Lithuanian Dark Rye (after Stanley Ginsberg)

I first tasted the dark rye breads of the Baltics some 20 years ago when I took my kids kayaking the wild, empty, unpopulated rivers of the Baltics and Belarus. We did this several years in a row and while the breads varied somewhat from village to village and across the four countries, they all had the common thread of dark rye, red malt, honey and/or molasses, and strong sourdough flavor. They would easily keep for a couple of weeks, which is important when you hit a store to resupply maybe once a week.

I was never able to replicate these breads at home until I came across Stanley Ginsberg’s recipe a few years ago. Over the years I have departed slightly from the original. I still have the idea to try one day adding some instant yeast to the final dough, in order to open the crumb a bit more, but so far I have been sticking to pure rye sourdough.