Title: 6-Day Sour Dough
Categories: Blank Bread Vegetable
Yield: 1 Servings

Step 1 The Starter Ingredients 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast 3 TBS warm water 1/4 cup fine whole wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and add enough flour to make a soft dough. Keep in a loosely covered glass or clay container at about 85 degrees F., 15 to 24 hours. Do not let dough dry out

Step 2 Ingredients 1/2 cup fine whole wheat flour 1/4 cup water

Mix the additional yeast and warm water into the first starter, making a firmer dough this time. Cover and let ferment until it has doubled or tripled and looks spongy. You now have a starter that can be kept in the refrigerator for several months; keep in a tightly covered jar that is not more than three-fourths full.

Preliminary dough I 1/2 tsp active dry yeast 6 cups water 2 TBS starter 6 1/4 cup rye flour finely ground 1 pound wheat berries Prepare the evening before baking day

Dissolve the yeast in a cup or so of the water at 110 degrees. Stir in the starter, then alternately another 2 1/4 cups warm water and the rye flour. Let the misture stand 12 to 14 hours at room temp. Rinse the wheat berries in warm water. Bring 2 3/4 cups water to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the wheat berries and let them sit overnight. By morning the berries should have burst open; if they didn't bring them to a boil again and cook until they burst, Let them cool to warm-room temp.

Main dough Ingredients 1 1/2 TBS salt 2 generous TBS each ground caraway seeds and ground coriander 6 2/3 cups rye flour

Stir the salt into the wheat mixture. Mix the ground seeds into the rye flour. Pour half of this mixture into the preliminary dough and stir in the wheat berries. Work in the remaining flour, adding more water if necessary. Cover with a platter or plastic sheet and let the dough rise for about three hours in a warm place, until it is soft and quite spongy. When the dough is ready to shape, grease the pans you are going to use. Dust them with sifted bran or sesame seeds. Press the dough into the pans, smoothing the surface with a wet spoon. Cover the pans and let rise 1 to 2 hours until small rifts appear in the top. Place covered breads on the lowest shelf of a cold oven and bake 1 hr at 425 degrees then 2 hours at 215 degrees. Remove the covers or foil and bake another hour (longer in clay), again at 425 degrees. If you bake in three normal pans covered with aluminum foil and your oven is reliable, you can follow our baking timings with confidence. But if you use a covered casserole, especially a clay one that is soaked in water, or one with wider dimensions, more baking time is required.

If you have a scale and want to be really sure when the bread is done, you can weigh the loaves both before and after baking. The bread will lose 12% of its weight in baking. Let the baked loaves cool on cake racks for half an hour to an hour; turn them out of the forms, and let them rest two days in a cool, airy place before slicing. Slice very, very thin.

Time involved in preparation: 6 days.

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