The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

My Try at Eric's Fave Rye

longhorn's picture
longhorn

My Try at Eric's Fave Rye

The recent resurfacing of Eric's Fave Rye combined with my having both good rye and First Clear flour from Stan's book testing which I wanted to begin using. So..I gave it a stab and the results turned out pretty good. My key "error" was not having caraway seeds so I substituted mixed seeds (cereales) as an alternative. Flavor is really nice. Now I need some pastrami!

Other than the seeds I basically followed Eric's recipe. However, I did bake at 375F and used a cloche for the first fifteen minutes followed by 28 minutes uncovered. If I had it to do over I think I would leave the bread in the oven for five minutes after turning off the oven with the door ajar to give a bit more crust. 

 

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Those are some really nice boules crust and crumb ,longhorn!

Yum! you did a good job with erics fromula.

longhorn's picture
longhorn

I was really pleased. The dough was well behaved, and the crumb more open than higher rye sourcoughs, and the flavor is very nice. Eric seems to have a real winner in that recipe. I will probably increase the hydration slightly next time to try to open up the crumb a bit more and will make sure I have some caraway to make it more conventional. However the seed blend I use on Eric Kayser's Pain Au Cereales is a quite acceptable alternative (poppy, golden flax, brown flax, black sesame, yellow sesame, and others depending on my mood and availability).

Thanks! 

ehanner's picture
ehanner

You did a great job with the Rye recipe. The crumb looks perfect. I agree on the leaving it in the oven to dry out the crust. It can be a little hard to slice if the crust doesn't get crisp. Actually Mark Sinclair told me he started baking at a higher temp and gets a better crust. Try the next one at 440F and brush with egg wash before seeding. I think you will like the crust better.

Eric

longhorn's picture
longhorn

I give your instructions a lot of credit. This is a great light rye. Really nice! It was the first time I had used first clear flour and that was interesting and educational. I don't know how much credit to give to the clear but the dough was surprisingly friendly to work with. And the flavor is delightful!

Jay

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Thanks Jay, glad you liked it. I use bread flour these days as it's more readily available. It takes a little more development as in maybe an extra stretch and fold or two.

Eric

Oldcampcook's picture
Oldcampcook

I have been baking basically this recipe for quite some time now.  I bake at least one batch every week, as it is my favorite bread of all those I bake.  Seems like a lot of my gift recipients really like it, too.

I cannot find a local source for first clear flour, so I also use bread flour and get fine results.

Bob

longhorn's picture
longhorn

I currently have about 5 pounds of first clear so I will use that over the next couple of weeks. That should give me a good reference point to compare bread flour. Do you know what the protein content of your bread flour is?

Bake On!

Jay