The great no-knead-bread-with-my-own-starter experiment

Wow, it’s been a while since I posted.  I haven’t stopped making bread at home.  Au contraire, I’ve been playing around with the no-knead recipe and I successfully baked several loaves with my own starter, perfecting my technique.  I am happy to report, that as far as the no-knead-bread goes, it doesn’t get any easier, because it’s so easy to begin with.  The basic change that seems to work regardless of flour type, is to substitute one cup of bread flour with one cup of whole grain flour of your choice (I’ve tried spelt, rye and whole wheat so far) and double the yeast from 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon and add honey (if you want).  Those have come out great.

But I’ve grown more ambitious in my experiments, and are currently trying to use home-grown whole rye starter instead of commercial yeast in the no-knead-bread recipe.  So far, so good, for Experiment #1, but I have a feeling it will need refining.  I used 1/2 cup starter, 1/2 cup whole rye flour, 2 cups of bread flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons of honey (I used Sage) and I didn’t pay much attention to how much water, since I was looking at the consistency of the dough.  I added the flour over time, not all at once, along with a bit of water each time.  It rose beautifully and is in the oven, we’ll see what comes out.  So far the biggest difference is that the dough was stickier (I needed more flour to keep it from sticking to the working surface, my hands, and the towel) and it does not have the “oven spring” of the no-knead-bread made with commercial yeast.  I have added 15 minutes to the clock with the cover on, and will check every 5-10 minutes.  I will post results (good and bad) later, along with photos, if it turns out presentable and palatable.  In any case, it’s the first time trying this, so I don’t expect complete success right away.