The Rye-bert Burns

For one 500g loaf of bread:

Ingredients
400g H20 at 78-80 degrees*
100-200g leaven
200g rye flour
300g bread flour
½ tsp anise seed
½ tsp caraway seed

10g salt

1 cup craisins
½ tsp caraway seed
¼ tsp anise seed
Rind of one orange, zested
Dewar’s or other bottom-shelf scotch

Method
Adapt your favorite basic sourdough recipe thusly:

1. When you combine your flour-rye mix and leaven, add also the seeds. Mix by hand until no dry flour remains. Let rest for autolyse.
2. In the meantime, combine craisins, seeds, and orange rind in a small saucepan and enough Dewar’s to cover. Heat to boil. Then remove from heat. Let sit until cool and remaining alcohol is absorbed.
3. After 40-minute autolyze (Step 1), dissolve salt in water and add to dough. Add craisin mixture to dough, pinching it into the loaf.
4. Develop dough as per your usual method.

*Hydration ratio is based on the Tartine method; adapt for your usual ratio.

Evan Fackler is an MFA candidate at UNCG. He has served as editor-in-chief of Oxford Magazine and as a fiction editor at The Greensboro Review. His reviews and interviews can be found online at Entropy Magazine and storySouth.