The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

WW and Rye Loaves: A Gift for Friends

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

WW and Rye Loaves: A Gift for Friends

Made three loaves today as gifts for some friends visiting. Im happy with them. The rye is adding a nice ham and smokey aroma/ taste to the bread. Sorry no crumb shot, none of these loaves were for us! 

 

 

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Natyam the bread is looking great, the extra colour is quite evident your friends should be well pleased.

Have the monks noticed and commented upon your strides toward better breads?

regards Derek

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

i have been told the bread is going good. One of the oldest monks here is french. He tells me stories of "the old day" and having to get breads for his mom at the bakery, everything local and within walking distance.

he said my breads remind him of that bread. 

funny story, that camping trip some of us went on recently, i had some bread with us. Well two frenchmen were backpacking around the island and approached us asking for water. I gave them water, cheese, beer and some bread. we met the next day on our way out and they said "man, you make real bread" 

i thought that was cool. 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Won't be long before the rye amount starts climbing...  ((warning))  ... closer to paradise!  :)   

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

lol i think anymore and the bread is going to turn into smoked ham. 

Next bake ive been commissioned for his sandwich night. Will be making about 40, 150g buns. Should be easy in our indoor oven. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

pretty fast,  Wish I could taste your beer!  These loaves look very nice indeed

Happy baking

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

for the progress. Every post I've made has come back with so much feedback and assistance. I am grateful for this community. 

Truffles's picture
Truffles

A recipe would be really nice. Finding a rye and whole wheat bread recipe is harder than needle in a haystack.

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

Creator of the monasteries Base recipe. 

Creates 4 1100g loaves, approx. 

This was 2000g bobs whole wheat

300g bobs dark rye flour

1900g water

Two hour autolyse

600g starter, 100% hydration

50g salt

Bulk Ferment is two hours with a few folds in the beginning. 

Proof for 1 hour, or for me whenever the oven says its time. Sometimes thats 15 min, sometimes thats 1 hour. 

Baked in A WFO at 550F for 38 min. 

I dont steam anymore. Theres enough of that happening naturally in our oven. 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

and reducing the WW to keep the total flour weight the same and keep the water at 85% hydration.  This will give you a very nice Deli Rye that will require you to put some smoked brisket or home made pastrami on it to really appreciate it:-)  Nothing goes better with beer either.   Using beer for the liquid in the bread would take it to another level even closer to Nirvana!  I know it seems like a waste of good beer but when you enjoy making your own you can just....make some more:-)

Happy baking 

dobie's picture
dobie

dbm

You 'brew' too?

dobie

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

Yuck! sorry, but meat references made my stomach turn a little. 

dobie's picture
dobie

Natyam

'The rye is adding a nice ham and smokey aroma/ taste to the bread.'

Yuck.

dobie

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

That earlier statement was true. The current statement was also true. 

dobie's picture
dobie

Natyam

No offence meant or taken. It's all good.

dobie

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

my bad. running on 4 hours of sleep and in the process of getting 16 loaves made in the next couple days, so im on edge! 

dobie's picture
dobie

Natyam

You did not do anything bad.

Not enough sleep is stressful enough, let alone 16 loaves.

I like the 'camping trip' story. You are a kind soul.

I'm going to try making this bread soon, tho I must admit, I will probably kick the rye percentage up a bit.

Make bread, get rest, in peace.

dobie

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

First 4 of 16 :)

 

 

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

I feel like I'm getting rusty, hope I can get my oven up and going asap and turn out some bread hopefully as lovely as yours.  :)    

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

nah, not going to happen. 

Another 4 today. I think Im scoring the loaves too deep. Went for a darker bake. And yes, I upped the rye. 

Does too deep of a score sink the loaf a little? hmmm, I think I can see Im scoring too far over to the edge maybe. So theres not enough wall support for the rise, perhaps. 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Raising the rye content will will give a dough that tears more easily with faster fermenting times.  No need to score deep.  More likely it fermented faster and threw you off your game.  From here it looks pretty good.

You can take advantage of the tearing -- instead of seam side up fir proofing, try seem side down and/or scoring first and letting the proof swell it shut, it will then open in the oven.  Depends on the % of rye but fun to test.

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

a gem of a post. 

Truffles's picture
Truffles

thanks to mini oven and natyam for clueing me in. Ive read Mini Oven stuff for a long time. Thanks again for you participation in this web site.   Herb

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

I am an uber beginner. Anything I say should be double checked by the vets here. 

Truffles's picture
Truffles

Is that your bread? Anyone would be happy with bread that looked like that. What is the monastery comment about?

Anyway  I made two round loaves today. I had sort of forced the SD starter. My culture had been sitting in the fridge for weeks maybe months so in the morning I refreshed it once with a large addition and some (horror) instant yeast and monday night I made the starter and tuesday around noon made the dough. I received your input after I had made the starter and was planning to use J Hamelmans (Sp?) 40 % rye , an old favorite of mine, and substitute WWW for High gluten but add vital wheat gluten. Any way the bread loos OKl from the outside, maybe a little heavy.  I had braised a country ham earlier and I wanted to make sandwiches with it, I'll check later today to see how it looks inside and taste and maybe take a loaf with me for the thanksgiving get together.

The bread doesn't look as good as yours. When I get up I'll take a picture and try to send it in.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

is trying to stay humble, and good so.  He is a monk baking for his monastery on a regular schedule.  He's devoted and doing a wonderful job of baking for his brothers and friends.   Not to help put your foot in your mouth but they are also vegetarian.  He also has a good sense of humour.

As we all know, bread baking does have the ability to remind us of our humbleness when we think too much of ourselves, good so.  

And yes, I'm getting rusty.  I feel like the swim coach that can't swim at the moment.  Slight delay in plans, my apprentice is recovering nicely from her tooth ordeal but still medicated.  The snow is falling softly outside.  Snow, confetti and blessings from Heaven.  

Truffles's picture
Truffles

Learning to accept you can't always be right and be happy that you can sometimes.

Thank you again for all the help you have given me and others.  Herb

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

Dinner: Bread and Soup with some Cab Franc, what else is there? Happy Holidays, may they be blessed. 

Who shaped that one in the upper left corner? Not Me :)

 

Jon OBrien's picture
Jon OBrien

I understand that every mandala must have an imperfection.

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

Sorry Mini, will try from my phone but not sure it will work

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

to the lowly wheat and rye plants.  Bless you and your work and the mouths that you feed. 

I am currently working on making a pleasant place for Buddhist offerings inside our camp perimeter.  It will contain a waterfall and two small fish ponds partially surrounding a platform.  I know too little about planning such things but am imitating the surrounding mountain skyline in the back wall so the water appears to be flowing from the valley in the distance.  Plant pockets are being mounted into that wall. A fun project. not too much difference between wet rye flour and wet cement at the moment.  :)  

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

Thank you so much, Mini, of course we would not be here if it wasn't for your generous gift of time into developing our recipe. 

You are on such an exciting journey, no doubt because of your good karma and strong character. 

I'm excited to see how your wood oven adventures turn out in the near future. Don't forget the colorful prayer flags that blow in the wind!

alfanso's picture
alfanso

Hi Natyam,

A little late to viewing the thread here, but your breads look really great.  It must be such a treat to be able to make so many at a time.  

alan

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

is really fun, yes. 

Well thank you for the compliment. It means a lot when a TFL pro comes on and gives props to the newbies. 

I look forward to following your baguette footsteps! 

alfanso's picture
alfanso

The only thing pro about me is that I'm pro-democracy. After that it's merely a crap-shoot.  A few hundred baggies and you'll be there too!  For me a big batch is 3 baguettes and one batard!  Your shaping and scoring of the batards is a thing of beauty.  Your accelerated pace has been noticed by a number of others around these parts.  It must be all of that red dirt.

alan

Rajan Shankara's picture
Rajan Shankara

NEVER