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100 g Sourdough Starter (fed and bubbly)

250 g Bread Flour

200 g Dark Rye Flour (Rye Meal)

350 g Water (or coffee)

25 g Molasses

10 g Dark Malt Powder (non-diastatic malt powder or cocoa powder)

10 g Salt

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1. Autolyse: Weigh out your sourdough starter, water and molasses into a large ceramic or glass bowl. Mix them together briefly. Then add your dark rye flour, bread flour, dark malt powder and salt and mix altogether with the end of a wooden spoon. The dough will be fairly shaggy and only just brought together. Cover your bowl with cling film or a damp tea towel and let it sit for around 1 hour.

2. Forming Up Your Dough: After the dough has been through autolyse you need to bring it together into a ball. Work your way around the bowl, grabbing the dough from the outside, stretching it up and over itself until a rough ball is formed. Once the dough has formed into a rough ball, pop the plastic wrap back on and let it rest for 30 minutes.

3. Stretch & Folds: Over the next few hours you need to create some structure for your dough by 'stretching and folding'. Aim to do around 4-6 sets of stretches and folds. For each set, stretch the dough up and over itself 4 times. Leave around 15 minutes in between each set.

4. Bulk Ferment: Once you've finished your stretch and folds, place the plastic wrap or damp towel back over your dough and let it rest and ferment at room temperature until it has doubled.

5. Shaping Your Dough: Once your dough has finished its first ferment, it's time to shape it. Flour your counter top with rice flour. Use a silicone dough scraper to gently ease the dough out of the bowl. Shape into your desired form and place it into your banneton smooth side down.

6. Cold Ferment: Cover your dough loosely with a plastic bag or damp tea towel and place into the fridge for a minimum of 5 hours up to a maximum of around 36 hours.

7. Preparing to Bake: Preheat your oven to 230C/450F. Place your Dutch Oven into the oven when you turn it on.

8. Baking: When your oven is at temperature, take your sourdough out of the fridge. Gently place it onto a piece of baking paper. Score your bread and place it into the Dutch Oven. Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on at 230C/450F plus 10-15 minutes with the lid off at 210C/410F.

9. Finishing Your Bake: When you remove your dough from the oven, carefully remove it from the Dutch oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Allow this bread a bit longer to cool due to its higher moisture content.

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Notes

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Ingredient Notes – Here are the main ingredients of this sourdough Pumpernickel with links so you can purchase them easily. Some of them may not be available at your local grocery store so you might need to go to a specialist bread making store or purchase them online. I’ve also added some variations and substitutions further down the post.

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Dark Rye Flour or Coarse Rye Meal – this can be hard to find. You can use flour labelled as “Pumpernickel” or Dark Rye Flour. If you’re in Australia, you can purchase this flour here. In the US, you can purchase dark rye flour from Amazon. Dark rye flour is different to regular or light rye flour.

Dark Malt Powder – this is also known as non-diastatic malt powder. You are going to love this stuff for flavor! In Australia, you can buy dark malt powder here. In the US, you can purchase it from Amazon. If you can’t find it, you can use dark cocoa as a substitute or even this King Arthur Espresso Powder. Another idea is to use liquid coffee in place of the water in this recipe if you cannot find dark malt powder.

Molasses – usually found in the grocery store with the sugars. I’ve used liquid molasses for this bake. If you can’t find it at the store, then you can purchase it here.

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Notes on Rye Starter / Levain – You don’t need a rye sourdough starter for this sourdough bread, but you can enhance the rye flavor by building a rye levain specifically for this loaf. You definitely do not have to though and you can use your regular active sourdough starter.

But if you do like the idea of using rye for your starter you could build a rye sourdough starter or use your existing sourdough starter to build a rye levain for this sourdough bread.

To build a rye levain, take 20g of your own sourdough starter and feed it with 50g of warm water and 50g of rye flour. Allow the levain to double before you use it in this recipe. This will give your bread an intense rye flavor and can help to build a more sour flavor profile.

Notes on Bulk Fermentation – 

The time this takes will depend on the temperature in your home. If your home is warm then your dough will ferment a lot faster and could be done in as little as a few hours.. If it’s colder, it will take longer, possibly overnight. This recipe has 100g of starter and is a higher hydration dough so it will ferment fairly quickly. You can reduce the starter to 50g if you want to slow the ferment time. You can find more information on changing the amount of starter here.

You will know your dough is ready to move to the next stage when it is nearly doubled in size. It will be fairly wobbly and full of bubbles. You should be able to see large air bubbles under the surface of the dough. You don’t want to let it go any further than doubled as it will be over fermented. You can learn more about bulk fermentation here.