100% Whole Grain Rye Sourdough Bread - with Seeds!
The very special ‘Seedy Rye’
My ‘seedy rye’ as we call it, is a favourite in our household. It’s the easiest whole grain sourdough bread you can make. It is SO nutritious, very savoury and delicious, keeps extremely well and there’s no need to worry about gluten development or gluten break down due to overfermentation. This bread is very forgiving!
If you haven’t already seen it, make sure you watch the video for this recipe, where you’ll see my full demonstration of the methods I use to make this bread. It’s a relatively short and sweet video, there really is nothing to it!
The Recipe
INGREDIENTS
500g whole rye flour (freshly milled or unsifted whole rye store-bought flour)
My flour is milled quite finely using my Mockmill 200. I’m keen to try it on a more coarse grind setting too someday!10g / 1.5 metric teaspoons salt
I just use regular Australian sea salt for cooking. It comes quite coarse but I blend it into a fine salt in my blender.160g / 1 metric cup of mixed seeds
I used a mixture of sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, poppy and chia seeds for this recipe. Be aware that some seeds (especially chia!) absorb a lot of water so you may need extra.450 - 550g water
I used 450g in the video loaf but normally use more (around 500g) for a loaf with chia seeds, because they soak up so much water. This style of bread is very easy to make, and is very forgiving, so don’t worry about the water amount. I have made this with a very wet sloppy dough (check out this older video of mine) and it always turns out great. If you want to bake your loaf ‘free form’ style (ie. without a tin) then you will want to make a more firm dough that can stand up on its own.1 tablespoon molasses
This is optional, but I really love the flavour and colour it adds to 100% rye sourdough bread.130g sourdough starter
I used my regular wheat starter straight from the fridge, you could use a rye starter for a truly 100% rye bread.My ‘pan release’ mixture for greasing the bread tin is also handy.
METHOD
Weigh the grain and mill into a fine flour, or weigh out flour if using a pre-milled product.
Add salt and seeds to the flour and mix very thoroughly.
Make a well in the centre of the flour, and add the water.
Add molasses and sourdough starter into the water, and mix thoroughly in the centre well of the bowl before incorporating the flour from the edges. See this in the video if you’re not sure.
Once the starter and molasses are well dissolved in the water, incorporate the flour mixture and stir with a strong spoon or dough whisk until the dough is mixed. You won’t want your hands anywhere near this dough, it will be incredibly sticky!
Scrape down the sides of your bowl (makes cleanup easier later on) and smooth out the top of your dough.
Cover and ferment the dough until it has risen and is bubbly inside - somewhere around doubled in size. Note this took 8 hours for my dough in the video, on a cool, early spring day here in Brisbane (about 20°C all day and evening). Your dough might take anywhere between 4 and 12 hours to ferment depending on your climate and/or ambient temperatures.
Once the dough has risen and fermented, you can either cover and place in the fridge for a day or so until you are ready to bake it, or you can proceed to proofing and baking the same day.
When ready for baking, shape the dough and place in a greased loaf tin. I line my tins with this pan release mixture. Cover and proof until it has risen about 50% in volume. This may take a number of hours if your dough was cold from the fridge. It took 4 hours for my loaf in the video - fridge to bake.
Preheat your oven and roaster (if using) to 210°C or 410°F before the dough is ready to bake.
Bake covered for 50-60 minutes, or uncovered for 40-45 minutes (watch your bread as ovens vary quite a lot). Bake until the bread is dark golden colour and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the base.
Cool the bread for at least 6 hours before slicing. This bread keeps extremely well and the flavour continues to develop as it ages!
That’s it folks! It doesn’t get any more simple than that :)
Some other ideas and variations you can try:
Try dried cranberries and chopped walnuts instead of seeds
Add honey instead of molasses (I haven’t tried that, but I like the sound of it)
Add more molasses for a darker, more richly flavoured bread
Dissolve some instant coffee or chicory coffee substitute to the water (or use cold coffee in place of half the water) for a different flavour and a darker colour.
Make a fruitcake style sweet bread using a cup or two of mixed, dried fruit in the dough
Add some spices - ground coriander or caraway are favourites of mine
Try other nuts, seeds and additives - your imagination and tastes are the only limit!
Looking for more?
Find out about my Mockmill 200 and where you can purchase one from just about anywhere in the world!
(There are discounts available in some locations).See my state-by-state listing of grain suppliers in Australia
Buy me a coffee if you’d like to support my work further in providing these resources 🙂
Happy baking 🌾
Elly
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