Slow-Baked Rye Bread

INGREDIENTS:

Rye bread sourdough

100 g wheat flour

100 g rye flour

1 tsp honey

1 piece of fresh yeast the size of a pea

1 tp Molkosan

A little salt

Cold water to bind the dry ingredients together into a thick porridge

Rye bread

1.2 l tepid water

3 dl malt beer

5 dl rye sourdough

2 tbs honey

5 tbs salt

1-2 dl hørfrø (an edible seed, makes a good oil)

1-2 dl sesame seeds

1 dl black poppy seeds

Ca. 2 ½ kg flour

(of which ⅔ cracked rye/wheat grains and ⅓ rye flour or whole-wheat flour together will a little sifted spelt (Triticum spelta) flour, durum – a Danish variety, kæmpedurum is preferable – to get the dough to stick together)

2 tsp cummin

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp anise

2 tsp crushed licorice root

2 tsp crush dried orange peel

2 tp toasted whole coriander

PREPARATION:

• Rye bread sourdough: Start a sour rye dough by mixing all the ingredients. Leave the dough at rest on the kitchen table for 24 hours.

• The first time you use it for baking it will be good enough. But if handled right the sourdough will get better and better with age. For best results use it at least every 14 days or revive it with about a handful of more water and a handful of more rye flour once a week. This gives the yeast something to live on and keeps it from getting too sour.

• Preserve a rye dough in a jar in the refrigerator and sprinkle a little salt on top. Some times the color changes but that does not matter.

• If it grows a little slow and weak, stir in a clump of the dough with a new portion of sourdough starter and give it another workout on the kitchen table.

• Rye bread: Mix the sourdough with water and honey and stir in the spices, salt, and seeds.

• Mix together the different kinds of flour. Stir a little of the flour in at a time so the dough gets a suitable soggy consistence. It should be like oatmeal, although the comparison is a little off because this dough is more clumpy.

• If the dough requires more than 2.5 kg of flour, add another tbs of salt for every 500 g of flour. Remove a little sourdough as a starter for the future and put the rest into a rye bread mold.

• Fill the molds three-quarters high, place a piece of baking paper over and pack aluminum foil around the mold.

• Bake the first bread loaves for 12 hours at 40 °C an then for 12 hours at 80-90 °C. This is a moist, juicy bread but it should not be sticky.

• Pack the loave into dry cloths once they have cooled completely. Place them in plastic bags in the refrigerator. The loaves keep for several weeks but cannot be frozen.