Polish 100% Rye Bread with Prunes (Chleb zytni ze sliwka)
As many of you know, I've been fascinated with rye for years (am working on a book about it). Here's one of my faves, a wonderfully flavored, wonderfully simple Polish rye made with prunes. (pics below)
Yield: Two 21.5 oz./610 g loaves
Ingredient | Volume | Oz | Gr | Pct | |
Sponge | Rye sour | 1 cup | 6.70 | 189 | 34% |
Water | ½ cup | 4.00 | 113 | 20% | |
Medium rye flour | 1¾ 2 cups | 8.20 | 235 | 42% | |
Dough | Coarse rye meal | ½ cup | 2.40 | 70 | 12% |
Medium rye flour | 2 cups | 8.80 | 250 | 45% | |
Water | 1 cup | 9.50 | 270 | 48% | |
Granulated sugar | 2 Tbs | 0. 80 | 22 | 4% | |
Table salt | 2 tsp | 0..0 | 12 | 2% | |
Pitted prunes | ½ cup | 3.00 | 85 | 15% |
1. Combine the sponge ingredients and let stand at room temp overnight.
2. Combine the sponge and the dough ingredients, except for the prunes, and mix until smooth and evenly hydrated. Ferment at room temp for 5-6 hours. The dough will be very bubbly.
3. Soak the prunes in warm water for about 30 minutes, dry them on paper towels and chop coarsely. Fold the prunes into the dough, divide into well-greased loaf pans and let proof about 2 hours at room temp, until the top of the dough shows bubbles on top.
4. Preheat your oven to 45oF/230C with the baking surface in the center. Brush the loaves with water and bake with lots of steam for 10 minutes, then reduce the temp to 400F/200C and bake for another 40-50 minutes, until the loaves are nice and brown.
5. Brush the top crusts with boiling water as soon as you remove them from the oven and let cool for at least 12 hours before cutting.
Stan Ginsberg
www.nybakers.com
Comments
Stan, looks great!
And when might we see that rye book? Thoroughly have enjoyed ITJB.
I love prunes, and we used to snack on the dried prunes instead of raisins. I have even made my own dried Italian Prune plums. Think they would go wonderfully well with the flavour of the ryes.
I still haven't managed to get the Deli rye made, but did make the Challah from the book. it sure disappeared fast, second try was better, and the braiding went well. Its not to my taste, not liking the sweet taste of it, but still it was great, DH and Son in law ate it up so that was good. Now I have to get to the deli rye. Have been buying the rye bread, and that while not bad isn't really what I want to do.
I am hampered in making bread, in that the house is not really warm, and the furnace runs the air all the time, so it can be drafty, so have to find something to proof in! Can't afford the folding proofer just yet.
Can't wait to make this one!
Happy baking!
Stan,
Is it too early to sign up to be a recipe tester for the next book? It was a great learning experience and a whole lot of fun testing some of the recipes for "Inside the Jewish Bakery".
Dwayne
Hi Stan,Thank you for posting this interesting recipe. I baked this bread yesterday. It tastes wonderful and it is very moist. I did not have a thermometer to mesure inside temp but did the thumping and it sounded good. I have one question: my rye sour is 100% and very active. The sponge was VERY dry, could hardly moisten all the flour. I was tempted to add more water but then wanted to stick to the recipe. I have a medium rye flour from Conagra (could not find anything else.) It seems to me very dry and gives me the feeling of "dead flour" Really strange!
The sponge rose some to my surprise but I ended up to add 100gr more water to the final dough. I also used dark rye flour from Bob's Red Mill and a Pumpernickel meal for the final dough. Here are the pics:
Would you have an answer to the water "deficiency"? I double checked my mesuring so could not find an error on my side. Your answer is highly appreciated.
Barbara