Dark rye bread with coriander seed & caraway

Dark rye bread with coriander seed & caraway

Autumn

We make this bread at home once or twice a week. There’s no kneading, no dough machine, no yeast – you simply need a few moments of your time to combine the ingredients, and then you just leave the dough to rise. With its lovely sticky texture and complex character, it’s the best rye sourdough I’ve ever eaten. The seeds and the rye flour make it sweet and nutty, the coriander makes it zesty and the caraway makes it clean. Brilliant for sandwiches – particularly the kind of Scandinavian open sandwich you might find topped with some smoked fish, crème fraîche, chopped eggs and dill pickles – it’s amazing toasted, too. Try it thickly spread with some cold, salted butter and finished off with a layer of good marmalade.

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

For the rye starter

  • 100g (3½oz) light rye flour, plus extra for scattering

For the loaf

  • 350g (12oz) light rye flour, plus extra for dusting and scattering
  • 125g (4½oz) cooked pearl barley
  • 1 tablespoon molasses
  • 2–3 teaspoons coriander seeds
  • 2–3 teaspoons caraway seeds
  • 1–2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
  • 1–2 tablespoons linseeds
  • 10g (¼oz) fine sea salt
  • oil, for greasing

Method

For the rye starter

A rye starter is fermentation of flour and water. It contains natural, ‘wild’ yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. The wild yeasts produce carbon dioxide as well as alcohol, to make your bread rise. The bacteria help to give your bread its complex flavour. I use wholemeal rye flour because it seems to produce the most active starter; I also love its sweet nutty flavour. To make your own starter follow the steps below:

Day 1: Place 25g (1oz rye) flour with 50ml (1¾fl oz) warm water in a clean bowl. Stir well, cover and leave overnight in a warm place (ideally at a temperature of around 30°C/86°F).

Days 2, 3 and 4: Every day add a further 25g (1oz) rye flour and 50ml (1¾fl oz) warm water to the existing mix. After each addition, stir well, cover and set aside in the same warm place. (By Day 3 the mixture should be showing signs of fermentation.)

Day 5: You should now have 300g (10½oz) or so of active rye starter, which you can now use in your baking. Keep the mixture in the fridge when you’re not using it, but make sure to feed it once or twice, each time adding a further 25g (1oz) rye flour and 50ml (1¾fl oz) warm water, to ensure it’s active before using again. Each time you use a quantity of active starter in your baking, replace its weight with a mixture of fresh flour and water in a ratio of 1 part flour to 2 parts water, and allow it to ferment for next time

Pour 250g (9oz) of the active rye starter into a large mixing bowl. Tip in all the remaining ingredients, except the oil, with about 200ml (7fl oz) water. Use a wooden spoon or your hands to work everything together into a loose dough.

Grease a 1kg (2lb 4oz) non-stick loaf tin with a little oil, then dust it liberally with rye flour. Using wet hands, form the dough into a loaf shape to sit loosely inside the tin, smoothing the dough’s surface as best you can. Lower the dough into the prepared tin. Scatter the top with more rye flour, allowing some to fall around the sides of the dough, inside the tin – this will help prevent sticking and also give the surface of your bread a lovely aesthetic.

Place the tin in a clean plastic bag and leave the dough to prove in a warm place for 4–8 hours. As long as your rye starter was lively, the dough should rise to fill the tin.

When it’s looking good, heat your oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6. Place the tin on the middle shelf and bake the bread for 25 minutes, then turn down the heat to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and bake for a further 20 minutes, until the loaf is risen and dark and sounds hollow when tapped.

Remove the loaf from the oven and turn it out onto a cooling rack. Allow it to settle for at least 1 hour before slicing. The loaf will be good for at least a week, if not 10 days.

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