The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Rye Test 3B

pmccool's picture
pmccool

Rye Test 3B

This week's breads for the B group were a Gotland-style Bread and a Kassel Rye.

Gotland-style loaf:

And a different angle:

Gotland-style crumb:

I like this bread a lot.  One deliberate change that I made was to substitute fresh orange peel for dried peel and I really like the flavor bump that brought.  Since the bake finished rather late in the evening and I wanted to go to bed, the bread was bagged when only about half-cooled.  That isn't really what I wanted to do, but it beat staying up late waiting for it to cool further, or leaving it out all night and making it too dry in the morning.  The unexpected effect is that the bread is very moist, almost cake-like but firmer.  It's a lovely texture although I expect not quite according to Hoyle.

The Kassel rye loaf:

Another angle:

And the Kassel crumb:

This is another good rye bread.  The crumb is very even; it will make a great platform for sandwiches.  Note that there is some cracking on the loaf.  It would have been significantly worse if I had not pushed the proofing beyond the recommended degree.

Paul

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Both of these breads look great Paul.  Look forward to trying them myself.

I'm working on my next test bake with carrots next.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

that Lucy never heard of before?  These two look tasty enough.  Well done and happy rye baking Paul

pmccool's picture
pmccool

Each is good and very different from the other.  One of the questions that occurred to me when Stan announced the new book was "Just how many rye breads are there, anyway?"  Turns out, quite a few!  And with such different personalities, too!

Paul

pmccool's picture
pmccool

That's a yummy handle!

The formula called for letting the shaped loaf ferment until it had expanded 50%.  Since I had experienced blowouts on a couple of previous bakes, I let it go until the loaf was maybe 75-80% expanded.  That means I didn't see as much oven spring but it also meant that the tearing of the crust was minimized.  That particular loaf was docked, rather than slashed, so there wasn't as much opportunity for the loaf to expand in a controlled fashion while baking.

Proofing can be a real challenge, especially when the indoor climate is extreme.  Were I you, I'd probably park the dough in a picnic cooler with a quart jar of hot water (no lid), then close the cooler.  That will provide both humidity and a warmer temperature for the dough while it ferments.

Paul