Simple Sourdough Rye

A sweet, nutty, dense loaf of artisanal sourdough rye. This recipe uses half whole grain dark rye flour (AKA, pumpernickel flour), and half all purpose flour to keep the loaf from getting too dense.

I LOVE RYE. There, I said it. Now you know. Some people are only so-so about rye. Not me. I'm all in. The nuttier, the better. Love the flavor, love the color, love the texture. Love it slathered in sweet jam, love it as a ham sandwich, love the leftover odds and ends as croutons. I LOVE IT.

This loaf also is on my shortlist of must-makes for beginners. I would maybe even go as far as to say this could be THE BREAD you start your sourdough addiction journey with. The dough is really easy to handle and easy to shape, plus the scoring is really satisfying. And when it's all said and done, you get a loaf of RYE, and you know how I feel about that.

Ingredients

Only 5 ingredients are in this bread, 6 if you're counting the water. It's so simple and so good.

• Active sourdough starter - This loaf is leavened completely with an active starter. The combination of slow fermentation + rye is perfection.
• Molasses - Molasses adds a delightful sweetness here, keeps the crumb soft, and helps increase the shelf life of this bread. Oh, it also helps give it that deep brown color. Don't skip it!
• Rye flour - The backbone of the loaf. Rye flour gives this bread its distinct flavor. It's nutty, fruity, and so delicious.
• All purpose flour - Rye flour is dense, so using some all purpose flour keeps the loaf from being weighed down.
• Salt - I've said it before and I'll say it again - the only thing that will make bread inedible is forgetting the salt.

The Flour

The integral flour for a rye bread is, of course, rye flour.

Rye flour is milled from rye berries and is rather dense, so I like to use half rye/half all purpose to keep this loaf at the perfect midpoint between airy and dense.

There are several different varieties of rye. For this bread, you'll want to use a dark rye. I like this whole grain stone ground rye, which brings me to my next point...

is this a pumpernickel bread?

This can most definitely be classified as a pumpernickel bread.

Rye flour that contains the whole grain is also called pumpernickel flour. So, in that sense, this is a pumpernickel loaf.

BUT I'm going to classify it as a rye bread, since by most classic standards pumpernickel bread doesn't contain any wheat flour, and *real* German pumpernickel is a whole different beast that's baked in a covered loaf pan at a low temperature for like a day.

So, call this whatever you want! Rye or pumpernickel, whatever you call it, it is GOOD.

Mixing

This is a really soft dough that needs a decent amount of mixing to form the gluten, so I do like to use my mixer here. You can do it by hand, but it'll take some work!

Start by mixing the water, starter, and molasses until smooth. Then add the flours and salt and mix until no dry flour remains. Cover it and let it rest for 15 minutes, then mix it for 1-2 more minutes. Do another set of resting and mixing if you remember. Then scrape down the sides, cover, and let rise 12-14 hours.

Shaping

This dough is really easy to shape! It's not overly sticky, and I find it really holds its shape well.

Shape this however you like to make your boules or battards. If you're not sure how to do it, you can pop over to this post to see step-by-step photos of my favorite (easy!) method.

Scoring + Baking

Maybe one of my favorite parts of making this bread is the scoring. Give it a good sprinkle of rice flour, and try something fun! It will show up really well against the dark loaf.

The density of the rye flour needs a touch longer to cook through than a typical loaf of sourdough, so I do 20 minutes at 450 degrees with the lid to the Dutch oven on, then I drop the temperature to 400 and do another 30 minutes without the lid.

Let it cool for at least an hour before slicing. This bread takes the smell of freshly baked bread to a whole other level, so I find this wait particularly hard!