Recipe - Latvian Sourdough Rye Bread (Saldskaaba Maize)

3 One half cup Plus 1 tablespoon apple
cider
2 tablespoon Caraway seeds
5 One half cup (or more) whole grain
(coarse) rye flour (i.e.,
Hodgson Mill)
1 cup Sourdough starter (1:1 ratio
water:bread flour)
1 tablespoon Yeast
1 teaspoon Salt
2 One half cup Bread flour
Vegetable oil spray (Pam;
etc.)

OPTIONAL
1 Egg
Rye flakes

Heat 3 cups apple cider and 2 tablespoons caraway seeds to boiling; pour
over 3 cups of coarse rye flour and stir. Let mixture cool. Add 1 cup
active sourdough starter and mix well. The mixture will resemble heavy
porridge as the rye flour absorbs the apple cider. Sprinkle One half cup coarse
rye flour over the mixture but do not stir at this point.

Cover your bowl with a dish towel, and then wrap the covered bowl with a
beach towel or blanket. Put wrapped bowl in a warm spot (next to a heat
register is good) and allow the mixture to ferment for up to 24 hours (less
time if you think it will be too sour).

Dissolve 1 tablespoon yeast in One half cup warm (105115 degrees Farenheit)
apple cider. Let the yeast mixture bubble and then add it to the sourdough
mixture. Gradually add 1 teaspoon salt, 2One half cups bread flour, and 2 cups
coarse rye flour. Knead with your heavyduty electric mixer. If the dough
seems too wet, add more rye flour (wet dough will result in a soggy baked
brick). This type of bread is tricky to make, as the dough is always very
sticky from the rye; it takes some trial and error to get a feel for the
dough. If the dough is too wet, it becomes slack after a while; the correct
consistency of dough remains rather firm.

Spray a Formica countertop or a marble pastry board with vegetable cooking
spray. Use a small plastic pan scraper or something like that to scrape
your dough out of the bowl and onto your work surface. Using a bench
knife/dough scraper, divide the dough into two equal chunks. Wet your hands
with water and keep a bowl of water handy for additional dipping. Form the
dough into two loaves on the oiled surface, using just your wet hands; do
not add flour at this point. Place the loaves into oiled bread pans (81/2"
x 41/2"). Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm place. Believe it
or not, this very heavy dough WILL rise. OPTIONAL (not a traditional
method): Brush on glaze made with 1 egg that's been mixed with 1 tablespoon
of apple cider; sprinkle with rye flakes (obtainable from a food coop).

Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees Farenheit; then turn heat down to 350
degrees Farenheit and continue to bake for an additional hour. Don't
underbake. Remove loaves from pans and allow to cool on a rack.
POSTSCRIPT: When measuring flour, I do not fluff and scoop into separate
measuring cups; rather I just use my measuring cup to do the scooping and
then level it off with a spatula. My resulting "cups" are probably somewhat
on the dense side as a result of this.

If anyone is interested in a "true sourdough" Latvian rye bread (using only
sourdough starter but no additional yeast), I can post a recipe for it
later on. The recipe differs from the one here in several ways: by
including water and sugar, rather than apple cider; it uses a different
(coffee flavored) glaze; it's a oneday process, rather than twoday like
the recipe posted here; it uses a different type of sourdough starter.
Posted to Digest breadbakers.v097.n052 by "Angie Klidzejs"
klidz002@tc.umn.edu on Aug 13, 1997