| Rye %: | 100% |
| Stages: | Sponge, Soaker, Final dough |
| Leaven: | Rye sour culture, Instant yeast |
| Start to Finish: | 22-28 hours |
| Hands-on Time: | 30-40 minutes |
| Yield: | One 3 lb./1.36 kg loaf |
For a bread that many Germans consider to be a best of breed Lower Saxony rye, recipes for Oldenburg Rye are surprisingly scarce; in fact, it took me several months, plus the help of a German baking friend, to locate this recipe on the website of a large north German baking ingredients company.
The search was worth the hassle: this is a bread that combines the robust flavors and mouth-feel of coarse rye meal with the moist crumb of a stale-bread soaker and the intense sour of an 18-24 hour sponge.