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cardigan's blog

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cardigan

I've recently decided to start baking rye breads and have jumped in this past weekend with Hamelmans 40% Caraway Rye recipe. I had the ingredients on hand, including a rye starter that seemed to be percolating, whole-rye flour and some high-gluten flour left over from a bagel bake.

It was my first time working with a dough that had more than 15% rye flour in it (or my first time in a very long time), and I was hand-kneading, so it was indeed a bit sticky though not unmanageable. I did wonder part way through if I should have gone with the mixer (I have a DLX--mix time suggestions and speeds welcome...) But I kept going, then let the dough sit for its bulk ferment, divided, shaped, gave it a final ferment for an hour, and baked.

A couple of thoughts:

-- Judging from the splits and burst, I'm thinking it was under-proofed at the end... I'm still not good a good judge of proofing. More rye seemed to make it more complicated.

-- I also think I should have kneaded it a bit more. I could feel the gluten developing as I went but was also a bit skittish about overkneading a rye (perhaps I was too cautious, though, with just a 40%...) I do know I was a degree short of the dough temperature of 78F that Hamelman mentions... I'm wondering if I could have gotten a bit more rise out of this loaf and a better crumb though. Still, I'm looking forward to the next loaf! It tasted quite good.

Here's the crumb, btw:

40 Rye crumb - Copy

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