Sourdough Rye Bread

Both for the sponge and for the dough, the amount of water is based on the consistency of your starter. Mine is like pancake batter. If your starter is dryer, you will need more water and vice versa. The amount in the dough recipe is based on a sponge with the consistency of a thin pancake batter. 1. The night before baking, take out your starter and prepare the sponge. Stir the starter well, and put 1/2 cup in a medium mixing bowl. In a seperate bowl, add the flour to the water and mix to break up the lumps, a few small ones are ok. Add the flour water mixture to the starter, and stir well. Cover and leave on the counter. Make sure your bowl is large enough to accommodate the sponge rising. 2. I let my bread machine do the kneading. Add all the wet ingredients (starting with the sponge ), then add the dry ingredients. Use the dough cycle until the machine has finished kneading. Don't leave it in for the rise. After kneading, place the dough in an oiled rising jar or mixing bowl, cover and allow to double. The time this requires is based on the temperature where you place the dough, and the virility of your starter. Don't overdo the first rise. Doubled or slightly less is good. Punch down and form the dough into a ball, and let rise again.(see # 3) 2a. For those of you doing it the hands-on way; mix the ingredients into a soft dough and knead by hand about 10 minutes. Then follow the instructions above for the rise. 3. A note on the second rise. A soft dough will rise out instead of up if it is not confined. Then you have a disc. Many bakers use a brotform. These are relatively expensive. I use a simple woven basket lined with parchment paper. After the rise you can lift the dough out of the basket with the parchment paper without deflating your dough. Put on a pizza peel, and slide dough and parchment paper onto a preheated stone. After about 15 minutes of baking, you can slide the parchment paper out from under the bread. The parchment paper will hold it's shape enough to keep the dough from spreading until it starts to harden. 4. Preheat oven to 500 to warm the pizza stone or unglazed tiles. About 20 minutes. Turn oven down to 425, slide dough onto stone (see above ). Bake about 35 minutes, depending on how fast your oven is. Remove to a wire rack to cool. If you want the glossy dark brown artisan look, you can use either the steam technique or an egg white wash.