I’m going to a small garden-gathering, and taking some food along. Sourdough bread was the obvious choice, so I checked out some new recipes as I wanted to make baguettes and a rustic style Rye loaf.

I chose the baguette and Rye recipes from baking sense.com. These use a ‘levain’ to start the dough which I like to do if I have time

Sourdough Rye Bread

Years ago I bought 4 baguette trays at great expense, so these were going to come in useful. After discovering I’d run out of Rye flour, a quick dash to the local shop was needed. Breathless but successful I started to prep my starters.

I had already halved my 100% hydrated starter and increased my normal feeding schedule to make a starter that would allow 250g for the baguettes, and 100g left to carry on with. I used Rye to feed the other half to a total of 300g.

The baguette starter was ready before the Rye one, so I kneaded the dough but then left it in the fridge for 2 days. The Rye starter was ready the next day, but was ‘held’ in the fridge so that I could work the two doughs concurrently. On the third day – which was very warm, I made the Rye dough early in the morning, and left it to prove until the late afternoon. Meanwhile I removed the baguette dough from the fridge and let it warm to room temperature.

The four baguettes were shaped first, and set to prove whilst I shaped the Rye into two rustic cobs with caraway seeds on top.

The baguettes were ready to bake at 10pm and the Rye went into the oven directly after.

We ate one baguette because the smell was irresistible and it is deliciously tasty with a great chewy texture.