Sourdough Rye - Danish Style

Rye breads are tricky because they have almost no gluten. To compensate many rye bread recipes contain only a small amount of rye flour, the bulk being given over to wheat flour whose gluten allows for an ample rise and light crumb.

When the rye content of a recipe increases a baker can knead for an exceptionally long time to encourage what little gluten there is to bind together so the bread will rise, or the recipe calls upon yeast to supplement a sourdough culture. Commercial yeast can lift nearly anything.

Danes, like citizens of other northern European countries too cold to grow much wheat, consume a lot of rye bread, much of it made with 100% rye flour. This Danish rye made with soaked flax seeds and a tablespoon of barley malt syrup was leavened using only a rye sourdough starter. The dough was not kneaded, but simply allowed to ferment for eight hours at 67 degrees. It doubled in volume and the result was a richly flavored, slightly sour, malted, full-bodied rye bread.