Sour Rye Starter



When I was growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, good bakeries were everywhere.  You could get wonderful ethnic breads fresh and warm on just about any day. Two of the breads that I remember were “Jewish Rye” and Russian Rye”  One was light brown, with a soft moist crumb and a crisp crackled crust that  glistened.  The other, Russian Rye, was deep brown like black coffee. It, too had a shiny crackled crust and a very soft crumb. Both were treats that my father would bring home from work after he stopped at the Arlington Bakery on the near East side.  I only actually visited that Bakery once or twice, but I still remember the tiny, cramped store front and high racks piled with loaves and rolls!  The aroma coming from the mysterious “back room” was almost overwhelming!  Much later in life I decided that that room MUST have looked exactly like the basement bakery in the movie Moonstruck with Nicolas Cage sweating away in his sleeveless T-shirt!

I left Cleveland when I was nineteen and have lived in Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Florida ever since, searching for that bread!  I NEVER found even a reasonable facsimile! 

For ten years, I’ve been trying to bake it myself and now I think I can bake something that is, at least, better than anything I have found commercially available.

Today we will start with the first step - the Starter! DUH!

This procedure will give you enough starter to bake two good sized loaves with a small amount left to keep it going for next time.

Day One – at least 48 hours before baking day.

1/2 Cup Rye flour

1/8 Teaspoon Active dry yeast

1 Cup of warm water -110⁰F

1 Tablespoon crushed caraway seeds

1 Teaspoon minced yellow onion

 

Combine everything in a bowl large enough for ten times this much stuff.  You should end up with a thin watery mixture that doesn’t look anything like dough!

Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot until it is all bubbly and fermented - at least 8 hours and up to 24.

 

Day two – at least 24 hours before baking time.

Now it’s time to start turning the starter into sour rye dough.

Step One

1 1/4 Cups Rye Flour

1/2 Cup water

All of the starter

1/4 Cup Stone Ground Rye Flour

Stir the rye flour and water into the starter until it becomes a smooth paste. It will be thicker than the starter and pull away from the bowl.  Use a wet bowl scraper to clean the sides of the bowl and to smooth and shape the sour into an even mound.

Sprinkle the 1/4 cup of coarse Rye Flour evenly over the top. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in an out of the way warm spot.

As the sour grows, the surface will begin to take on the appearance of a dried lake bed with wide cracks and fissures. This may take from 4 to 8 hours.

Step Two

1/2 Cup warm water

1 Cup Rye Flour

1/4 Cup Stone Ground Rye Flour

Add the rye flour and water to the step one Sour and stir until it is smooth and pulls away from the bowl.  Again, clean the sides of the bowl and shape the sour with the bowl scraper and sprinkle 1/4 cup of stone ground flour over the top. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until it again looks like a dried lake bed.

Step Three

1/2 Cup warm water

1 Cup Rye Flour

1/4 Cup Stone Ground  Rye Flour

Stir the water and flour into the step two starter and finish the same as  steps one and two.

Step Three fully risen
 

Step three sour can be mixed the evening before you bake, or if there is time the next day, step two can be refrigerated overnight and step three can be mixed in the morning. If so, use warmer water, about 115⁰ F.  You should be ready to bake in about 4 hours.  If you want, or need, to bake early the next day, mix step three before bed and allow to rise slowly overnight for use in the morning.

When the third step sour is fully risen, it is ready to make bread.  Before beginning, take 1/2 cup of the sour and place it in a container, cover the top with water, close the container and refrigerate for the next time you want to make Rye Bread.  It will be your starter!  It will last for months – if the water turns dark, just pour it off and cover with fresh water. If the top of the starter turns dark, just scrape it off and use the rest.

On Day Three, we will use the starter to BAKE the bread!

Tuscan Bean Dip

 

One of the really great things about fresh warm bread, is all the wonderful accompaniments there are to enjoy along with it!

 

While the ultimate "test" of good bread is plain butter, or good olive oil, sometimes the occasion calls for a little something different.  One of the things we have found is white bean dip and spread!  And when both the bread and the dip are warm AND fresh, well, ............

 

 

 With so many ways to enjoy it, this super simple dip should always be on hand!

 

 

 

TUSCAN BEAN DIP

2 cans of Navy Beans or Great Northern Beans

1 TBSP of lemon juice

1 TBSP of chopped garlic

¼ cup of olive oil

¼ cup of chopped fresh basil leaves

Fresh ground pepper and salt to taste

Cook the garlic in the olive oil until soft, but not browned.  If you start with cold oil it will draw more of the flavor from the garlic as it heats up.  Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

Rinse beans and place all of the ingredients into food processor or blender. Process until smooth. Add water if it gets too dry, about one tablespoon at a time - it should be a smooth, soft paste. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

Serve with olive oil drizzled over it and more chopped basil.

IF there are leftovers, keep refrigerated.  And if you want to enjoy it at a moment's notice, freeze it in smaller portions and warm in the microwave for just about a minute - add a little olive oil and fresh basil and it's just like new!

Maintaining Sourdough Starter

VERY happy Starter

Sourdough Starter is a living organism.  It is not difficult to maintain, but it does require regular care.  The starter I have was begun in 1991. I got some of it in 1994 and now, if you are one of my “students”, you have some.  By the time you pass it on, it might twenty five or thirty years old.   If you use it, the care is an automatic result of the baking process.  You use a cup in recipe and you feed the starter. Nothing could be simpler, right?  Well, understanding that modern life is not like the life followed by families in wagon trains or trail riders who relied on the veteran “cookie” who ran the chuck wagon, here are a few “rules” and observations to follow to keep your starter alive and “active” for years.

The starter should be kept refrigerated most of the time to slow the growth of the natural yeast.  Leaving it out overnight, even for a day or two is not bad and I usually do that about once a month.  If I don’t use the starter for a two week period, I take it out in the morning, throw out one cup, feed it when I get home from work, leave it out overnight, stir it the next morning and put it back in the refrigerator.  NEVER close up the starter in an airtight container. It cannot “breathe” and will die. 

Clear liquid

I have “rescued” this starter more than once after “forgetting it for long periods of time.  When you get it out of the refrigerator it will very often have separated into a semi clear liquid on top and a gooey white substance on the bottom.  The liquid is the acidic water the organisms have created and are trying to get rid of to maintain the correct environment to grow.  It is, also, a big part of the “sourdough flavor” you are looking for in your bread.  If you are using your starter regularly, just stir it with a wooden spoon and watch it bubble back to life.  The starter is fine unless it turns to pink or green or smells REALLY rank.  Remember, SOURDOUGH is SOUR! (Smelling only, it actually tastes sweet! Try it!) I have rescued a starter in which the liquid on top had dried and turned BLACK!  I just don’t recommend letting that happen! (And I won’t name names!)

Sourdough Loaves

I always let sourdough come to room temperature before measuring and using.  You don’t have to wait when feeding it, just warm the water to about 110˚ and it will start right up. There is also a school of thought that suggests using unfed starter straight from the refrigerator. I haven’t tried it, but I plan to and will send along the results.

So MUCH bread!!

So you have FINALLY found a source of great bread, or better yet, learned to bake great bread!  But there are only two of you and you can’t eat it all today!   What to do with it?  Bread pudding and panzanella get old as fast as “bad bread”! 

FREEZE it!  If you let the bread cool and wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil (no plastic wrap at all!) within 4 hours of baking it and place it in the freezer you can have “fresh baked” bread whenever you want it!   Recipes that are for one loaf are a waste of time and electricity.  If you are going to heat the oven to 450⁰ and run it for an hour and you are only going to make ONE loaf of bread why bother?  No wonder modern homemakers say they don’t have time to bake!

On the day you want to use the bread, remove it from the freezer and place it somewhere out of the way to thaw at room temperature. This can be before you leave for work or a couple of hours before dinner.  Just DON’T un-wrap the bread.  At meal time, heat your oven, or even better, a good toaster oven, to about 300⁰ and place the still wrapped bread inside(this is why you used no plastic to store the bread).  The loaf can stay in the oven as long as you need it to while you prepare dinner.  About 7-10 minutes before serving, tear open the foil and leave the whole thing in the oven.  Voila!   You have fresh bread, even the crust is back!  However, this is your LAST chance. Whatever you don’t finish with this meal is only good for toast or crumbs, you cannot repeat the process.

Now this is for crusty, artisan bread – not for sandwich bread or rye.  Those are handled differently and will be the subject of a later discussion!

Finally Started

I've been thinking about this for a LONG time!  It's about time I got started and I hope to keep it up regularly!

This blog will be about good bread! How to bake it, how to store it, what to make with it and all things bread!  Mostly it will be a chance for me to talk about the things I love!

I got baking in earnest way late in life!  It was mostly to fill time after I got divorced and was only able to have my kids visit on alternate weekends!  Baking was gratifying and fun - and even mistakes were worth eating most of the time!

After about 7 years and a move to Florida two things happened almost simultaneously.  I met Brigitte and saw an article about how the same group of grandmothers ALWAYS won all the ribbons at the Florida State Fair!  Brigitte became my best friend, my most willing baking critic and my lifelong partner and love!

The State Fair became a slow burning goal!

After I retired in 2008 it finally became possible to consider entering the Fair baking competition.  That story and how Brigitte became my Most Significant Critic are for a later discussion!  But at least I've finally started my blog