Roggensauerteigbrot: 100% Rye Sourdough
We tend to eat a lot of rye in my household, and this is just about our daily bread: a 100% rye sourdough with bread spices.
First, a note on spices. I know American bakers tend not to use bread spices, and when they do, it's often in the form of a caraway-laden rye bread. I prefer my rye with a mix of fennel, caraway, anise, and maybe coriander, and it's usually ground with a coffee grinder so as to blend subtly and not overpower the delicious rye flavor. In this particular loaf, I didn't grind the spices but incorporated them whole. I especially love the taste of the whole fennel seeds. I typically leave other seeds out of my 100% ryes, but in this loaf I added some soaked sunflower seeds.
This loaf is made at 85% hydration with freshly milled whole rye flour. I find the result to be just what we want most days--a filling, moist rye bread that's just perfect with butter alone, or with meats, cheeses, or honey.
I might cut the hydration back by 1% to 84% or not soak the sunflower seeds. BEAUTIFUL!
Handsome loaf and enticing description. Care to share your formula and process?
Cheers,
Tom
Such a beautiful loaf of bread. I would really like the formula if you could post it. It looks like just the kind of rye bread I've been looking for.
Linda
of rye bread. one of the best I have seen on TFL. It has to be delicious. If I could get the girls to eat it We too would make this our everyday bread - but with anise, coriander, caraway and fennel for the bread spice - will have to try it with a bit of cardamom Mini got me hooked on walnuts for this kind of bread too . You made my day with your lovely loaf of bread, Very well done and
Happy Baking in the New Year
Thanks for catching me in a momentary mental lapse. It is of course anise that I use, not cardamom. Maybe cardamom would be interesting to try in another loaf sometime...
Hot damn that looks good!
Stunning loaf both crust and crumb. I too would love to see your formula and method you use to bake this bread.
Janet
Thanks for all of the comments. Here's the formula:
I start by refreshing the sourdough starter, which I maintain at about 100% hydration. Once refreshed, I take a small spoonful (I estimated 6g for the formula, but it's really just a small spoonful) and mix it with 100g water and then 100g rye flour for the sourdough. Once that is ripe (depending upon the time of year, usually around 8 hours) I remove a spoonful to perpetuate the starter and then mix the 200g of sourdough with the other ingredients. Rest for about 30 minutes, briefly work into a loaf and place in a greased loaf pan. Cover for final fermentation, which may be several hours. Dock the dough a few times before loading it into the oven.
Thank you for the formula. How nice and simple to fit into a regular baking schedule.
Mind telling how you bake it. Temp. of oven and how long you bake it and if you cover the loaf to keep the crust soft?
Thanks,
Janet
I preheat the oven and baking stone at a pretty high heat, around 550, then I place the loaf in uncovered, and add some steam. I use a falling heat, and pretty much immediately dial down to 500, then 475, then 450, and usually bake it out at around that temperature. It bakes for about an hour in the pan and then for about 10 minutes out of the pan.
I also keep the rye in a plastic bag once it's fully cooled to keep the crust from getting too hard.
Thanks for this information. When I bake these kinds of loaves I keep getting a bit of gumminess in the center of the loaf despite baking for longer periods of time. I have been baking at lower temps once I blast mine at high temp. like you do too.
I will give your temps a try next bake.
Janet
There could be a couple other causes of the gumminess. First off, are you waiting a while before you cut into the bread? My bread usually comes out in the afternoon and with a rye like this I won't cut into it until the next day. If that's not the issue, I would look at (1) your starter and (2) your final rise.
Regarding the starter, I usually do a 3-step refresh to get it vigorous. So if I'm baking on a Saturday, I'll refresh my starter Friday at 6am, Friday at 2pm, and Friday at 10pm. Then begin with the final sourdough build on Saturday morning. A 2-step, 12-hour refresh can also work great for a sourer loaf.
Regarding the final rise, rye is certainly a different animal from wheat and it signals its bake readiness differently as well. Don't be afraid of tears on the top of the rising loaf--to the contrary, these are a sign I look for.
I'm also milling my flour fresh, so you may need to adapt the recipe for pre-milled flour.
Thanks for the information.
I mill fresh too….The loaf that was gummy was sent to my sister so it wasn't cut into for about a week.
The builds I do follow Ananda's time line for his Moscow Rye and Borodinsy Rye that are a bit different in that they involve a scald that then gets fermented with the sour prior to being added to the final ingredients…
I have pretty much boiled it down to timing and temp. at this point so now I can fiddle around with your timing and temps and see what results :)
Thanks again
Janet
perfect! It looks really beautiful.
Please, let me warn you against cardamom. If you use more that 1/100000000000000 grams your bread will taste like soap:)
This is a gorgeous Rye bread, aguats! Such a simple recipe! you got a beautiful crumb for such a short time of bulk fermentation.
Many thanks! I may have been unclear in my directions (which I just edited to be clearer), but there is a final fermentation after the first short rest. It can be several hours and is done when the dough looks ready. I'm still not used to all of the terminology used on this forum, so I apologize if that was unclear.
And yeah, the recipe is nice and simple, the way I like it! It can obviously be varied, with the most likely variation being the inclusion of up to as much as 50% of the overall flour in the sour build to make a sourer loaf.
3½ pounds of dough(almost)!
All for one loaf? What size pan did you use? Also how many soaked seeds were used(weight or volume)?
Think I will be trying this tonight. Don't think I have enough of any type of seeds or nuts on hand but want to add something. I only have some wheat berries so I think I will try those, well soaked(probably simmered for 30 min first).
Thanks. Beautiful loaf.
You could also just go for it without any additions. I don't know if you're accustomed to eating 100% rye breads, but I think they're absolutely delicious plain and don't need any additional seeds or grains.
I used a pullman pan with the lid off. Think it's the 9" version of this one: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/pain-de-mie-pan-pullman-loaf-pan
Can't tell you exactly how many seeds I used--I just used what remained in a jar on my shelf. I think around 100g would make for a nice, seedy loaf.
Definitely never had any 100% rye. Not much of a rye fan(don't mind it really), but about out of wheat flour and had this rye in the freezer that needed to be used. Wanted some nuggets of something in there so added ½ cup(91g) of wheat berries which were simmered and soaked for a short period. After soaking and draining they were about exactly twice that volume and weight.
Ended up with 1710g of dough which I divided between two 8.5 x 4.5" loaf pans. Looks like it will fill them pretty nicely.
They've been proofing about 2 hours now(85 - 90ºF). Looks like they might need another hour or two.
Thanks.
Really beautiful loaf. What adjustments might be needed using commercialy milled flour?
Thanks
Thank you! I'm probably not the best person to ask about this as it's been a long time since I've baked with commercially-milled flour. We really only eat whole grain bread at home so we always mill it ourselves.
My hunch would be that commercially-milled flour might have lost some of its moisture and might require a slightly higher hydration to achieve the same results. Maybe someone else has done some side-by-side comparisons and can better advise.
Oh well. After rising and filling the pans quite nicely, I guess I let the loaves over proof, and the dough slowly but noticeably receded after docking and getting them into the oven. No recovery in the oven. Total proof time was 3.75 hrs at about 90ºF.
Then I guess they baked too long, (one hour at 450, then ten minutes with the oven turned off with the loaves removed from pans). They are pretty hard. Maybe they will soften up a little after a day or so in the plastic bags.
Guess soon I'll give it another try. Half recipe next time though. 3 hr max proof. Maybe even a little less. Kept waiting for the evidence of them being ready, but I guess I missed it this time. Guess the small cracks at the ends of the loaves was all I got this time. Will have to learn to watch with a keener eye.
wow maybe try slowing it down a bit with a cooler rise.
Yeah, guess I over did it there. With the small amount of starter and the limited bulk rest, guess I thought it would need a little more help. Will dial that back on the next attempt.
Limited experience with high/all rye.
Thanks.
No, not a small amount of starter at all. (not to me) That amount coupled with 90°F proof would be ready for the oven in 2 hrs from the word "mix." I still have problems with the original method (not the recipe) that requires only a 30 min rest and then a shape followed by a long rise time. I find there is some slight settling around the title crumb shot, a "U" shaped density just inside the evenly browned crust. It might just be me seeing it. There is a lot of skill involved just getting to that point, so I don't want to be too critical. There could be a few ways to improve upon the crumb.
I would increase the bulk rest to an hour, letting the matrix saturate more with gas and acid (helps the stretch) before gently shaping and staying within the total fermentation time frame for whatever temperature is used (or reducing it slightly) to see what it does.
Watching the surface closely is key to when to bake it. Do not wait for much piercing or bubbles popping in cracks or on the surface, the first one or two should signal that the loaf needs to be put into the oven quickly. Cracking the surface may mean that it has dried or that the yeast is rising too quickly. Rye has a tendency to crack (releasing gas) a slower rise will trap more gas as opposed to a fast rise. Slow down the rise by not using a proofer. Just let it sit covered on the counter top free from shock waves. Keep the skin of the rising dough moist so it can stretch and not tear.
I agree with Mini regarding the temperature. I bet you'll have much better results if you dial the temp back a bit, or just leave it out on the counter as I do.
You might also check to be sure that your starter is active (you could refresh it a few times at room temperature on an 8-12 hour schedule to be sure), as it sounds like it may have been a bit sleepy.
Finally, I've deflated a loaf in the past with overzealous docking. Try dipping your docker/skewer/whatever in some water and only carefully docking the loaf so as not to cause it to collapse.
Mini: I'd love to improve upon this recipe and I'd be willing to experiment with a longer bulk fermentation--though I'm not yet convinced. :) The baker I learned this style of baking from in Austria used to use an even shorter bulk fermentation of 20 minutes!
When refreshing the starter at say 6 am, 2 pm and 10 pm as you suggested, how much rye, water and starter do you use? Also in the winter when it is 62 degrees in our house will this still work or should I warm it? Outside of Germany and Austria I've only seen such bread from Barn Owl Bakery (just a few years old) on Lopez Island in the San Juans. I'm excited to get started - fabulous recipe! Thank you.