Rye and caraway seed bread

The caraway seeds smell so good when this bakes. I think the coffee and treacle definitely add a nice background note - but you probably wouldn't guess there's coffee in it if you didn't know.

You can use a rye starter if that's all you have, just replace the 75g rye flour in this recipe with white bread flour to keep the ratio the same. Also, this dough is quite sticky - around 80% hydration - so if you're not comfortable handling wet dough use 320g water, or even a bit less.

Ingredients

150g white sourdough starter (100% hydration)

350g tepid-warm water

300g white bread flour

75g whole wheat flour

75g whole rye flour

20g treacle (molasses)

50g filter coffee

15g caraway seeds

10g salt

Method

Dissolve the treacle in the hot coffee. Once the coffee is cool, mix all ingredients except the caraway seeds and salt into a shaggy dough and autolyse for 45 minutes.

Add the salt and caraway seeds and knead until almost - but not quite - passing the windowpane test. This can take a while if the dough is wet - it took me 7 minutes in a stand mixer, with a rest half way through. It'll probably be at least 10 minutes by hand.

Bulk ferment until almost doubled in size. This can take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours in my experience. For me, on a cold February day in England, it took around 7 hours. Do two or three stretch and folds during this time. You should notice it significantly improve in strength each time. If it's holding it's shape, stop folding.

Shape into a boule and prove for 1.5 hours, then place in the fridge overnight.

Preheat the oven to 240°C.

Spray the dough with a little water and sprinkle a 50/50 mix of sesame seeds and golden linseed (flax seed) on top. Score the dough.

Turn the oven down to 220°C. Bake 20 minutes with steam (or with the lid on your cast iron pot), 20 minutes without steam (lid off).

Let it cool completely before cutting, and enjoy.

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