Ingredients

Source

°	Bread Matters: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide to Baking Your Own° ISBN: 0-00-720374-8

Directions

If it suits you, you can use the production sourdough for this bread only 4-6 hours after refreshment. This maximises the yeast activity and reduces the acidity of the dough.

Mix all the ingredients together into a very soft dough at about 30°C. Using wet hands, form the dough into a smooth rectangle the right size for your tin, then dip it into the bowl of sunflower seeds, rolling it gently so that seeds stick all over the surface of the dough. Pick it up and drop it carefully into a well-greased tin. The recipe should make enough to fill a generous `small’ tin, with a capacity of around 1000 ml, just over half full.

Cover and put in a warm place (28-30°C if possible) to prove. This can take anything from 2-6 hours, depending on the vigour of the sourdough and the warmth of the conditions. Bake in a fairly hot oven (200-210°C), reducing the heat a little after 10-15 minutes.

Typical baking time will be 35-45 minutes. This bread is baked at a slightly lower temperature than plain Russian Rye Bread because the seeds on the outside, with their high natural oil content, can turn bitter if too highly fired.

* Contains 53 g flour and 107 g water. I used 30 g sourdough 100 % hydration, 38 g rye flour type 1150, 92 g water.

=====