Rye Bread from starter/discard

Day 1: Take 1 cup of your starter and make the rye starter. Cover and let sit for several hours or overnight. (*3)

Into the starter, add the water, molasses, salt, sugar, and yeast. Mix thoroughly.

Incorporate a little bread flour at a time until it forms a loose, doughy ball. Turn out onto a lightly floured board.

Knead, adding just enough flour to prevent sticking, just until you can make a ball. Rye dough won’t make a springy ball, and never completely loses its stickiness.

Place into a lightly oiled container and let rise until double, anywhere from 2 hours to 5 hours.

Turn the dough out onto your floured board. Press and stretch out into a rectangle. Roll up tightly and pinch the seam into the roll. Trim up your ends so that the loaf will come up no higher than halfway.

Put in your pan, and press out.

Spritz with water and cover with the lid.

Let the bread rise until a half inch from the top, or if you added yeast- 1 inch, 1-4 hours. (From the knuckle to the tip of your thumb is about 1 inch).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

When you check on the loaf, if it is doming and not spreading into the sides, snip a few cuts in the center. This will force it to spread more.

If the dough has risen too much and is touching the lid, use scissors to snip excess off across the top and discard. This is more likely to happen if you add dry yeast. If it is already touching the lid when it goes it, dough will be squeezed out the openings.

Spritz with water and close the lid.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove the loaf to a cooling rack.