cackleberrys : First of all, what type of water did you use in your starter? If your tap water is either very hard or very soft or contains chlorine, then by all means use bottles or filtered water. Hard water discourages fermentation; soft water makes a very sticky dough; chlorine can also interfere with the fermentation process.
Better yet, use water left over from cooking potatoes. Potato water contains nutrients that any yeast will thrive on, and contributes enhanced flavour to the bread.
To make a rye sour, stir 1½ cups of pumpernickel or rye flour into 1 cup warm water. Stir in 1 Tbsp of active dry yeast and submerge a slice of lemon into the mixture. Cover w/ plastic wrap and set aside at room temp. Let this mixture rise & fall back. After this point, stir it once a day for three consecutive days. Remove the onion and stir in another cup of water plus 1½ cups of rye flour. Cover, let rise and fall once more, stir & refrigerate.
In order to make Pain de Seigle – a European-style country rye loaf – you need to make a malt or honey “levain” – French for leaven. This starter is composed most basically of flour & water, which grows & rises by cultivating wild yeasts that naturally occur in the air. Once prepared, you dissolve the malt or honey levain in water, add honey, unbleached flour, and stir until there are ong strands of stretching batter. Important, because you’re working to achieve good gluten development! Then you add pumpernickel flour & kosher salt. You’ll continue to add flour until the dough is smooth, tacky, springy, but not sticky. The dough may then take as long as 24 hrs to rise, depending on the weather & amount of airborne yeasts!
When doubled, form dough into a round and place on a cornmeal-coated peel. Cover w/ damp cloth, let rise 4 to 8 hours. Then it’s ready to be baked.
Incidentally, I have a recipe for Mennonite Sourdough Rye which you may prefer to the above instructions. Buzz me, and I’ll likely have the opportunity during the next few days to type up a copy of it for your e-mail inbox. (The starter for this bread is called a sauerteig and it’s really quite straightforward: you bake a loaf of wholemeal bread and use a portion of it to get underway. I personally recommend the recipe for someone learning the basic ritual of sourdoughs._
