A bread recipe from The Bread Exchange

I have one rye bread that I make fairly often these days. To me, it is the perfect loaf since I feel like I need nothing but butter to go with it.

• ca. 300 g sourdough starter
• 300 g water
• 225 g Öland wheat (or another organic local wheat with a higher protein)
• 225 g whole rye flour
• 2 tbsp honey
• 20 g bread spices. I always use fennel and anise, often Schabzigerklee (blue fenugreek) and coriander seeds, and sometimes cumin.
• 30 g sesame seeds (plus extra for the form)
• Yesterday I also added a couple of spoonfuls of crushed linseeds or sunflower seeds
• 16 g salt

Day 1: Prepare the sourdough starter and water in a bowl. I made mine with rye by mixing 100 g rye flour and 200 g water with a dash of sourdough starter.

Day 2: In the bowl with the sourdough, mix in the rest of the ingredients. The ingredients won't mix perfectly, and that's fine.

Let the dough rise in the bowl for 3 hours at room temperature, or 6-10 hours in the fridge.

Prepare a baking form by buttering it and covering the bottom and sides with sesame seeds.

After the first rise, transfer the dough into the buttered form that you have sprinked with sesameseeds. The dough will still be very sticky.

Let it rise for a second time, either for 3 hours at room temperature or for 6–10 hours in the fridge. I usually let the bread rise overnight in the fridge.

Bake the loaf at 250°C for a total of 1 hour. After 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 230°C and continue baking for another 40 minutes. For the last 10 minutes, take the bread out of the form and let it bake directly on the oven rack so that it becomes crisp all around.

Let the bread cool on a wire rack before slicing.