The Ole & Steen team combines passionate craftmanship with traditional, hands-on techniques for a rustic-meets-refined approach to its breads, pastries, cakes and more. The Danish bakery is known for its rye bread, which uses a sourdough rise and requires three days to produce from scratch.
Day 1 - Soaking
Start by mixing boiling water and rye kernels together. Let it cool down to room temperature and add the remaining ingredients, mix it all well by hand and cover the bowl with clear film. Leave the bowl on the kitchen table for a minimum of 12 hours or preferably until the next day before continuing.
Fresh up the sourdough.
If you do not have your own sourdough, you can read how Ole & Steen's baker Karina makes and grows a sourdough, below.
Ingredients
- 200 g whole rye kernels
- 330 g water (boiling)
- 80 g grated day-old rye bread (can be omitted)
- 25 g dark liquid malt or 15 g Dark malt flour
- 130 g sunflower seeds
- 70 g flaxseed
- 15 g salt
- 30 g of sourdough
Day 2 - Rye Bread
Dissolve the yeast and sourdough in the water, mix in all the remaining ingredients. Stir it all together by hand so that it has a uniform consistency.
Then prepare 2 molds of approx. 1.6 - 1.9 liters. Grease them thoroughly with a little butter, sprinkle with ¾ part of the sesame seeds. Distribute the rye bread dough in the molds, rather press the rye bread a little down the sides than in the middle. Sprinkle the remaining sesame seeds on top.
Cover the rye bread tins with clear film and set them to rise in a warm place. Let them rise to 1 cm below the edge of the rye bread mold, it takes approx. 2 hours.
Turn the oven to 250 degrees hot air and place a grate in the middle of the oven. When the oven is well warm, first place a dish of cold water in the bottom of the oven, then the rye breads on the grate in the oven, the temperature is turned down to 180 degrees and the rye breads are baked for 40 - 45 minutes or until they have a temperature of 95 degrees in the middle.
Take the rye breads out of the oven and let them rest for 30 minutes in the molds before turning them out on a rack. Cover the rye breads with a tea towel and let them cool further.
Ingredients
- Soaking from day 1
- 135 g water (room temperature)
- 5 g yeast
- 165 g of sourdough
- 70 g of rye flour
- 85 g wheat flour
- 80 g sesame seeds for sprinkling
Karina Surdej's Sourdough Tips
Ole & Steen's baker, Karina Surdej, presents here her recipe for a sourdough, which is easy to care for, but which gives your bread a lot of flavor and a nice crumb.
You will need: 300 ml cold water, 150 ml wheat flour and 150 ml wholemeal flour.
Get started with your sourdough approx. a week you will bake your first bread.
Stir 100 ml water, 05 ml wheat flour and 50 ml wholemeal flour together in a bowl. Put film over and leave it on the kitchen table for a minimum of five days.
Eat the sourdough by adding the rest of the water and flour. Stir, set film on, and let stand for 24 hours. Now you are ready to use your sourdough for baking.
How to use your day old rye bread
Make rye chips: Thinly slice your day old rye bread thin, drizzle with oil and bake until crisp and sprinkle with sea salt. Crispy bread chips are a little addictive and are especially good on a tapas table. Dip them in anything, enjoy them with cheese, pesto and hummus or give junior some pieces in the packed lunch.
