Sour-dough rye-breads

You can use the sour-dough starter for this bread to make two types of bread, a Finnish flat sour dough bread (you will know what I mean if you have ever visited there), or a San Fransisco-style sour dough bread.  

The Flour

You need a 100% rye-flour.  I use the flour from Doves Farm, but have used others in the past with the same results.

The starter

The starter is a frothy, sweetly-pungent mousse that you keep in a cool part of your kitchen, ready to be called-upon to make the most delicious bread.  The basic idea is that you regularly (every day if you can) take out a bit of it to use as the raising-agent in your bread dough.  You add an equal amount of rye-flour and water (say a cup of each) to top it up -- to feed it.

Once you have created your starter, the idea is that you keep it forever, like a pet.  Starters can be shared amongst friends (and perhaps bred -- who knows?).

Creating your starter -- do this at least 10 days before you want to start making bread this way.

1. Make a starter by mixing a cup of rye flour and a cup of water and leave it in an open pot to let it collect the wild yeasts and bacteria that float around your kitchen.
2. Add more flour/ water every couple of days until you have a bubbly concoction that smells of fermenting apple juice -- this might take a week or more.  If the pot fills up then take-out some of the starter.

That’s it.

You will need to feed the starter every couple of days, otherwise it will consume all of the carbohydrate in your flour and become less active.  I do not know too much about the science of this and, of course, you might not harvest the same micro-organisms from your kitchen as me.  As far as I know, the starter can be frozen (although I have failed when trying this before).

Finnish ruis leipää

There are all sorts of claims for the health-giving properties of this bread, but, while there is no question that rye-flour should be good for you, and there is nothing else added, for me it is all about the flavour and chewiness of this bread that takes me back to five very happy years living in Finland.  This, with lots of butter and marmite, is the best cure for a hangover that I know of --  and one that came in very handy at times.

You will probably find that this is the easiest bread that you have ever made, once you have a good starter on the go, as it doesn’t have to be kneaded.

Ingredients

• rye starter (see above) 175 g
• rye flour 175 g
• water 75 ml
• salt 5 g

Method

1. Mix all of the ingredients together to make very, very sticky dough (almost a paste).
   (Don’t forget to add a cup each of rye flour and water to the starter)
2. On a lightly floured surface, flatten it evenly to the size of a dinner-plate and leave to rise on a buttered and floured baking-tray for at least 9 hours (e.g. overnight).  It should by now be about ⅓ thicker than it was.
3. Just before it goes into the oven, pierce the dough several times with something sharp; this is to prevent the dough forming a large bubble and you ending up with a dark-brown uneven pitta bread.  If you want, you can also score the surface with a very sharp knife, so that it can be torn into wedges for eating.
4. Bake in the hottest oven that you can (at least 220o C), with a tray of water evaporating in it, for about 15 minutes, reduce to oven temperature to 180o for another 25 minutes.

All done, I find that it’s best to slice it open (the bread you buy in Finland is usually already sliced like this) then toast and eat with butter and marmite or marmalade.  Another classic way to eat this bread is with prawns and dill-sauce (you get the idea from this Finnish Blog).