Sunflower seed bread: the recipe

At a glance

• Method: Preferment, without autolyse
• Preferment: Leftover dough — 30% of the flour
• Mixing: Stand mixer

• Number of pieces: 2
• Weight per piece: 680 g
• Preferment weight: 286 g
• Dough weight: 1067 g
• Total dough weight: 1360 g

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Ingredients

Quantities for 2 pieces of 680 g, kitchen at 21 °C

Want to change the ingredients or use your own flour? The calculator redoes quantities and timing. Open the calculator

Method

1. Prepare the grains (see notes)
2. Pasta di riporto: make it and let it ferment (at room temperature) (14 hours)

   • Weigh the ingredients
   • Make a mix with 1 ice cube and 91 g of water at room temperature (to get it to 18 °C)
   • Dissolve the yeast in the water
   • Mix until you get a smooth dough
   • Seal it airtight (a lid, or plastic wrap pressed onto the surface)
   • Once ripe, remove 0 g for your next bake and use the rest, about 286 g, in the dough
3. Weigh the ingredients and knead (30 min)

   • Use water at 24 °C

   • Add the pâte fermentée, then the soaked rye and the toasted sunflower seeds last.
   • The soaked rye absorbs water unevenly: If the dough seems too dry, don't hesitate to add more water.
4. End of mixing, start of bulk rise (at room temperature) (2 hours)

   Fold the dough once, after the first hour of bulk fermentation.
5. Reinforcement fold 1 of 3
6. Reinforcement fold 2 of 3
7. Reinforcement fold 3 of 3
8. Divide/shape: weigh and form the pieces (5 min)

   • Divide into 680 g (1.5 lb) pieces, preshape lightly into rounds and place on a lightly floured work surface, covered with plastic.
   • When the dough has relaxed sufficiently (10 to 20 minutes), shape into tight round loaves. Dip the top of each loaf into a dampened cloth, then into a tray of raw sunflower seeds (as much as you like, not counted in the recipe — don't dip the outer surface into the seeds already toasted into the dough: They'll be toasted again, vigorously, in the oven). Place the loaves in floured bannetons or on a lightly floured baker's linen, top side up, and cover with plastic.
9. Start of proofing (at room temperature) (1 h 15 min)

   About 1 to 1h30 at 24 °C.
10. Ready to cook

    Because of the seeds on top, scoring is a little tricky: A few quick strokes with a razor blade or some snips with scissors are enough.

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Baking

1. • conventional oven, with steam
   • Overall temperature: 240 °C
   • Time: 40 minutes
   • Double steam (before loading and again right after). Once the loaves have taken on colour, open the vent to finish the bake drier; lower the temperature by 5-10 °C if the malt syrup is making the bread colour too fast.

The calculator adapts baking times to the weight of your pieces. Open the calculator

Preparation notes

Soaker and toasted seeds

1. Put the rye chops (or cracked rye, if you can't find chops) in a bowl. Pour the room-temperature water over them, stir to incorporate and cover with plastic wrap. If using cracked rye instead of chops, use boiling water: Cracked rye needs more heat to soften enough.
2. Make it at least 4 hours before mixing, so the rye has time to absorb the water and soften.
3. Meanwhile, toast the sunflower seeds for the dough in a 180 °C oven for about 10 minutes, until fragrant.

Bassinage

If mixing with a stand mixer or spiral mixer, pour in the last 20% of the water gradually, in a thin stream, only after the gluten network has formed.