The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Sourdough Rye Bread

Vicious Babushka's picture
Vicious Babushka

Sourdough Rye Bread

This is the results of a sourdough rye I created, using the "Caraway Rye" recipe from Fundamentals of Classic Bread Baking but adding 3 oz. of liquid sourdough starter to the rye levain.

I am having 2 minor problems:

1. I can't make good slashes in the dough. Maybe this is from using a sharp knife instead of a lame? The dough always tears before I can make a deep cut.

2. The loaf spreads out during proofing even though it was in a couche. The dough was rather sticky and soft during the ferments, would added more flour have made a stiffer dough? How to keep the dough from spreading out during the final proof?

Those are really minor problems because the bread was light and fluffy and tasted GREAT!

Song Of The Baker's picture
Song Of The Baker

The crumb in these really do look nice.  How much rye did you use in the final dough?

John

Vicious Babushka's picture
Vicious Babushka

Hodgson Mills whole-grain rye flour and KA bread flour, the sourdough was made using Reinhart's formula.

Vicious Babushka's picture
Vicious Babushka

This seems to be a problem especially with sourdough and whole-grain loaves. The loaf just can't keep its shape even when proofed in a couche.

I don't want to add more flour to make a stiffer dough since this one had such a nice crumb, but what else can be done to make the loaf rise vertically instead of horizontally? Other than putting it in a pan. Should I try another stretch and fold before the final proofing?