The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

help needed for marble rye

kefirchick's picture
kefirchick

help needed for marble rye

So I tried to make a marble-rye by adding cocoa for color to half of my dough and making a "jelly-roll" with the two different colored pieces of dough.  After rolling up the two layers, I tried to pinch the ends and tuck them under to make a tight roll, and thought I had succeeded, but, as you can see from my pictures, the ends came undone during the baking process.  (I bake in a dutch oven)  Part of my recipe calls for 1 tsp vital wheat gluten for about 5.5 cups of flour.  Is this making my dough too elastic?  Does anyone have any hints as to how to prevent the ends from sproinging apart?   Thanks in advance for you help.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

to help seal the flat sides together.  Spray the lower rectangle and again the top of the second layer and avoid using flour on the workbench.  Flour between the layers will keep them from bonding to one another as well as any air that might get trapped as you tightly roll them up.  

You also might want to stagger the stacking having the lower one stick out (like a step) an inch or two more than the top layer, that way when the rolling up begins, the first layer wraps over the second one and the swirl pattern is more pronounced in the middle.   :)

richkaimd's picture
richkaimd

Dear MiniOven,

Am I assuming correctly that you spray with water?  Not being able to find my spray bottle when I need it (ever), I use my pastry brush and then hold the two pieces together to assure the sticking sticks.

If I ever find my spray bottle when I need it, I'll try it that way.  Thanks for the idea.

By the way, why doesn't my pastry brush ever disappear?

 

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

And I got tired of it ending up in spicy BBQ sauce, so I bought a package of silicone tipped brushes with different sizes.  The BBQ guys run off with the rediculously long one (the one I don't care for) and the shorter ones stay in the drawer.  They also go thru the dishwasher nicely.  Everybody happy.  I also had to get a few extra spray bottles too.  :)

Another thought crossed my mind.  With the bread layers, does the chocolate one seem dryer?  If so, when adding the cocoa, give a little spash of cream to the dough as well.   Just a little to offset the moisture the cocoa absorbs.  

jcking's picture
jcking

Mice love spray bottles yet hate pastry brushes :-) Other than Mini's good advice. Another thing to think about. When you added the cocoa you lowered the hydration, made it dryer, a tad so you may wish to add a little water to the half with the cocoa.

Jim

kefirchick's picture
kefirchick

Thank you Mini Oven!  I will definitely try the spray bottle trick, as well as the step-up idea. (I have 3 spray bottles so I can always find one when I need it, but I never thought of using it to wet the dough to make it stick-silly me!)  No flour on the table after the first proof, so that is not an issue. Regarding the hydration, I only use one TBS cocoa, and the "brown" dough was actually wetter and stickier than the "white" dough-no logical explanation for that!

Does anyone think the vital wheat gluten played a role? 

Will repeat the recipe shortly, and post results.  Thank you all!

kefirchick's picture
kefirchick

Mini Oven- You were spot on with your advice.  Thank you so much.  I spritzed the layers like you said, and also made sure my brown upper dough was narrower and shorter than my white outer dough.  The spritzing worked like magic.  I pinched the seams, and they stayed closed-same with the ends.  I am sure the crumb has a better swirl pattern too, but I won't know til next week.  I am batching and freezing loafs for a dinner party next week. Thanks so much for your help.  This forum is the greatest!

My dough was thinner this time than last time, so the slashing allowed the brown to show through.  Interesting effect.