German Rye Bread Recipe

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You know those people who are so excited about something that they immediately post it to the interwebs without even a thought about, say, accuracy. Sometimes those folks are us. When it came time to teach a German rye bread class for the Los Angeles Bread Bakers, I took another look at the recipe on this blog and sent it to fellow LABBer Dana Morgan for testing and revision. Thanks to Dana I have now revised and re-posted that recipe here.

If you’re into sourdough, this is an easy loaf to bake. There’s not much in the way of shaping and you don’t even have to slash the loaf before it goes in the oven. And unlike the white bread that passes for rye in the US, this loaf is actually made out of mostly rye. It does have some white flour in it, but just enough to allow making a hearth loaf.

If you’re in the LA area, I’ll be teaching some more rye classes this year. Sign up for the Los Angeles Bread Bakers on Meetup.com and you’ll get all the announcements and invites.

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5 Comments

  1. Rye grows wild where I live. Some even grew on my land and the chickens ate it. There are some large fields of it around, I will harvest my own and try the recipe.

  2. Hi there in the second build you add rye starter and water to the first build. Whereas in the first build you added a tablespoon of mature starter, now in the second build you are adding 75 g of starter? Could this be a typo? Might it be rye flour or a blend of rye/white flour instead? And if so, is this 75 g subtracted from the amount of flour do you add in the final mix ?

    Finally if it isn’t a typo or misunderstanding on my part, what proportions do you use to feed your starters. 1:1:1? Thank you. Love your blog

    • In the second build you are adding the 100 grams of starter you created in the first build. Does that make sense? Essentially, you are building up the starter in two feedings. You will end up with 250 grams of starter to use in the recipe. And I feed my starter a 50/50 blend of flour and water. If using whole grain flour, sometimes I will add a little more water when I do a feeding. Let me know if you have any more questions and thanks for your input.

    • thank you for your quick reply! I’ve made my first build and I will add ALL of it to the second build –

      what I don’t understand is the ingredient “RYE STARTER ” in the second build- where does this rye starter come from?

      for the first build I used a tablespoon from my rye mother (starter), do I now take 75g from my rye mother and add it to the second build? (see build recipe instructions quoted below with RYE STARTER highlighted).
      Thank you!

      First build: take one tablespoon of mature starter and add it to 50 grams of rye flour and 50 grams of room temperature filtered water. Let sit for between 8 to 12 hours at room temperature.

      Second build: add 75 grams of RYE STARTER and 75 grams of room temperature filtered water to the first build. Let sit for 8 to 12 hours at room temperature. You will end up with 250 grams of rye sourdough starter to use in your dough.Second build: add 75 grams of rye starter and 75 grams of room temperature filtered water to the first build. Let sit for 8 to 12 hours at room temperature. You will end up with 250 grams of rye sourdough starter to use in your dough.

    • Many thanks Laurel for catching a typo. That should be “rye flour” not “rye starter” in the second build.

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