Rye Sourdough - with a smile

Here's my first loaf since starting the blog.

On Thursday night I took my starter, which I keep in an plastic tub, out of the fridge to and added half a cup of rye flour and a half cup of water. After leaving the tub out overnight, the next morning I poured half of the bubbly starter (1 cup) into a soup bowl . The other cup went back into the fridge for next time.

I took my one cup of refreshed sourdough starter (my chef) and stirred it up with one cup of warm water and one cup of rye flour. After 4 hours I had a levain! It looked like this. Nice and active. Creamy and frothy.

Levain - refreshed sourdough starter


To this was added a cup of water and two cups of white flour. After mixing in, a further cup of white flour was tipped onto the tabletop and the dough mixture kneaded for about 10 minutes with sufficient flour being added only to stop the dough sticking to the tabletop. Then it looked like this:


Dough - kneaded and ready to rise


After three hours in a warm kitchen it had doubled in size and looked like this


Risen dough

 The indentations caused by poking the dough with my finger indicate that the dough is ready (because the dough doesn't bounce back). So now it is punched down to knock the air out of it. After a quick knead the deflated dough is placed in a whicker basket (banneton), lined with a floured muslin, and left ot rise.


Loaf shaped and resting in banneton

 3 hours later it had doubled in size.


Risen loaf in banneton

 so it was ready to turn out onto a baking tray


Turning out the loaf

 slash with a sharp blade


Scoring the loaf

 and bake for 45  minutes at gas mark 6.  End result : a rye smile.


Smiling loaf



Crumbs