A slice of toasted wholegrain Pumpernickel-style sourdough, spread with butter and the best honey is one of my favourite ways to start the day. Add in hot coffee and I’m in heaven.

If you don’t have white rye flour you can easily make it by taking one of our wholegrain rye flours and sift it, or do the same with freshly-milled rye grain through your Mockmill. The reason to use this sort of rye flour, even though you’re effectively making a “wholegrain” loaf, is that the sifted rye (or white rye as it’s also known) just contains the starch and protein matter from the grain, and this the stuff that will bind the whole grains together and produce a loaf that slices cleanly.

Method

Make the overnight ferment: in a bowl stir together the sourdough starter, light rye flour and water until smooth, then cover and leave at room temperature (about 24C) overnight until it has doubled and is on the point of collapse.

Make the overnight grain and seed soaking mix: stir together the grains, seeds and water, cover and leave overnight.

For the final dough: strain the soaked grains and reserve the liquid. Mix the drained rye grains and seeds with the overnight ferment, brown sugar, roasted barley malt powder, light rye flour and salt until smooth. A good guide to when you’ve mixed it enough is when the malt powder has evenly dispersed without any streaking.

Line a large loaf tin with non-stick paper and spoon the grain mixture in to about ¾’s full: the baked loaf will only slightly higher than this, any more and it will crumble when sliced (it’s tricky to get the rise exactly right). Cover and leave to rise until about 25% higher in the tin.

Heat the oven to 180C fan. Bake the loaf for about 50 minutes or until it slightly pulls away from the sides of the tin. Leave to cool in the tin, then wrap well and leave for a day before slicing, as this softens the grains baked on the crust and evens out the moisture in the loaf.