Ingredients:
2 Cups Warm Water1 tsp. Unrefined Organic Sugar
2 tsps. Active Dry Yeast (preferably organic)
3 –5 Cups Organic White (Bread) flour or King Arthur bread flour
1 Cup Whole Rye Flour
1 tbsp. Caraway seeds
2 tbsps. Poppy Seeds
1 tbsp. Onion Flakes
3 tbsps. Rolled Oats
1/4 cup Pecans
1/2 cup Pepitas
Butter or extra virgin olive oil
2-3 tsps. Salt
This bread will have more flavor if you make the starter the day before: making the bread: in an empty one quart yogurt container or small bowl, dissolve a teaspoon of organic unrefined sugar in two cups of warm water, sprinkle two teaspoons of active dry yeast on the surface of the sugar water, wait until it foams up and then whisk in a cup of rye flour until it is quite smooth. Set the yogurt container in a larger bowl to catch the overflow.
You might like to use a mixture of whole grain rye and white flour for the starter. Let the starter sit overnight or for two nights. It can even go three nights, by which time it will have reached the maximum twanginess, and you might want to add another teaspoon of sugar so the yeast will have something to work on. Suit yourself on how much caraway seed to add. Sometimes I put it in with the starter, sometimes I wait and put it in with the flour, and sometimes I put some in with the starter and then add more with the flour.
When your starter is ready to proceed, set a large skillet over medium high heat, and tumble in a quarter cup each of pecans and pepitas. I broke up the pecans but left the pepitas whole. Toast them, stirring constantly, until they are crispy. Do NOT let them scorch. Just as they get brown, fling in a tablespoon of poppy seeds, a tablespoon of onion flakes, and a tablespoon of butter or olive oil. Toasting will enhance the flavor of the nuts and seeds. Remove the skillet from the heat, stirring the while, and fling the nuts and seeds into a large mixing bowl; then add a tablespoon of currants.
Pour the starter over them. Get all the sludge up off the bottom first. During cold weather, you should probably warm the bowl by sloshing hot water around in it (then pouring out the hot water). Add two or three teaspoons of salt and a pinch of sugar. Adding no salt at all means your bread may rise uncontrollably fast. If you feel nervous, sprinkle on a bit more yeast, and let it fizz up, then stir it in.
Add three cups of organic white bread flour or King Arthur Bread Flour. Failing either of those, use the white flour you happen to have on hand. Add enough rye flour to make the total rye flour content one cup.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly with a stout wooden spoon. This will result in a really sticky paste. Add more white flour little by little until the dough is just barely firm enough to knead but still quite sticky. Turn it out on a well-floured board, and knead until mixed to the same consistency all through, and until it is just barely stiff enough to keep its shape as a ball or half-dome without immediately slumping. If it is too soft, it will stick to your fingers. And then it will begin filching over the lip of the baking pan as it rises -- you would really rather it did not. However, it should be as soft as possible, and not stiff.
Knead until there are no traces of flour on the surface of the dough and the consistency is smooth throughout, folding over and punching in as necessary to achieve this consistency.
Let the dough rise in a warm place. Your oven can be the “warm place” -- just turn it on for a minute or two. However, “hot” is not what you want – the racks should not scorch your fingers.
Butter or oil the bottom and sides of a round 12 inch cake pan. Sprinkle it lightly with corn meal; then to get the sides covered, tap the pan while holding it slanted up on edge, to cover the sides. Put the ball of bread dough in the exact center of the pan. It should slump down somewhat, and should already come close to filling the pan. It will fil the pan and dome up as it rises. Dampen the upper surface with water. You can glaze it with a bit of black malt syrup, if you want a darker brown exterior crust. (Also, I forgot to note above, you can put in a spoon of black malt syrup – or molasses – instead of unrefined sugar when the starter is ripe if you want the interior to be darker brown.
Sprinkle the damp, sticky surface with a lot of poppy seeds. You could also use sesame seeds. You could go half and half, one side to the other. Do not mix them together. The seeds will spread out as the dough rises. Pat them in – lightly.
You could also make two loaves of bread, though this will be neither quite so much fun nor so impressive as one very large dome-shaped round loaf.
Cover the rising loaf with a damp non-fuzzy dish cloth. If you’re into bread baking, you might designate an old cotton cloth and then use that over and over. Do not use anything fuzzy or new – fibers will come off. Do not use anything that smells of detergent. Let the dough rise until a finger poke does not spring back. Sneak up on this point. Poke the rising dough several times. If it rises too much, you will have to knead it down and let it begin again – otherwise it will fall.
When the loaf appears to be about half risen, turn on the oven and let it heat to a low temperature. 300 degrees is good. 325 would be okay, but no higher than that. Use an oven thermometer if you’re nervous about your oven's thermostat setting.
Rye flour contains an enzyme that destroys wheat gluten in the presence of high temperature. That is why it is so often mixed with wheat flour, why it is often made as "sourdough" rye, and also why it bakes up best at a low temperature.
Depending on the oven temperature, let the bread bake 40 minutes or even 45 minutes. Insert a skewer or cake tester — if it comes out clean, the bread is probably done. Sounds a bit hollow when done -- if you tap it.
You’re hoping to achieve a springy-textured slightly damp loaf that toasts to perfection and keeps well. You are hoping for a crispy but supple crust and a good interior crumb. You don’t want a loaf that crumbles to bits when you cut it.
Remove the bread from the pan, and let it cool a lot before you slice it. Great with butter! Makes a wonderful jam and cheese sandwich!
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