Sprouted Rye Sourdough

It’s late spring and things around my kitchen are getting sprouted like nobody’s business. Therefore I was wholeheartedly giddy when Zorra, founder and current host of Bread Baking Day chose sprouts as June’s theme. At the very start of spring I wrote my first bread formula that was actually documented in about three pages of my notebook and it was for a wheat berry sprout sourdough. I had been wanting to play around with the formula and try it out with rye sprouts. Then BBD 11 came along, grabbed my hand and shoved it into my bag of rye berries. I did the rest on my own.

Sprouting rye berries to yield 213 grams of finished sprouts: Put 130 grams or ¾ cup berries to soak in the morning. Use a jar large enough so that you’ve got about 2/3 empty space. In the evening cover them with cheesecloth and drain. Leave the covered jar upside down and at a slant in a bowl and cover the whole thing with a kitchen towel. The next morning rinse them with cool water, swirl, drain and put back under the towel upside down. That evening the sprout at the end of the berry should be just a little nubby thing poking out. Do not rinse anymore at this point. Cover the jar proper and refrigerate until use and make that useage within a couple days if possible. If your sprouts are ready before this amount of time, by all means stop and refrigerate, just be sure they don’t get rinsed right before they go into the fridge.

Sprouted Rye Sourdough
213 grams rye berry sprouts
250 grams ripe wheat starter (at 100% hydration, I did my final build 80% wheat, 20% rye)
257 grams water
200 grams bread flour
130 grams whole wheat flour
10 grams salt

Grinding the sprouts
In a food processor grind all of the sprouts with 30 grams of the water. Grind until most all the grains are broken up and it is a mostly cohesive mass.

Mixing and kneading
Combine the starter with the remaining 227 grams of water and stir to combine. Add the sprouts, flours and salt and mix. Knead by hand for about eight minutes and let rest for five. Or knead in a mixer for about five minutes with a dough hook on medium-low speed. Let rest for five minutes. The dough is pretty sticky. Knead by hand for another minute and put the dough in an oiled bowl.

Bulk fermentation
About 3-5 hours. Let it rise by about half. No stretch and folds here, the rye is too fragile.

Shaping and proofing
Turn dough out onto a floured surface and divide in half. Preshape, cover and let rest for five minutes. Shape gently into boules or batards. Proof for about two hours, being sure not to overproof, again fragile rye here.

Baking
Load into a 500 degree oven with steam. Turn oven down to 425 after a minute or so. Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating loaf halfway through baking. Cool completely.