40% Rye, Detmold-Style: Dimples Instead of Cuts, and a Long Cold Sour

Shokupan is a milk bread so soft it tears into ribbons, and the hard part in a sourdough version is keeping the acidity from shouting over the milk. The fix has two parts: a yudane made from 40% of the flour weight scalded with boiling milk, and a starter used young, at hour six, when it is sweet rather than sour.

One hundred percent whole wheat, no white flour anywhere, 92% hydration, and no raw bran taste. The mechanism is a scald: 20% of the whole wheat flour is mixed with boiling water and left to cool, which gelatinises its starch and softens its bran so completely that the finished loaf tastes like a mild brown bread rather than like health food.

Altus is old bread — usually rye — ground up and put back into the next dough. German bakeries have done this for centuries because stale rye is a better ingredient than it is a food. At 12% of total flour weight, ground altus adds a deep, roasted sweetness that fresh rye flour does not have, holds moisture for days, and lets you use bread that would otherwise go to the birds.