I recently made this amazing bread. I was trying to sprout some rye kernels, but they did not sprout. After 3 days of watering and rinsing twice a day, I put them in my powerful Vitamix blender and whipped them up, and added them to 1/2 of my freshly fed sourdough starter.

They made about 2 cups of whole grain sponge. I let that ferment overnight, on the kitchen counter, covered in a tea towl. In the morning it was all bubbly. I mixed in an equal amount of unbleached, all purpose flour, kneading it in at the end, possibly with another 1/2 a cup added to get the right texture, soft and not sticky. I also added some olive oil to it at this point. I had forgotten to add fresh yeast, and did not want to add more liquids to this bread dough, so I sprinkled the yeast pellets, about 1 teaspoon, on the surface of the dough and kneaded them into it. I placed the ball of dough on parchment paper and left it alone, once again covered with a damp towl, near my woodstove for a couple of hours, until doubled in size.

I then heated up my clay stewpot in my oven to 450 c, plopped the dough in and baked for 40 minutes with the lid on and 15 minutes with the lid off.

This resulted in delicious, salt free sourdough rye bread from whole soaked grains, with a vivid, complex flavour and chewy texture.

Recipie

2 cups soaked rye grains. Blend with a little water into a paste.

Add 1 cup freshly fed and activated sourdough starter. Let soak overnight.

Add 2 cups flour, mix in first with a wooden spoon, then with your hands until the dough develops the right texture. More flour may be needed.

Knead in 1 tblsp olive oil and 1 tsp yeast pellets.

Shape dough into ball, place on parchment paper, let rise until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 450 c. Heat up stewpot or dutch oven inside oven.

When oven is ready, pick bread dough up by parchment paper corners and plop into preheated pot. Put lid on

Cook for 45 minutes covered. Then remove lid and cook another 15 minutes.

Take bread out and let cool before cutting into it and eating it. This is important. It is still cooking inside.

Enjoy with smoked fish or Ruben sandwhiches or whatever else you like, and be sure to spice it up with Hurricane Rena’s hotsauces, relish or chutney!