Today was the time for Apollonia Poilàne’s second loaf in her masterclass – sourdough rye. I have made rye breads that I have really liked before, but this is a French rye, not a Jewish or Russian rye. I also plan to try a dutch rye and a Finnish rye over the next few weeks, while I have a supply of rye flour on hand. But, really, my goal in doing this one is to continue to learn from Apollonia Poilàne, and from the very hands-on technique she uses.

Rye dough is typically wetter and stickier, a function of the nature of rye flour. She includes some bread flour in here, just to make the dough easier to handle. Here is it after the first rise…

I am also working my way through Maggie Glezer’s book Artisan Baking, again, using more of the hands-on techniques to continue to improve my ability to “feel” the dough. I have recently made my first ciabatta’s. I love how they turned out.

The rye dough rose surprisingly well in my cold kitchen (about 64/65F), here it is after the second rise and being prepared for the oven.

Since it is cold in my house, I decided to bake it in a preheated dutch oven to give it a bit of a boost. Here’s how it turned out …

Best of all, it tastes great!

I used it as the based for a vegetarian smørrebrød – a Danish open-faced sandwich – yum!

Next up, probably her pan de mie.