. We used if for sandwiches & with butter. It is very flavorful & hopefully keeps a lot of nutrients from not being cooked at a high temp & all the soaking. Good luck on your baking adventures.