Almond walnut rye sourdough bread

rye sourdough almond and walnutbread

While getting ready for the holidays (if you are curious where we are off to, stick around, a culinary report from our trip will be posted here, soon), I thought I want to share this latest bread of mine with you. This is a bread for all that love nuts as much as I do. I modified this "avelino" artisanal bread recipe a little bit as I had no hazelnuts and I made it using almonds instead. Besides that, I was able to bake this bread and the taste of the bread as well as the crumb are a full success, so I will be making this organic bread on a regular basis for sure. Here is the recipe:

Sourdough:

• 205 g.rye flour
• 205 g.water
• 20 g. of your sour dough starter

Mix everything well and let everything rest (best conditions should be around 26°C - 30°C) covered up in a bowl for about 14 - 16 hours

Sponge

• 265 g. wheat flour
• 250 g.water
• 3 gr.fresh yeast (about 1 g. dried yeast if you don't have any)

Mix everything well and let it rest in the above same mentioned conditions for 2 hours, then put it away in the fridge for about 14 hours

Scald:

• 100 g. almond flakes or almond pins. Roast the almonds and after roasting add 35 g. hot water, cover it up and let it rest till the sourdough is done
• 90 g. crushed walnuts. Roast them slightly and cover them with 3 Table spoons of dark rum. Cover it up and let it rest till the sourdough is done

nuts and almonds and rum

Dough: (enough for 2 small breads):

• Sourdough
• Sponge
• Scald
• 200 g. rye flour
• 15 g. salt
• 10 g. fresh yeast (or 3.3 g. dried yeast)

Knead all ingredients well together and after 5 minutes add the nuts to the dough. Ideadlically you are having a dough kneading machine for this, I don't. So I have to knead my dough using my hands. If you have problems with dough sticking to your fingers / hands, try to only use the heel of the hand for kneading or you can wet your hands before kneading to avoid the dough sticking to it.
Now let the dough rest for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes split the dough in half to make and form 2 breads. If you are not sure how to form / shape a bread, please follow my link on "bread baking basics + know how". This free formed bread has to rest in a form in order to not run flat on you. So normally you would  put in a bread fermentation basket it you have one. This is a basket that bakers will let their breads ferment in for a while to get in form while fermenting. It is a very useful tool but I am not sure where to buy this one easily off the shelf. Here is a picture of the device that I found on this blog: Deichrunner (also find this blog in my blogroll):

fermentation basket

Anyway, as I don't have a special basket for this, I am just taking a normal high bowl (I am still using the same on that I used when I made this bread) with a round bottom that gives my bread more or less the form that I desire for the bread. I wet the bowl before I add the dough, this way later it won't stick to it. Now I add the formed dough bottom side up into the bowl. Once the dough is added, I also wet the top of the dough (which means the bottom of the bread) one more time so it won't get a hard crust on top. Let the bread ferment another 50 - 60 minutes.
I recently got myself a permanent baking foil made of teflon, which I am using to pop the bread in the oven. Once the breads have been fermented, I drop them upside down from their bread baskets on the prepared foil. I wet the top of the bread one more time before it goes in the oven. The oven should be pre heated on 240°C (the foil is made to withstand this kind of temperatures easily).
Now pour a cup of hot water in the oven (if you do not have this inbuilt steaming program in your oven at home), pop the bread in the oven and also place a cup of water on the floor of the oven to give some additional steam later on. Quickly close the door so the hot steam will be caught within the oven. Having all that steam in the oven is, like mentioned many times before, extremely important for a scrumptious crust and a great consistency of the bread.
Bake the breads for 10 minutes now, then open up the door, let the steam out, lower the heat on 180°C and continue to bake the bread for another 25 minutes. Now switch off the heat, keep the door open and let the bread cool down slowly.

Last but not least, this is a rye based sourdough bread. Rye based breads are best consumed one day after they are baked. I know it is hard to wait with all those fantastic smells around you when this homemade bread is fresh from the oven, but be patient, wait for one day and you will be rewarded with an awesome tasting self made bread indeed.