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jsk

A couple of weeks ago i got that feeling in my stomach that I have to bake bread again. I used to bake quite a bit until six months ago and I felt it is the time to start baking again. For this I had to create a new sourdough starter as I sadly found my old one molding in the back of the fridge. I started it with some rye flour and water and converted it gradually to a white flour stater. When it was active and vigorous enogh. I decided to bake with it. I chose to try David's San Joaquin, wich I've been wanting to try for a long time.  

As I didn't have a dough scraper in hand (lost it somewhere in the house), I didn't use the S&F in the bowl technique, and kneaded the dough for a few minutes in the KitchenAid and had two folds during the bulk fermentation, wich developed the gluten well and the dough was strong and elastic. I retarted the dough only for 15 hours because of tight schedule. I shaped it into two batards, proofed and baked as in the formula.    

The Loaves

The Crumb

The results were great! The crumb was delicious and open with a slight tang and a wonderful presence of rye. The crust was quite thin but crispy and had a great flavor.

I highly recommend this one!

Have a great weekend,

Jonathan.

jsk's picture
jsk

I have been been experimenting with rye during my past few bakes and this week I made Hamleman's rye bread with flasxseeds (wich I first saw in hansjoakim's post here). The recipe is from the site Modern Baking and you can find a reduced recipe in David's post about it. I have also made the bread as a 1 kg boule, like david did.

The bread is 40% rye and it has a soaker of bothe flax seeds and old bread (altus)- something that I realy enjoy in pumpernickel and I thought could be great in other rye breads. The hydration was a little low for me so I've added abou 2% more water until the dough felt right. I've also reduced the amont of yeast to 0.4% (2 gr), so the fermentation and proofing went a little longer.

I didn't proofed it seam side down like I saw many here did with this recipe and other rye recipes, just because I was afraid that there wouldn't be a big spring from the seams, as my boule shaping technique is not very promising. I've slashed it like a regular loaf in the "diamonds" pattern. The loaf was much smaller than I expected for a 1 kg loaf, but it didn't matter as the flavor was great.

Flaxseeds Rye

Crumb:

As I said earlier, the results were great. I've waited about 16 hours before cutting into it (about that- how do you keep your rye breads before slicing them without them losing all its great crust texture?). The taste was quite tangy and delicious. The flax gave it a nice nuttiness and some bite. I heartly reccomend this bread!

Hapy Baking!

Jonathan.

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jsk

I really wanted to try once a 100% rye recipe- a dense, moist, delicious bread that I love eating in my trips to europe (not the sponge like clorored stuff they sell in the stores). I decided to give Hamelman Vollkornbrot a try.

I've tweaked the recipe just a bit as I changed the rye chops to cracked rye and I had only 7 oz of it (I've add the rest as rye flour).

The whole rye experience is quite ew to me as have not made more than a 40% rye until now. It was actually great fun' as you don't expect gluten development and you just mix "clay". I don;t have a pullman loaf pan either so I use two smaller pans. I shoud have proofed it for 30 minutes more as almost non cracks appeared at the floured surface of the loaf before going to the oven but still-the results were fantastic.

Hamelman's Vollkornbrot:

The crumb:

Sorry one of them are shorter- I forgot to take a picture before slicing into it.

We've waited about 60 hours before cutting it and boy, it was hard. After tasting it with just a little butter on it I knew it was worth it- one of the very best breads I've made and even tasted. It keeps easily int plastic in the fridge for a week and a half or so now and it tastes just as good.

Greatly reccomended- easy to follow recipe, wonderful bread!

Happy Baking!

Jonthan.

jsk's picture
jsk

Fot quite a while now I was working with whole grain doughs producing flavorful breads with strong aromas from the various flours. A few days ago I decided to bake a proper baguette after seeing the beautiful baguettes you TFL members are showing here.

I have never made a baguette in my life but have read about it quite a bit. So I searched TFL and found dozens of recipes but I rememberd that I wanted to give Bouabsa's baguettes a shot back then so I went for it. It was my first time using the strech and fold in the bowl technique wich I found very easy and effective.

I used 94% AP flour and 6% whole rye as I was stuck without additional AP flour. I increased the hydration accordingly to 78% as I wanted to preserve the texture of the dough. I also added a final fold on the counter after the 3 S&F in the bowl as I felt the gluten was not developed enough.

The dough was retarded for only 16 hours because of my working schedule. Shaping was done by Hamelman instructions in "Bread" and the baguettes were proofed in a couche for an hour.

Anis Bouabsa's Baguettes:

 

Crumb:

 

The results were very good. The taste was sweet with a great arome of fermented flour. The baguettes were eated warm with a variety of cheeses. Delicious!

Have a Good Week!

Jonathan.

 Submitted to YeastSpotting.

jsk's picture
jsk

A few nights ago I made the rye with sunflower seeds from Hamelman's "Bread". Its is a 33% rye with 80% hydration (the rye includes a cracked rye soaker). The day I made the dough I immediately saw it was very very wet but I let it work in the mixer so I let it work in the mixer for 10-12 minutes instead of the 5 that Hamelman says. A huge mistake! The dough was over kneaded and like over kneaded rye dough, it went from wet and sticky to extremly wet and sticky! Anyway' I adedd a bit more flour and let it ferment for about 30 minutes then I folded the dough (another mistake) and let it ferment for half an hour more.

Eventually I manage to shape it int two nice batards and proofed and baked as written in the book.

The results were good after all. The crumb was not as open as I hoped so but it was very light and had a great bite to it due to the seeds and the cracked rye. The bread had a wonderful taste to it with a slight tang and some sweetness as well. Here are some photos:

And the crumb:

 

I have some experience with rye but still, I have much to learn. If I learned something from this baking is not to over knead rye doughs, not to fold them and to be gentle when handling them. Does anyone from you rye experts have other tips about handling rye? I'm sure a lot of members here would be glad to learn from your experience.

Happy baking to all of you!

Jonathan

jsk's picture
jsk

About two months ago I was in a trip to the US. During my staying there I've bought some flours I can't get my hands on here in Israel. One of them was Graham flour. I read quite a bit about it and I've found that a lot of people said it made a hard and unpleasant crust and the coarse pieces of bran and germ made it difficult to develop the gluten.
 
In that in mind I've decided to scald the Graham flour and make a mash, as I read someone here did successfully. So I started reading about scalding flours (WGB is a great source of info about that). I wanted to make a mash using 2:1 water to flour ration. The process was basicly bringing the water in a pot to about 150F, adding the flour and leaving it coverd for 1.5 hours to gelatinize some of the starches and to start the enzyme activity. After the hour and a half I adedd about 2% salt to inhibit the enzyme activity (a little like in a grain soaker). From ther it went to the fridge overnight.
 
I've worked up a formula for some sort of a Pain au Levain using 28% Graham, 5% rye and 67% AP flour. The intended hydration was 75% but I needed to add 2% more water as the dough was a little dry (probably because of the mash). I used a white stiff starter (65% hydration). I autolysed for 30 minutes and the kneaded in my KitchenAid for about 8 minutes. Fermentation was 2.5 hours with 2 folds. I then shaped the dough into two 1.75 lb batards and proofed the in a couche for 1.5 hours.
 
Here are some pics:


 
And the crumb:
 

 
I was very happy with the results. The crust was chewy and delicious and the crumb was open and light. The flavor was very good, slightly tangy and wheaty. If anyone has any questions or want the recipe, please comment.
Happy baking!
Jonathan.

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