Sourdough Whole Wheat, Rye and Perhaps Teff Loaf

 Sourdough Whole Wheat, Rye and Perhaps Teff Loaf

This loaf was thrown together haphazardly, in order to use up the discards from day 5 of the new sourdough I have been making with Nils Schöner's rye sourdough methods.

I was already using some of the 'discards' in another bread of Nils -- a 60% rye with grains soaked in apple juice.  But that bread only used a teaspoon of the sourdough.  I needed to make a bread that would use up the rest of the discard.  So I just tossed this together, not really following a recipe, just the guidelines of the Lahey-style loaves.

Keep in mind that this sourdough is not fully developed.  Nils advises refreshing it another 2-3 times before it reaches full strength.  That is why I added the yeast here.

I used:

• 161g of the sourdough starter @100% hydration
• 143g freshly ground flour, mostly whole wheat, although there was probably some rye in there too.
• 57g of all purpose wheat flour (total wheat flour, therefore = 200g)
• 20g Rye flour (total rye flour, with what is in the sourdough starter = 100g)
• 100g of What was supposed to be Teff (but might have been cocoa??)
• 220g of H20 (with what was in the sourdough starter, total 300g water)
• 8g of salt
• 2g of yeast

I bought my 'Teff' a long time ago in the bulk food store, thinking I might one day find a use for it.  But these days, when I taste a bit of the flour, it seems to me almost like cocoa, or carob.   I hope it was real Teff: I certainly remember paying a premium price for it.

This dough sat at room temperature about 12 hours or so, and then I tried to shape it.

The gluten was tearing, and it made an awful mess.  It felt like too much rye. 

But I shaped it and put it in a basket to proof for 3 hours; at the 2 1/2 hour mark I preheated the oven and a casserole dish.  I baked for 30 minutes with the lid on, then 30 more minutes with the lid off.

When the bread was baked, I removed it to a baking stone and then rubbed some butter on the surface of the hot bread, to keep the outer crust a bit moist.

The loaf didn't rise much at all.  In fact, it sagged in the casserole dish substantially.  The scent of sourdough was very strong throughout the baking period, and the bread smells faintly of the sour tanginess of fresh wild yeast in grain.  But surprisingly, there is really no taste of sourdough.


The loaf is very nutty, and a little mysterious in taste.