Three days ago, I dug out (while getting something else that was buried in my fridge) my firm sourdough starter - not used for about 7 or 8 months, and it's amazing how good that stuff keeps! I refreshed a small amount of it overnight, then yesterday I refreshed a little more, and in 6 hours that was ready to use - liquid starters would take much longer to reactivate. I took the usual 10 g, to refresh before putting back in the fridge, and used the approx. 70 g of starter to make the sour rye starter, with 170 g filtered water and 190 g (about 1 1/2 c). I set that to rise the rest of yesterday, and part of today - about 36 hours.
Late last night, using a recipe from
Peter Reinhart's WHOLE GRAIN BREADS - the
Whole Wheat Mash Bread as a reference. I made what he terms a "mash", using 300 g water, 120 g WW flour, and 1 g (1/2 tsp) diastatic malt powder. 165° water is whisked with the flour in a small, lidded saucepan, along with the malt powder - temp drops to about 150°, then it is covered, and put a 150° oven for 3 hours, to let the enzymes go to work. It is cooled covered, overnight.
In late morning on bake day, the sour starter was getting a generous aroma, and this was put in the KA bowl, with the mash, 4 tsp salt, 1 tb caraway seed, 1 tsp nigella seed, 1 tb (20 g) honey, 21 g neutral oil, 3 tb essential wheat gluten (optional, but helps with the rye) and 255 g, or about 2 c WW flour, with about a cup more to add. I use the flat beater to totally mix all this, then switch to the dough hook, then process it on medium, about 6-7 min, adding just enough WW flour to make it clear the sides, but still slightly stuck to the very bottom. The model recipe was all WW, and had some instant yeast added with the final ingredients, but I used the rye starter, and left the yeast out.
This turned out a 51.6 oz (1463 g) ball of dough, which I sprayed with oil, and set to rise - took about 2 1/2 hrs to double, which is fast, for just the sourdough starter! I split it into 2 loaves, shaped them, and placed in sprayed, NS loaf pans, then covered, for final rise - started with 45 minutes, then after another 30 minutes, it was ready to bake - again, fast for sourdough!
The smell was incredible after about 20 minutes! It cooled about 1½ hrs, and I couldn't wait any longer! Only slightly warm still, and the flavor is great - sour, but not too sour, and good texture. Will be making a sandwich on it, with some Seltzer's Lebanon Bologna, which I have unopened in the fridge.
I'll definitely make this again, after tweaking the recipe.
Really old firm starter, refreshed twice, starter already rising. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Rye starter, after about 36 hours. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
finished sour rye dough, just started rising. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Fully risen sour rye dough, after about 150 minutes. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Two sour rye loaves rising, 25.8 oz each. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Risen sour rye dough, ready to go into the oven. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished sourdough rye/WW bread. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Sliced sourdough rye bread by
pepperhead212, on Flickr