Two Loaves a Day - Marble Rye Recipe and Process

Marble Rye Recipe and Process

Start here:

Marble Rye Recipe

Makes two loaves

• 200g active sourdough starter
• 830g bread flour
• 170g rye flour
• 330g water
• 20g salt
• 10g molasses
• 40g cocoa paste (made from mixing 14g cocoa with 26g water)

Click here for my baking timeline

Click here to see starter feeding ratios

Mix

• Using a stand mixer, mix water, starter and salt together until blended
• Add bread flour and rye flour
• Mix well at low-medium speed until dough starts to form a ball and pull away from the sides
• When mixed, remove half the dough from the bowl and place it in a separate bowl.
• Cover and set aside.
• Leave the 2nd half of the dough in the mixing bowl.
• Add cocoa paste and molasses and mix well until dough forms a ball and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
• Cover the mixing bowl and set aside.

Stretch and Fold

• Place bowls in a warm area of your house and allow them to sit for at least 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, do a set of stretch and folds.
• Do two more sets of stretch and folds over the next couple hours.
• If dough still seems wet or loose, do another set.

Bulk Fermentation

• Put the dough in a warm place and leave it covered for anywhere between 8-12 hours (maybe more if your house is cold).
• Once it has doubled in size and pulls away from the bowl easily, it is ready to shape.
• If you start to see bubbles scattered on the top of your dough it's a good sign that it is done bulk fermenting.

Dough Shape

• Once the dough is ready, drop both pieces onto the counter.
• Cut each dough into two halves.
• Lightly sprinkle flour onto the counter and/or flour your hands to get ready to work with the dough.
• See the videos below to see how to shape each Marble Rye loaf.

Dough Shape

• I use the Tartan Fold method, but use what works for you. Here are three different doughs being shaped. You can see the slight differences I take no one piece of dough is alike. The Marble Rye can be shaped using any of these three methods.

Dough Stitch

• Once the dough is shaped, place it into a banneton basket lined with a linen liner or a tea towel. I don't flour my baskets, but many people do. I have a gluten sensitivity so I don't like to use too much flour that has not gone through the fermentation process.

Cold Proof

• Cover your stitched doughs with plastic wrap or a shower cap (they work really well) and place them in the fridge for approximately 12 hours.
• You can cold proof up to 2-3 days, but I find anywhere between 12-18 hours as the best time to bake.

Time to Bake

• Place your dutch oven(s) in the oven with a pan underneath them. This helps prevent your loaves from burning on the bottom.
• Then preheat the oven to 500 degrees
• While the oven is heating up, take your loaves out of the fridge and turn them out onto parchment paper.

Time to Bake

• Using a bread lame or a razor blade with. a handle, score your dough.
• This is where you can decorate it with shallow cuts.
• Make one deep cut across your bread.
• I usually will make a design on the bread and then bake it for 7 minutes before scoring it across with a deep cut.

Time to Bake

• After scoring, place your dough in the Dutch Oven and put the lid back on.
• Try to do this quickly as to not lose too much heat in the oven.
• Bake for 20 minutes (I do my expansion score after 7 minutes of baking).
• After 20 minutes, open the oven and take off the lid of the Dutch Oven.
• Lower the heat to 475 and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until bread has browned.
• Bake times will vary based on oven so it may take a few times for you to see what temperature is best. Some bake at 450, others at 475. I find 500 works for me. Find your sweet spot and write it down!

Time to Cool

• Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool on a wire rack.
• Do not slice the bread for at least an hour.
• I bake at night and let it sit out until the next morning so that it is fully cooled before I package it or wwrap it up.
• All that's left is to enjoy!

Typical Baking Timeline - 2 days

• Monday, 7:00 AM - Feed sourdough starter
• Monday, 5:00 PM - Mix dough
• Monday, 5:00 - 7:00 - Complete stretch and folds.
• Monday, 7:00 PM - Tuesday, 6:00 AM - Bulk Ferment
• Tuesday, 6:00 AM - Shape dough and place in banneton or basket - then place in fridge
• Tuesday, 6:00 AM - Tuesday. 6:00 PM - Cold Ferment in the fridge
• Tuesday, 6:00 PM (or anytime that night) - BAKE

Back to recipe

Sourdough Starter Ratios

The higher the ratio, the slower your starter will grow.

For example: 10:1 ratio will double in size slower than a 1:1 ratio.

A 1:1 ration would be something like: 50g starter, 50 g water, 50g flour

A 10:1 ratio might be 10g starter, 100g water, 100g flour

Back to recipe