The Fresh Loaf

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My First Sourdough Rye Bread

BigLarry's picture
BigLarry

My First Sourdough Rye Bread

So I thought I'd experiment a little and try a rye flour. I'm a very amateur baker so please bare with me if my terms aren't the correct ones!

Starter:
50g canadian flour (14.2% protein) - bought from Sainsbury's, UK
50g water

I left this for 10 days, halving it every day and replacing that with fresh flour and water.

Bread:
350g Dove's Farm White Rye Flour
100g Canadian White Flour
100g of my above starter
300ml water
10g salt

I mixed all the flour, start and water my hand pretty roughly and let it sit for 30 minutes, there's a good chance I was "autolysing" at this point althought I may well be wrong!!

Next I sprinkled the salt and then give it another mix by hand so it was consistent. I then folded and turned the mixing container a quarter turn and repeated till I was back at the start. This is something I'd seen on youtube.

I popped the lid back on and left it for an hour, I then went back and did my fold and turn thing again - and then again 30 minutes later. It was getting late so I put it in the fridge and went to bed and then work.

It having sat for about 18 hours in the fridge, I took it out and let it sit at my kitchen's ambient temperature which I'm guessing is about 20C. I then flopped it out onto the worktop and shaped it into a bowl with "good tension", I picked it up and plopped it into a wooden banneton and let it sit for another 1 hour or so.

I preheated the oven to 250C with my biggest casserole dish in it while this happened.

Having risen quite nicely, I turned over the banneton and to my surprise it came out easily. I carefully picked up the bread and dropped it into the casserole dish and baked as follows:

35 minutes with the lid on at 240C
15 minutes with the lid off at 220C  (this may have been more like 12 minutes as my daughter was insistent that it was burning).

Let it cool for an hour and voila! my first rye bread.


I have to say it was lovely and chewy with a nice taste to it which seemed stronger towards the centre of the loaf - that is pieces cut from the centre tasted stronger.


Toasted a few pieces for breakfast and I was very happy with it to say the least.

Comments

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

Isn't rewardsing to be able to create a starter and then be able to use it to produce such a nice loaf? Well done!

gillpugh's picture
gillpugh

Very nice bread, I've only made a 20% rye bread but love the flavour, so I may try a bigger percent this week. 

the hadster's picture
the hadster

And you liked the way it tasted. Yippee!

I love toast.

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Looks lovely. If I just saw pictures I would think you had been baking sourdough for a long time. 

P.s. autolyse in the strictest terms is just flour and water without the starter nor salt. However many accept with starter to also be an autolyse of sorts. But an autolyse is never with salt. Although come to think of it I have seen it done once with salt (minus the starter) but the baker did this because it was a very long autolyse and he didn't want any spontaneous fermentation. 

IceDemeter's picture
IceDemeter

70% rye, 70% hydration, and it came out like that?!?  Seriously, wow!  I haven't tried using white rye flour (I tend towards whole grain), but that kind of loaf is making me think it might be time to try some...

While you may not be all hyped up on the terminology, you sure have the practical side of baking figured out!  Thanks so much for sharing, and I hope that you keep on baking happy!

Flour.ish.en's picture
Flour.ish.en

for your first rye bread. You've nailed it.

BigLarry's picture
BigLarry

Thank you all for your kind comments, they encourage me to bake more!

I'm thinking (but hoping not) this may be a bit of a fluke but I'll keep going. I took some round to my parents (I was worried about the crust and chew on a set of elderly teeth but needn't have, they loved it too!).

I'm about to start on a white loaf following Ken Forkish instructions off Youtube and will post that up when it's baked - but first pizza!!

Thanks again.

 

Larry

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Ken Forkish has lovely recipes but he's a bit eccentric at times especially with his levain builds. Follow your instinct and build up to however much you need without all the discard. His timings are very generous and you'll find many posts on here, including some from myself, about how we had to watch the dough and not the clock otherwise it would over ferment. Otherwise, enjoy!