100% Rye Sourdough Bread + Video Recipe | Beets & Bones (2024)

MY BREAD EATING EVOLUTION

• Everything and anything in unrestricted quantities.
• Store-bought’ healthy whole grain’ bread.
• No bread at all.
• Occasionally indulge.
• No, better not.
• Oh, the misery.
• That’s it.. I’m making my own and enjoying every bite!

Enjoying every bite of wholesome, homemade, naturally leavened bread is the only stage I want to stay in. It’s good for my soul and my body — no self-induced deprivation, no indigestion and migraines from commercial hybridized high gluten wheat.

Since I just can’t settle on one thing, I don’t stop experimenting. I make breads with all kinds of grains and seeds – barley, millet, buckwheat, einkorn and spelt, emmer and kamut. When I find a recipe or combination I really enjoy, I record it on this blog and come back to it repeatedly.

RYE IS LOVE ~

Rye is one of my favorite grains. It might be because of my Russian heritage — you know how supposedly our bodies perform at their best on foods of our ancestors? Or maybe because it’s just plain delicious.

Rye breads are moist and sweet, perfect both with salty salmon roe and fruit jams. Whenever I have excess sourdough rye bread, I cut it up into small bites and toast them in the oven. My kids eat it them as snacks, and I use them for making traditional Russian kvass.

100% RYE SOURDOUGH RECIPE

There is plenty of recipes for sourdough rye bread out there. A lot of them are a combination of rye and wheat, including one of my own here. The traditional all-rye breads can be quite time consuming taking several days to put together (like Swedish and German breads).

This recipe is very simple and uses 100% rye flour made from whole ground rye berries. I grind my own using this Victorio mill (the motor is sold separately), but you can also buy already made rye flour. Update: I started using KoMo Mio Grain Mill and never looked back – it transformed my milling experience for the better = faster + quieter + finer grind + prettier 🙂 . If you are familiar with rye flour, it’s darker than wheat but by itself it produces a light gray color, instead of what most people think of as rye color – darker brown.

Traditional pumpernickel breads rely on Maillard reaction – with deep browning occurring during very long (16-24 hours) low temperature baking. To get a pretty brown look, I add a little raw cacao powder. It gives a beautiful color without changing the taste. Plus it kicks in extra nutrients. Extra nutrients is the reason I add sprouted rye flour. I see this brand at some Whole Foods. I make my own following the same steps as in this post. If you cannot source it or make it, just omit it and use more rye flour.

RYE IS A HISTORIC STAPLE IN RUSSIA

In the old Russia (by old I don’t mean Soviet times, but any time between the 11th and 19th century), it was common for peasants and craftsmen to have breakfast of only rye bread and water, and work fatigue-free all day. Folks believed that if you eat wheat before work – you are not much of a worker, you get sleepy and heavy. Wheat breads and pies were for dinners and special occasions — ‘there is food for enjoyment, and there is food for strength’.

HOW TO MAKE 100% RYE SOURDOUGH BREAD

Ingredients
STARTER DOUGH (SPONGE)
2 tablespoons (50g) rye sourdough starter (how to make rye sourdough starter)
1 cup (230g) water
1.5 cups (150g) whole ground rye flour

MAIN DOUGH
All starter dough sponge
1.5 cup (350g) water
2 cups (200g) whole ground rye flour
1 cup (100g) sprouted rye flour (if not available, use rye flour)
2 tablespoons cacao powder (I use raw because it has more nutrients)
2 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander (optional)

Instructions
MAKE STARTER DOUGH:
In a large glass bowl, whisk rye sourdough starter with water until dissolved and frothy.

Add flour and mix with a spoon until no dry bits remain. The mixture will be sloppy.

Cover tightly, and leave at room temperature until it becomes bubbly and ‘soft’ looking (bubbles are easier to see under the surface, that’s why glass bowl is convenient). This can take anywhere from 4 to 12 hours, depending on the temperature but typically rye ferments faster that wheat because it has more nutrients that fermentative yeast and bacteria like. I often start late in the evening and make the main dough early morning.

MAKE MAIN DOUGH:
Mix starter dough with the main dough ingredients until combined and uniform in color.
Cover, and leave at room temperature for 4-10 hours. Here you want to watch the dough more than the time, look for it to soften and puff up (it won’t rise much), then drop slightly. If you don’t have a chance to watch, just go with 6 hours.
With a spoon or a stiff spatula, mix the dough well, and transfer to a bread pan lined with parchment paper (don’t skip the paper even with non-stick pans). I use a deep Pullman loaf pan because I like the straight up sides, but this amount of dough doesn’t fill it all the way even after baking. Regular loaf pan would work just fine. Smooth the top with a wet hand.
Let it rest in the pan no longer than 30 minutes, but no longer than that – if you allow it to rise in the pan too long, it will collapse during baking, which will make the crumb brick-dense and gooey.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350ºF (180ºC) for 45-50 minutes.
It’s best to wait for 24 hours before cutting into it, I know it’s hard but try to wait for at least 8 or 10 hours.

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