This traditional Latvian sourdough rye bread has a great combination of sourness and sweetness and is flavoured with caraway seeds and molasses. The recipe is adapted from a recipe by George Matthes at Deutsche Welle.
Course bread
Cuisine Latvia, Northern Europe
Keyword bread, rye, sourdough
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 1 hourhour
Proofing 1 dayday2 hourshours
Servings 1large loaf
Ingredients
Starter 1
140gwater
140grye flour
20grye sourdough starterrecently fed
Starter 2
70grye flakes
300gboiling water
Starter 3
100gwater
300grye flour
Dough
180gwater
300gall-purpose flour
260grye flour
1gdry yeast
45gdark molasses2 tbsp
22gsalt
8gcaraway seeds2 tsp
Instructions
Starter 1
Combine water, rye flour, rye starter dough.
Starter 2
Combine just boiled water with rye flakes.
Resting 1 - 12 h
Cover both starters with clingfilm and let them rest for 12 h at room temperature.
Starter 3
Combine starter 1 and starter 2 with 100 g water and 300 g rye flour.
Resting 2 - 12 h
Cover with clingfilm and let the new starter rest 12 h at room temperature.
Dough
Prepare the final dough by mixing water, salt, molasses, caraway seeds and yeast. Add all purpose flour and rye flour.
Combine with the starter.
Resting 3 - 45 min
Let the dough rest for 45 min at room temperature, covered (a towel is fine).
Form the loaf
Reserve 40 g of dough and mix with 35 g water. Set aside.
Tip the rest of the dough on a floured surface and shape into a rough, long loaf.
Cover a towel with flour and place it in a bread pan. Be generous with the flour. If you have an oblong proofing basket, use that instead.
Resting 4 - 60 min
Let loaf rise for 60 min.
Preheat oven to 250C with baking stone or thick pan.
Bake loaf
Tip the loaf onto a piece of parchment paper. Use your hands to coat the loaf in the reserved dough dissolved in water.
Decorate the loaf by pressing the lengths of your fingers into the sides at an angle.
Move the parchment paper onto the baking stone / pan.
Bake for 10 min at 260 C.
Reduce heat to 190C. Bake for an additional 30-40 min.
The bread is done when it sounds hollow if you knock on the bottom.