Jeffery Hamelman/ Levain & Yeast Hybrid/ sourdough/ whole grain/ year round

Sourdough Rye with Raisins and Walnuts

This is an excellent bread that pairs well with goat cheese and cured meat. The sourdough rye with raisins and walnuts gets its flavor from many fronts. The nutty note of walnuts and the sweetness of raisins. Combining that with 35% medium rye flour in this recipe, the bread delivers a deep flavor — a flavor of the earth and full of character — than the everyday wheat bread.

The rye sourdough sponge ripens in 14 to 16 hours. So, give yourself plenty of time. The pre-fermented rye flour is 30% of the total dough yield; and the rest of the rye flour (5%) is mixed in with the final dough. The sourdough not only leavens the loaf, but also carries out the complex and necessary role of acidifying the dough against starch attack. (Rye, along with other grains, contains a group of enzymes, called amylases, that transform starches into sugars, aka, starch attack.) This starch attack can turn rye doughs into dense gummy loaves. Given the rye’s chemistry, majority of rye breads start with good amount of acidic ingredients. To name a few: you can use yogurt, buttermilk, honey, fruit juices, vinegar or a robust wild yeast, aka sourdough culture.

In this formula, the sourdough ferments for 14 to 16 hours, which weakens the yeast, but greatly increases the acidity. To make up for the loss of leavening power, adding a small amount of commercial yeast (1.5%) is necessary.

As a result, bulk fermentation is shorter than other sourdough wheat breads. In general, bulk fermentation time also decreases as the rye percentages increases. Unlike the wheat gluten, lengthy fermentation will not improve dough volume and crumb structure. For this sourdough rye with raisins and walnuts bread, bulk takes only one hour. Should the amount of rye double, say to 70% of total flour weight, bulk fermentation would take about 30 minutes.