Oat, Rye and Honey Sourdough

I made a honeyed oat loaf a few years ago but that was someone else's recipe.  This one is my own recipe (and it tastes fantastic😀)

150g  Rye starter **
100g  Jumbo rolled oats
75g    Wholemeal bread flour
325g  White bread flour
30g    Runny honey
12g    Fine sea salt
400g  Water

Add 300g of boiling water to the oats, stir briefly and set aside (covered) for 6 hours (this is the soaker)

Put the 150g of starter in a large mixing bowl and stir in the remaining 100g of lukewarm water, then add the oat soaker and mix well before gradually adding the flour, salt and honey and mix well by hand until well incorporated and no dry bits remain.  The dough will be very sticky.  Cover the bowl and leave aside for 1 hour.

With a wet hand stretch and fold the dough a few times until it feels a little tighter.  Repeat this another 3 times with about 45 mins to an hour between each set.  The dough will gradually increase in volume during this process and will become more 'elastic' with each set of folds.

After the last set of folding leave the dough to rest in the bowl for 30 mins or so then remove and shape to suit your method of baking (I used two small bannetons for this recipe amount) and leave aside for an hour then put in fridge overnight.  Please note the dough will still be quite sticky so use just enough flour to handle and shape as you require, also sprinkle a few oats in the banneton for decoration.

Now comes the wide and varied bit of baking!  We are based on our sailing yacht right now so our facilities are quite limited.  Our gas oven only has low, med or high setting (no thermostat) and struggles to get much above 210c (SEE NOTES BELOW).  I preheated it for 20 mins on 'high' with a small steel bowl inside.  Then after turning out the dough onto a baking sheet covered with baking parchment, I placed it in the oven and put half a cup of boiling water in the bowl and baked the dough for 20 mins, then I removed the water and baked the bread for another 20 mins.  Because of the small size of our oven I baked these two loaves one after another.

The taste was fantastic! enough sour tang balanced by the honey and a very light and fluffy crumb with a soft but slightly crunchy crust.  We ate the round one for breakfast with a selection of jams ........... mmmmmm 😀😀

NOTES!

I would suggest that if using a 'real' oven a temp of 230c would be better although you may wish to reduce the baking time a little.  To be honest I'm not setting out to teach you how to make bread, I assume you already have those skills 😀

I made these in room temps of around 18 to 20c and our very simple fridge was around 8 to 10c.  You will of course need to adjust times if much warmer or colder.

** Assumes fully refreshed active starter.  I maintain a pure rye starter at 100% hydration.

©2020 G.Connolly