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And they said it wasn’t possible to stuff 70% rye in one bread and get a good loaf…
This bread has such great taste and such a nice bite plus, combined with the scattered sweetness of the big raisins, every bite is a delight.
I strongly recommend that every home baker fan of the rye taste makes this bread. It is one of my top 3 favorite breads. Shaping it feels a bit like working with clay, as you can see in the pictures. It is on the other side of the spectrum compared with making 80% hydration baguettes for instance.
For the starter in this recipe I also use a sourdough culture which is made with 100% whole grain rye flour. A sourdough culture based on rye flour is easier to maintain, it does not transform into a slurry when you forget about it, it is easier to stir because it has almost no gluten and it smells very very nice, a bit like fruit. I maintain the starter as an ‘almost’ stiff starter. This way it stirs easy but does not add as much water to the dough as a poolish starter. It is also very forgiving in the amount you feed it. As I am a bit lazy in feeding, normally I only feed it once a week, after my weekend baking. I just give it a few table spoons of water and rye flour, stir, and ready!
This recipe consists of 3 stages spread over 2 days, one evening for the initial starter and the next day for the second stage starter and the making of the bread.
Note: For this recipe we use whole grain rye flour. You can also use medium or fine rye flour or a combination of different rye flours. Just be sure to adjust the amount of water you add to the recipe. Using finer flour means adding less water, because it absorbs less moisture (indication: somewhere between 3 to 5% less water).
Ingredients for the First Stage
15 g rye flour sourdough culture
35 g water
45 g whole rye flour
Ingredients for the Second Stage
the starter from stage 1
110 g water (warm)
110 g whole rye flour
Ingredients for the Third Stage
the starter from stage 2
190 g water
155 g whole rye flour
135 g wheat flour
7,5 g salt
1,4 g instant yeast
110 g raisins of choice (soaked and drained)
Making the Loaf
Stage 1 – Start on day one with the making of the initial starter. Yes, this is a small amount to make a first stage starter, but the amounts are correct for one loaf. Just double or triple the ingredients if you want to or can make more breads in one go. Put the rye sourdough culture* and water in a bowl and stir so the culture dissolves a bit, add the rye flour and bring it all together, forming a sticky and rather stiff dough ball. Leave this to rest at room temperature for at least 15 hours to up to 24 hours at most. I usually make it at 17.00 hours on day one and go on with the next stage the following morning at 09.00 hours.
*You can also use a whole wheat culture if you do not have a rye culture ready (yet) but I would suggest you make one, they are my favorite sourdough cultures both to use and maintain.
Stage 2 – First soak your raisins in hot water for about 30 minutes, rinse in a colander, let them drain and cover until needed (stage 3).
The water you are going to add at this stage has to be warm enough to get your dough to a temperature of about 29ºC / 84ºF. This temperature and the wetter dough promotes the production of lactic acid which will be reflected in a mild sourness in the final bread. Now take the starter from day one, add the warm water and loosen it a bit, then add the rye flour and mix until you have a dough. This dough is a bit wetter than the dough from stage one. Leave to rest for 3 hours at room temperature.
Preheat your oven at 225ºC / 435ºF. Make sure it is well heated when you put in the loaf.
Stage 3 – Making the final dough and baking the bread. Take the dough from stage 2 and, in your mixing bowl, add the other ingredients, except the raisins, to form the final dough. Mix for 7 minutes. The dough will still be very stiff and sticky at this stage. This can be rather heavy duty work for your mixer, so keep a close eye on it, so it will not overheat. Add the raisins after the mixing by pinching them through the dough by hand. If you have a spiral mixer, it can do the work for you. Leave the dough, covered, to rest for 20 minutes at room temperature.
You can also leave out the little bit of instant yeast we add at stage three, but you have to allow for a longer final proofing time, probably 2 to 3 times longer.
Shape the dough (it’s a bit like working with clay I guess) into the desired shape. I always make this bread a batard/oval shape, because that way I get nice same size slices when I cut it. Proof the loaf for 60 minutes in a proving basket.
Now your loaf is ready for the oven. Please be careful in handling the proofed loaf. This type of bread has almost no oven spring, so it is important to keep as much air in the bread as possible. Slash/score the top of the loaf with a lame or bread scoring knife.
Bake for 45 minutes and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Before you cut this bread it needs to rest at least 6 hours so the crumb can set and loose its initial stickiness. If you are keeping it overnight you can put the loaf in a paper bag (after it has completely cooled). This rye bread keeps wonderfully well in the freezer. I always cut it in thin slices before I freeze it. A minute in the microwave and your lovely slice of rye bread is ready to eat.
70% Rye Bread Time Table
day 1 Make the stage 1 starter and let ferment for 15 (minimal) up to 24 hours (maximum)
day 2 Mix the starter from day 1 with water+ flour from stage 2 and leave to rest for 3 hours
- Mix starter from day 2 + rest of ingredients, except the raisins, for 7 minutes
- Pinch or mix in the raisins
- Rest for 20 minutes
- Shape
- Proof for 60 minutes
- Bake in oven at 225ºC / 435ºF for 45 minutes
Oguz Yilmaz says
Hello Ed and Marieke,
Thank you for the recipe above. It is so delicious.
I do not use a proofing basket, instead I let it prove
in the baking tray with a piece of cloth on it.
In this way I do not have to worry about handling
the proofed loaf. Is there an advantage
of using a proofing basket?
I wonder about your other top two recipes.
Thank you,
Oguz.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Oguz,
Thank you that sounds great! A proofing basket supports your dough during the final proof, gives it a certain shape and provides your loaf with the characteristic spiral pattern for example, which many bakers like. But it is perfectly alright not to use it and use some other form of support, a tray or tin for example. Most of our other loaves are made with high(er) hydration dough and also need a form of support, but again you can use either a basket or another tin or tray to make sure the loaf can hold shape during the final proof.
Happy baking,
Ed & Marieke
David says
A short loaf!
Hi guys, thank you for the recipe above, which I assume was supposed to be for 2 loaves. I tripled the recipe hoping to make six breads but when I measured the dough I got substantially less dough than I usually get for such a batch. I went back to your recipe and discovered why. Turns out that raisins aside the ingredients above just add up to 795 gms of dough minus the raisins. You mentioned in the comments that the total weight of the dough is about 900 gms including the raisins. Was my mistake in assume the recipe above is for two loaves? Thanks so much!
Weekend Bakers says
Hi David,
The recipe is for one loaf, which also corresponds with the baking time given of around 45 minutes. Of course you can also triple the recipe and also make six smaller loaves and adjust the baking time.
But it’s one loaf, made in two days and in three stages.
Sandhya Ellis says
Hello Ed and Marieke,
Thank you so much for your wonderful website, I have thoroughly enjoyed using it over the past few weeks to make lovely tasting rye bread, which I love. I have made two batches and doubled the quantities to make two loaves each time.
The first time was an experiment and so I let them prove in ordinary oblong bread tins; the crust on top was good, but I was disappointed with the sides and base. So, second time round I invested in some proving baskets in order to bake them free in the oven. This time, I found it almost impossible to knead the dough before the shaping stage; the first time it was hard too, but not impossible. The consistency seemed really wet and sticky (I don’t have a mixer so expect to hand knead), so much so that it wouldn’t lift from the bowl to work at all. Should I add flour at this stage to make a workable dough? The loaves proved really well in the baskets, but when I carefully transferred them onto the baking sheets, they flattened out, again as if too wet. The finished products look and taste good, though the crumb is a bit too doughy; the crusts were excellent all round.
This is my stage 3 ratio, doubled up: starter – 190g / water – 380g / rye flour – 310g / wheat flour – 270g / salt 15g / no yeast as starter seems very good and have developed it over several weeks. Can you please advise me? Is the dough meant to be so wet and sticky that hand-kneading is out of the question?
Many thanks,
Sandhya
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Sandhya,
First of all it is a real challenge to knead this dough by hand. We would advice you to knead it on your work surface instead of in a bowl. You say the second time was harder than the first attempt. Did you change anything the second time, like the flour or brand of flour perhaps? Like we say in the note above:
For this recipe we use whole grain rye flour. You can also use medium or fine rye flour or a combination of different rye flours. Just be sure to adjust the amount of water you add to the recipe. Using finer flour means adding less water, because it absorbs less moisture (indication: somewhere between 3 to 5% less water).
But the dough is indeed supposed the be quite wet and sticky and because of the lack of gluten in the rye flour your dough will feel more like wet clay than a pliable dough.
We would also advice to bake the loafs maybe a bit longer (try 5 minutes) and make sure to let the finished cooled off loaf rest in a paper bag until the next day before you cut it because fresh rye bread crumb needs to stabilize.
Hope this helps,
Ed & Marieke
Hannah says
Hello Ed and Marieke,
I made this wonderful bread last weekend and had a very good result even without a mixer (I just did stretch and fold for about 20 minutes, which was sticky but rather enjoyable). I just have one question: should I be aiming to maintain the temperature of the dough at 29ºC throughout the whole process? My dough was exactly 29ºC at the end of stage 2, but I wasn’t sure if I should have added warm water again at stage 3 in order to maintain the temperature after the stage 3 ingredients had been added. When I make your Sourdough Pain Naturel and Wholewheat Levain, I usually try and keep the dough at 24/25ºC until it goes into the oven.
This bread is delicious with mature cheddar cheese, homemade jam or marmalade and is equally good toasted.
Thank you for this wonderful website. I am entirely converted to high-hydration dough and find your site the best baking resource online and beyond. I am planning to try the Rye Lovers Dark Rye Bread as soon as I manage to get hold of the broken wholegrain rye.
Many thanks,
Hannah
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Hannah, thank you very much for your kind words. We aim at a temperature of about 24/25ºC in stage 3 to get a good average speed of proofing. The ‘Rye Lovers Dark Rye Bread’ is very much worth the search, we love this bread! Happy baking!
Karen Berthine says
I have rye starter in the refrigerator as I love sour ryes. I would like to try your raisin rye but can skip the starter making steps. So how much rye starter should I scoop out the crock in the refrigerator and use?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Karen,
For reasons of taste and temperature you should still start with stage one and scoop the small amount of stage 1 from your starter and take it from there. Hope you will give it a try.
Happy rye bread baking,
Ed
Petra Robinson says
I certainly try this one.
I love Rye bread, but I think I let the raisins out as my kids and my hubby do not like raisins.
Maybe I can put some nuts in.
Itamar says
I have been using a number of your recipes with great success.
When I make the 3 stage rye, it turns out delicious but while baking it cracks and deforms a great deal.
Would you happen to know why?
Thanks!
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Itamar,
Some cracks in the bread are normal with this loaf. You can see in our pictures that there are cracks in the bread too. We are not sure about the deforming part. Hard to say. We would begin by checking your oven and the temperature, maybe it needs some adjusting. Also see our tips: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…your-oven/
Also make sure the temperature of your dough is correct so it corresponds with the times given in the recipe. (www.weekendbakery.com/posts…mperature/).
But good to hear it is still delicious!
Greetings and good luck with the baking,
Ed & Marieke
Gigi says
The taste of this bread wasn’t as sour as expected. However I have a major problem. I realized usually my bread ended up in hard crust but dense texture inside, and the inner part looks different from your pictures. I’m not sure is it because I’m using a small oven to bake my bread. In such case, is there any remedies to it? Shall I bake my bread in lower temperature but longer time?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Gigi,
You are right, our version is also not overly sour, because of the way it is made, with both culture and yeast, that is also the way it should be. We suggest you look at two things to improve your bread: first the temperature of the dough (see our tips www.weekendbakery.com/posts…mperature/) so the bread is properly proofed and ready for the oven. The second is the workings of your oven (see our tips here: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…your-oven/). We would not advice lowering the temperature because the temperature maybe is already too low. With small household ovens you lose a lot of heat already simply by opening the oven door and putting in a big lump of cold dough. So you would need more heat, not less! Because you use different ingredients and equipment and made the recipe for the first time, you always need some adjustments and practice to get it right.
Good luck with it and happy baking,
Ed & Marieke
Gigi says
Thank you! I will try this recipe again on a bigger oven.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Marie,
You can use a basket of 750 g dough capacity. The total weight of a loaf is around 900 g including the raisins, plus the bread does not increase in volume like a more standard bread, so a basket of 750 g works very well.
Happy Baking,
Ed & Marieke
Marie says
what size proofing basket do you use for this recipe?
thanks
nelya says
I made this bread. Mine had so many cracks in the dough during proofing. Any suggestions for what I can do different to make it more uniform like yours. Thank you in advance.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Nelya,
Try to limit the use of flour during shaping so not too much is added to the dough. It could also be that the rye flour you use acts a bit different from ours and that the absorption of moisture is different too. You can try and add a few % more water maybe. Also make sure to cover the loaf(s) while proofing so they do not dry out (we usually cover our dough with some floured or oiled cling film).
Good luck with it and happy baking!
Marieke & Ed
Elaine says
Hello Marieke,
I made stage 1 of this recipe 20 hours ago; can I progress to stage two and leave in the fridge overnight?
It is now 1700 hours and I will be unable to complete stage 3 until tomorrow morning.
Thank-you,
Elaine.
Weekend Bakers says
Yes that is possible. Just allow the dough to get to the right temperature again before proceeding with the recipe.
Good luck with it!
Joanna says
You are so right about the smell of the rye culture! Much fruitier and more stable than the wheat ones.
The bread looks fabulous 🙂 What a lovely post!
Weekend Bakers says
Oh, thank you so much Joanna!
It’s the rye bread we make the most. Just love it with cheese. A very different rye bread but very much worth a try if you are a rye lover is this one: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…rye-bread/
10 hours in the oven overnight, wonderful wafts of rye filling the house :O
Marieke
PS: We entered the Mamalade competition again this year. Wait and see if we improved compared to last year…
Did you send a jar?
Monique says
Hoi Marieke en Ed,
Ik heb gisteren dit brood gemaakt, en ik denk dat het redelijk goed gelukt is. Ik was even in lichte paniek toen mijn laatste deeg iets te nat was, maar dat is met toevoegen van een handje bloem bijna goed gekomen. Ik weet niet waarom het bij mij aan de natte kant was, ik heb jullie desemstarter gebruikt en roggebloem.De vorm is ook niet perfect, maar al met al ben ik niet ontevreden. Ik heb hem op 200 C hetelucht gebakken (heb alleen maar een heteluchtstand), op een pizzasteen. De smaak is erg goed.Ik heb een foto van het resultaat op mijn blogje gezet, met een verwijzing naar jullie site.Ik ga zeker nog meer recepten van jullie proberen!
Gebruiken jullie trouwens roggebloem of roggemeel voor dit recept? Nog een vraagje, er zijn recepten voor desembrood waarbij soms meer dan 200 ml desem gebruikt wordt. Hoe maak ik van mijn nu redelijk kleine hoeveelheid zoiets, gewoon voeden met bijv. 150 bloem en 150 water?
Bedankt,
Monique
Weekend Bakers says
Hoi Monique,
Wij maken het brood eigenlijk altijd met (volkoren) roggemeel, ik zal het nog duidelijker aangeven in het recept. Natuurlijk kun je het ook maken met roggebloem of een combinatie van beide, maar aangezien bloem wat minder water opneemt moet je de hoeveelheid vocht wat naar beneden bijstellen (ongeveer 5% minder). Je brood ziet er overigens echt heerlijk uit, wat lichter natuurlijk, maar heel aantrekkelijk.
En inderdaad het antwoord op je laatste vraag is gewoon 10 tot 20 gram desem nemen, door bloem en water roeren en 8 tot 12 uur laten staan om te rijpen en dan gewoon gebruiken. Niet langer dan 12 uur, want dan worden je gluten weer kapot gemaakt door de desem en krijg je een slechtere broodstructuur. Dit komt overeen met wat je in veel recepten ziet staan, namelijk dat je je zuurdesem moet verversen (in het Engels heeft men het dan over ‘refreshing your starter’).
Het grote voordeel van het aanhouden van een kleine hoeveelheid desem is dat je niet continue grote hoeveelheden hoeft weg te gooien tijdens het verversen en als je meer nodig hebt kun je makkelijk binnen 12 uur een grotere hoeveelheid opkweken.
Heel veel bakplezier,
Ed en Marieke
PS: Wij gaan je Peruaanse kip met avocadosalade zeker proberen. Wat ziet die er watertandend lekker uit!!
Derrick Parsons says
A great tasting loaf and one that has been given a thumbs up by my 5 year old grand-daughter. Many thanks for the accurate recipe. Another one to make again.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Derrick,
So happy it went this well. Isn’t it great when children love food that is healthy for them?! Neigbours kids eat our Pain rustique for dessert, they ask for it themselves, can you believe it. They call it Marieke bread…poor Ed, he’s the one that makes most of it.
Happy baking!
Derrick Parsons says
Today’s the day! Stage 2 just started. I’ll let you now how it turns out.
Derrick Parsons says
Dough from 1st stage seems to be very thick. Is this correct?
Weekend Bakers says
Derrick, Like it says in the recipe; the first stage is a ‘rather stiff dough ball’ to promote the production of acetic acid (taste like vinegar) , the second stage is more wet, this promotes the production of lactic acid (taste like yoghurt). Both acids give the bread a nice flavor and improve their keeping quality. Please let the bread cool completely before cutting, the crumb needs to stabilize or it will stick to your knife like glue!
Happy baking!
Derrick Parsons says
I’ll be giving this recipe a try later on this week, starting the first stage tomorrow (23rd February). One question, which is probably answered elsewhere on your site, is “what do you mean by instant yeast”? Is this dried yeast, in which case you don’t seem to reconstitute before use? Or do you mean the instant type that you add dry to the flour? Can you advise me? Many thanks.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Derrick,
It is the instant one you just add dry to the flour. Hope it turns out great!
Derrick Parsons says
Many thanks. The starter is just being refreshed in preparation.