Finnish Rye Bread

It looks greenish and disgusting, feels like concrete in your hands and stinks like something you just might want to feed to your worst enemy. But here’s the miracle: when you bake it, it turns out to be one of most delicious breads in the world. And also the healthiest. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you – the Finnish rye bread!

As you might have guessed, I bake my rye bread with sourdough starter, without any additional yeast. My starter is based on all-purpose wheat flour, but about 12 hours before I want to make the rye bread dough, I take 60g of the starter, place in a clean jar, and refresh with 60g water and 60g rye flour. That way, there is only a tiny little bit wheat in the final bread (less than 5%). I’ve also tried to maintain a rye-only-starter, but it has always turned bad after a couple of days…

This is what you need for one loaf:

• 150g sourdough starter, refreshed 10-12 hours before


• 350g fresh water


• 450g rye flour – whole-grain, if possible


• 10g salt

Combine 300g water and the flour in a baking bowl. Stir with a fork until all the flour is moist. Add the rest of water if needed. (Some flours are thirstier than others ;) ) Let stand for about 20 to 40 minutes. Then add the starter and salt. Knead for about 10-15 minutes, or until you can no more – unless you’re using a machine, in which case 10 minutes should be enough.

Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment at room temperature for about 6-8 hours. Then fold the dough a couple of times and place in a floured proofing basket. Let ferment 1-2 hours more. Preheat your oven to 250 C and bake the loaf about 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 225 C (or even 200 C) and bake until thoroughly cooked, or some 30 minutes more.

Let cool - and eat with lots of butter ;) This bread keeps very well, at least one week.

P.S. If you don’t have a proofing basket yet, do buy one! Before I had one, I never managed my breads to grow so beautifully…