Rye blend loaf

Makes 1 loaf · about 985g of dough

• Bread flour350g
• Dark rye flour150g
• Water375g
• Active sourdough starter100g
• Fine sea salt10g

75% hydration

1. 1

   Mix starter and water

   5 min

   Add 100g active starter to 375g room-temperature water and swirl with your hand or a dough whisk until the starter is dissolved and the water looks cloudy. Dissolving it first means it blends evenly through the dough.

2. 2

   Add flour and rest

   25 min

   Add 350g bread flour and 150g dark rye flour to the bowl. Mix with your hand until no dry flour remains; the dough will feel denser and more paste-like than a white dough, and that is correct. Cover and rest just 20 minutes. Rye needs only a short rest: it builds little structure and rises fast, so we keep the pause brief.

3. 3

   Add salt

   10 min

   Sprinkle 10g fine sea salt over the rested dough and squeeze it through with wet hands, using firm pinch-and-fold motions, until no gritty salt remains. Rye stays tackier than white dough; wet your hands again rather than adding flour.

4. 4

   Bulk fermentation with coil folds

   4 h 30 min

   Cover and leave to rise at room temperature, 22–24°C / 72–75°F. With wet hands, do 3 sets of coil folds at 30, 60 and 90 minutes, then leave it completely undisturbed. This first rise (bulk) is done when the dough has grown by 40–60%, shows some bubbles, pulls away from the sides of the bowl and smells pleasantly tangy. At 22–24°C / 72–75°F this takes about 3.5–5 hours.

   At 20–24°C / 68–75°F this usually takes about 4½ hours; a warm kitchen (24–28°C / 75–82°F) can be ready in about 3½ hours, a hot one (28°C+ / 82°F+) sooner still, and a cool kitchen (below 20°C / 68°F) may need about 6 hours.

5. 5

   Pre-shape

   20 min

   Lightly flour the bench with bread flour only. Gently tip the dough out. Use a bench scraper to fold the dough over itself 4–6 times from different sides, gathering it into a rough round with a fairly tight surface. Wet hands or a wet bench scraper help. Do not over-work it. Cover and rest it on the bench for 15–20 minutes.

6. 6

   Final shape

   10 min

   Mix rice flour and rye flour 50/50 and dust the banneton very generously. Fold the four edges of the dough into the centre and flip it over. Cup your hands around it and drag in short pulls until the surface is tight. Lift it into the banneton, folded side up, and pinch the fold firmly closed. Dust with flour, cover, and put it straight in the fridge.

7. 7

   Cold retard (overnight)

   10 h

   Place the covered banneton in the coldest part of the fridge at 4°C. Leave undisturbed for 8–16 hours. Rye rises faster than white dough even when cold, so do not go beyond 18 hours. Bake straight from the fridge.

8. 8

   Preheat the oven and Dutch oven

   60 min

   Place Dutch oven (lid on) on centre rack. Set oven to 250°C (230°C fan) / 480°F. Preheat 60 minutes minimum. Keep dough cold the entire time.

9. 9

   Score and bake (covered)

   20 min

   Take the banneton out of the fridge and flip the dough onto parchment straight away. Cut the top slightly deeper than for a white loaf: one central slash at 30–45° or a cross, 1–1.5cm deep. Lower it into the preheated Dutch oven by the parchment. Put the lid back on. Bake at 250°C (230°C fan) / 480°F for 20 minutes.

10. 10

    Bake (uncovered, crust development)

    30 min

    Take the lid off the Dutch oven after 20 minutes. Turn the oven down to 220°C (200°C fan) / 425°F, lower than for white loaves, because the sugars in rye brown fast. Bake uncovered for 25–30 minutes to a deep mahogany brown. Internal temperature: 96–98°C / 205–208°F. Transfer to a wire rack.

11. 11

    Cool completely

    3 h

    Transfer immediately to wire rack. Minimum 3 hours before slicing, ideally 4–5 hours or overnight. The crumb is moist, dense, and continues setting long after the crust cools. Cutting early produces a gummy, compressed crumb.