Sprouted Rye Sourdough

 

Introduction

I pretty much just made this one up. I have been trying to get my sourdough bread to come out a bit more sour & I also wanted to experiment with some sprouted grains. So I looked through several different recipes and came up with this. The goal here (in addition to testing out my brand new loaf pan!) is to ferment a good amount of rye flour for an extended period of time to get it nice and sour & incorporate some actively growing sprouts without messing up the texture of the crumb.

Materials & Methods

Rye Flour Bread Flour Sprouted Rye Water Yeast Salt

Overall Mass 330 g 570 g 300 g 640 g - -

Overall Percentage 37% 63% 33% 71%

• The percentage of pre-fermented flour is 44%

Rye Sourdough White Starter Sprouted Rye Bread Flour Water Yeast Salt

Mass 660 g 200 g 300 g 470 g 210 g 1/2 t 15 g

• This is a pretty wet dough so mix as well as you can then leave it to rest rather than kneading for gluten development.

Timeline

-- 7p-d1 7p 11p

Begin sprouting 300g of Rye grains by soaking in water for about 8h, then straining and rinsing occasionally over a couple days until sprouted. Put in the fridge if they start growing too  quickly (these actually sat in the fridge for several days... I'll try to get to them quicker next time). Also, mix 330g rye flour with 330g water and 20g starter to make an active rye sourdough. Leave this to ferment in the fridge for a couple days while the sprouts are sprouting. Combine the fermented rye sourdough & sprouts with the remaining ingredients and mix until combined. Let rise 1-2 h then retard in the fridge for ~24 h. Remove from fridge and bring to RT (~1 h). Divide into 2 loaf sized portions, by patting flat, dividing & folding. Place in prepared loaf pans and proof for 3-4h Bake at 450F for ~45m. Cover with aluminum foil for the 1st 15 min to trap steam & if necessary again at the end  to avoid excessive browning.

Fermented rye flour and sprouted rye ready to mixed into dough.

Results

I am pretty happy with this. You could tell it was going to be sour because the rye starter was pretty ripe by the time I used it and every time I took the pre-mixed dough out of the fridge I could smell the tang of sourdough in the kitchen. The sprouts added their own spicy kick to the overall flavor and the aroma during the bake was awesome. The pre-mixed dough rose well (my levain was kinda weak from being in the fridge over the weekend so I added yeast - next time I might try without additional yeast), but after shaping the second rise was kinda weak. I'm not sure if it was just exhausted from the long fermentation, or if I should have let it go even longer?

Conclusion

Really delicious flavor & not too heavy texture either. The sprouted rye berries add a really nice element, like sweet little morsels that pop between your teeth. I think the texture of the crumb is about right for this type of bread, but it did seem a little too moist. Maybe adjust the hydration or baking temp / time to improve that. Definitely worth trying again though!