Homemade bread

I also came to this thread to recommend sourdough. It's pretty easy to make a starter.

>Buy some organic rye flour as grainy as you can get.
>Add on table spoon of flour to cup and about the same amount of water.
>Add some top on the cup and let it rest for a day
>repeat about 4 times (5 days) total
>the dough should smell a bit like beer or citrus fruits and have bubbles all over

It really is the best and healthiest way to make bread and it doesnt require as much effort as people would think. About 2mins for 5 days.

If you make bread with your starter, buy still organic non bleached flour and do not add artificial yeast. Learn about stretch and fold technique, to get a fluffly bread. Also I recommend this enthusiast blog, but it's probably a bit over the top:
theperfectloaf.com/

You don't need to over complicate at the beginning. People have done this for thousands of years and you almost cant go wrong. To make it perfect however require some effort and you will need some tools to measure or even control temperature and stuff.

Do you have a rye recipe using sourdough starter? I haven't found one I'm entirely happy with.

Made yesterday.

Was not as airy inside as I was hopping

If you're interested you can try a traditional bread from a swiss mountain region. But be warned it's a very primitive farmers bread. Its hard and dense and pretty hard to cut. For an american who almost only knows sliced toast, this will be a pretty ruff experience. However it's still my favorite bread and I make it every week.

for a small loaf about 400g:
>about 1 dl (volume) sourdough
>1 cup organic whole grain rye flour (no compromise here)
>3/4 - 1 cup warm water
>mix and let the liquid dough rest for about 4-8h depending on the potency of your sourdough.
>Add another cup of flour and about a teaspoon of salt per cup (2 in this case). It needs quite some salt, taste test the dough if needed
> Knead as good as you can, the dough is a bit annoying and brittle. Add as much additional flour as you need, but try to keep the dough as moist as you can, so that you can barely form a stable loaf. Without the shit sticking all over.
>let finish loaf rest for about 1-2h
>make some security went cuts (traditional it's a christian cross)
>Preheat oven on max (270°C with mine, 250 is still ok)
>put it in for 3 minutes
>turn down to 220°C and leave for 25 min
>then 200 for 25min
>then 180 for 20min
>Let it cool down and eat the next day if you can wait. If you eat directly after cooling down the taste is already great, but you might have a hard time to cut clean slices.

pro tip: If your starter is very potent it's easy to let it rest for too long. Also work and stuff can get in the way. You can slow down the raise in the fridge and make it more controllable (since stable temp). In my experience dough gets even better when raised slowly. So I do with my dough:
>4h raise for the liquid dough
>almost 24h fridge (since work and sleep and stuff)
>1.5h raise for the finished loaf

bread should look like pic related

Thanks. So it's 100% rye, no white flour at all? I think I'll try this. If I feel like it's too dense for my taste after I make my first loaf, if I substitute white flour for part of the rye do you think that might lighten it up?

Beautiful.

Usually it's 100% whole grain rye. People in my region who want the AOP label for this type of bread, are allowed to add up to 10% wheat (I guess usually whole grain as well). I personally experimented a little with this, but I didn't like what it did to the taste. It got a little bland and had less taste overall. However the consistency really improves with added wheat.

All in all rye is a bit of a bitch and no matter if you use pretty fine grain or whole grain it will always be a bit crumbly. You can fight it a bit by trying to keep the dough as moist as possible. In the end I think rye isn't for everyone and you really need to like darker, whole grain breads in general to be able to appreciate it. On the bright side, you can store it forever, white wheat bread will be bad after a day or two. Whole wheat rye bread can last for weeks or even months if stored properly.

bread noob here.
How does one store rye bread properly?

slice, bag and freeze bread if you don't plan on eating it soon.

thanks!

btw. here is a video on how this bread is traditionally made (even if you dont understand german, it might give you some hints on how to knead etc.):
youtube.com/watch?v=vW0h4jrOeYw

Some people still do it like this. Some villages still have those old ovens and people organize in clubs and meet once or twice a year and make a shit ton of bread. Modern bakeries add yeast and don't use wood ovens anymore, but it's nothing like the traditionally made bread. I found a compromise by making it at home with "clean" dough and long baking time instead of that industrial shit.

First of all you need the right type of rye bread with a really thick crust. Then I think the traditional way to store it was in some dry place with good air flow. I know people who store it in the fridge, but it will loose it's crunchiness. And of course like with every bread you can just freez it.

The air dry method might sound a bit crazy, but in the past the villagers only baked two times a year and they had bread during the whole time. However there are stories of people who needed to cut the bread with axes and I think they aren't even kidding.