YW & SD 50% Rye with Scald, Onions & Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

Lucy worked hard, using Varda’s Tzitzel quest as a starting point, to do 3 takes on Tzitzel.  We liked take 2 of the 3 tries to date the best.  But it just wasn’t enough of a full bodied, deep flavored bread to stand up to the kind of smoky mats we like.

With Eric Hanner’s first anniversary of his passing upon us, I couldn’t help but make a stronger rye based on his died minced onions and soaker water we like so much in deli rye breads.

We upped the rye to 50% from 40%, upped the SD and YW levain to 30% of the total from 20% since we decided not to retard this load as we did the others.  Whole grains shot up to 55% a substantial increase too.   This bread was starting to make us happier that usually.

To put the top knot on the other knots, we decided to use Young’s Double Chocolate Stout for much of the dough liquid that wasn’t onion soaker water.  We had a bunch of whole wheat and white whole wheat in the mix too, so we added some VWG and upped the hydration to near 90% from 85% to compensate for the more thirsty whole grains.

The rye sour and YW levains were built separately and the white flour listed was for the YW levain.  Both were retarded for 24 hours at the same time even though the YW was a 1 build affair and the ryes sour was a 3 stage build.

Since we were going to make this bread in one day, we only had time for a 1 hour autolyse but we did do our usual 3 sets of slap and folds and 2 stretch and folds all 15 minutes apart.

We did a light chop on the caraway seeds in the coffee grinder and added them and the multigrain scald and overnight soak in the fridge sand which weighed 150 g wet, on the first set of S& F.  Both were completely incorporated at the end of the 2nd set of S& F’s.

This is a smoked pork carnitas quesidilla  style with caramelized mushrooms and onions, 2 cheeses, and killer home made red salsa...and lets not forget the smoked brisket taco for lunch

We then shaped the dough into and oval and immediately placed it seam side down in the rice floured basket.  The dough proofed for 4 hours before it was refrigerated for1 hour while Big Old Betsy was preheated to 550 F and the (2) lava rocks and water pans for steam were inserted at 525 F

15 minutes after the oven hit 550 F we un-molded the dough onto a peel that was covered in parchment, slashed 3 times and loaded onto the bottom of two stones.  After 5minutes of steam the oven was turned down to 525 F and 5minutes later it was turned down again to 500 F at the 15 minute mark the steam was removed and the oven was turned down to 425 F.

The bread was rotated 180 degrees on the stone every 5 minutes until the bread reached 205 F on the inside when it was removed to the cooling rack.  Total baking without steam was 13 minutes with 28 minutes of baking total.

The bread browned up a deep, brownish, mahogany color and bloomed OK.  It spread more than it sprang indicating it was too high in hydration and possibly slightly over proofed.

It smelled terrific in and out of the oven with the caraway and onions dominating.  Can’t wait to cut into this bread and taste it but we will wait for 24 hours before doing so.  Well, couldn't't wait for 24 hours as usual.  The crust had gone soft over 16 hours wrapped in plastic. The crumb was open soft and moist.  It was more open than I though it would be with so much whole grain rye and scalded berries.

Underneath the breakfast eggs is some white bread baked yesterday.

The flavor of the crust and crumb, the onion coming though so well, were just the way you want them for a bread begging for mustard. pickle and pastrami.   The little yellow flecks of the corn meal is a delight - thanks to Janet for the corn inclusion in the bread.  This is the best Jewish Deli Rye type bread, with a chew of scalded betries, we have managed to date.  Just delicious.  Thanks to Eric for the dried minced onions and re-hydration addition and the slap & fold push that changed my bread baking forever.

The 'mixed grains en pot' are now oer a foot tall! 

We've got 4 pots of tomatoes too.  Lucy says I've gone to pot and she might be right!  This bread made a very nice pepperjack melt, dijon mustard, dill pickle and pastrami sandwich for lunch with the usual salad, veggies and fruits on the side.

Formula