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Pierre Nury's Light Rye Bread - One More Time

holds99's picture
holds99

Pierre Nury's Light Rye Bread - One More Time

I had baked this bread and posted some pics of this recipe (from Daniel Leader's Local Breads book) a week or so ago.  The crumb on the previous post was not as open as it should have been and the loaf, as MiniOven said, was not nearly "ugly" enough.  So, a couple of days ago I decided that the problem I was having was a result of my starter not being active enough before introducing it into the dough mixture, and I had not baked it long enough.  Anyway, I received some good critiques from a number of TFLer's and greatly appreciate the advice and suggestions I received.  I gave it another try a couple of days ago with better results.  It could, as MiniOven and Jane said, use some more "ugly" but I believe I'm making progress.  I doubled the recipe. I divided it into 3 pieces, 2 smaller loaves and one larger loaf.  Here's pics of the larger loaf.  I froze the 2 smaller ones without cutting them but assume they're fairly similar to this one in crumb. They look about the same as far as crust and color.

I left my K.A. on the shelf and mixed it completely by hand, as MiniOven suggested, in a large bowl using a large rubber spatula with more of a folding technique than a mixing action and followed Mr. Leader's recipe to the letter.  I retarded it for 18 hours before baking.  That, I think, gave it greater flavor. It tasted really good.

Pierre Nury's light rye no. 1

Pierre Nury's light rye no. 1

Pierre Nury's light rye no. 2

Pierre Nury's light rye no. 2

Thanks to:

Mike Avery for his refreshment/feeding instructions for my starter.

Janedo for her suggestions about handling the dough and baking.

MiniOven for her advice on mixing by hand and making them more "ugly".

David Snyder for his numerous posts showing what it should really look like.

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

  

Comments

Janedo's picture
Janedo

Bravo Howard!!! Looks great. The crumb is perfect. You must be very pleased. I can definitely see ugly warts.

Jane 

holds99's picture
holds99

Jane,

I appreciate your kind words as well as your suggestions regarding the process.  I took you advice when you said, in essence, DON"T change anything in the recipe/formula until you understand the process.  It seemed to work much better this time.  I am very pleased, thank you.

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

LindyD's picture
LindyD

Very nice crumb, Howard. I just pulled two loaves of the light rye out of the oven and hope the crumb turns out as well as yours.

I followed Leader's instructions for using a mixer as given the Independence Day holiday, am just glad I was able to get this bread put together and baked!

 

 

holds99's picture
holds99

Lindy,

I appreciate you complement on the crumb.  I did it the first time with the mixer and decided to try doing it by hand this time, just for the fun of it.

Hope your loaves turn out splendidly and hope you have a fun holiday weekend.

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

LindyD's picture
LindyD

But not as open as yours. If I get a chance tomorrow, will post a photo.

This is the second time I've made Nury's light rye and the second time I've underbaked it slightly, in spite of keeping it in the oven for 30 minutes. I've made a notation in the book to go for at least 35 minutes next time. Or longer.

My guests didn't seem to care as both loaves were gone by the end of the day.

 

 

holds99's picture
holds99

Lindy,

I had the same problem (slightly underbaked "not ugly enough") first go round.  After turning the loaves, midway through the baking cycle (approx. 15-20 min), I reduced the heat slightly to 430 and baked them 35 minutes total then shut off the oven cracked the oven door and left them for about 3-5 more minutes, then removed them.  I use a digital thermometer to check for an internal temp. of 205-210.  Maybe it's my oven thermostat (gotta check it soon) but my stone gets really hot and even though I bake them on a parchment lined pan on a preheated stone with steam on a rack in the middle of the oven, when I bake them in at 450 deg. for the entire baking cycle (without a slight reduction in temp.) the bottoms tend to get a little too brown to  suit me.  (Whew, long sentence.  Got to work on that.)

Anyway, it sounds like your loaves were real winners, particularly if you your guests liked them so much.  Look forward to seeing your pics.  It's a great recipe.  Keep "tweaking" it until you get the results you want.  

Howard

weavershouse's picture
weavershouse

This is the only way I make Nury's Rye, by hand and I think yours turned out grand.

 

I don't have to beat it hard or get sore arms, like you said give it some turns, rest, stretch and fold and off it goes to do its thing. My favorite bread though I don't count it as a rye. It's my favorite Leader's bread.

 

Great job Howard. What's next?                                        weavershouse

holds99's picture
holds99

Weavershouse,

Thanks for your very kind words and your encouragement after the first go round with this recipe.  Doing this recipe by hand, in my opinion, really does make a huge difference in the final results.  I agree wiith you about not counting it as rye.  It doesn't have much rye flour in it but has such terrific taste and great flavor.  I was wondering if you have made Hamelman's light rye and if so what you think of it?  I have made his light rye recipe and it's also very good but his recipe uses caraway seeds, (2 1/2 Tbs.) per batch, which gives it a real punch tastewise, but makes it hard to compare his light rye with Leader's Nury light rye.  Since I have a couple of loaves of Leader's Nury light rye frozen I am going to make Hamelman's light rye without the caraway seeds and do a taste comparison.  My wife really likes the Hamelman light rye...I'm still in between the two. 

As for what's next, there's just so many recipes that look so good.  I'm still on this crazy baguette quest, which I have been fiddling with, off and on, for a long time.  It's sort of like Don Quixote...jousting with windmills :-)

Thanks again.

Hope all is well with you and yours and you had a great 4th.

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

Janedo's picture
Janedo

Hey Howard,

You have to try the Monkey bread dough (not necessarily doing Monkey bread with it), Pat's baguettes but a poolish version - or the sourdough come to think of it. That pané siciliano looks great and I think a sourdough version would be even better.

There are actually so many recipes to try aren't there???

Jane 

holds99's picture
holds99

Jane,

I'm putting them both on my list of "to bakes".  There are soooo many breads to bake.  Like Robert Frost say: "and many a mile before I sleep and many a mile to go" or something to that effect.  Hang in there and keep at those baguettes.

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

weavershouse's picture
weavershouse

No, I never did the Hamelman's Light rye even after you had the great post about it some time back. It's time. And I want to do Eric's revised "favorite rye". I'm going to do them both very soon. Today I'll refresh my rye starter with First Clear Flour as you did and then go from there. Thanks for the push because I have no rye in the house :( 

 

"miles (and miles of recipes) to go before I sleep"                                                                                       weavershouse

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Hi, Howard.

Your second baking of Nury's Light Rye definitely hit the mark! It looks terrific.

Eat some more of it. We addicts love to hook more folks. BTW, Nury's rye makes wonderful toast. The crust gets super-crisp and tastes fantastic.

Man, I would not want to choose between Nury's bread and a light rye. I haven't made Hamelman's, but I have made lots of Jewish Sour Rye, to which it looks very similar. Both types of breads are favorites of mine. I would not want to give up either one. Fortunately, I don't have to.


David

holds99's picture
holds99

Your kind words are greatly appreciated.  You're the one who got me interested this receipe after seeing your great looking loaves.  Is there such a thing as rye groupies?  I think so :-) 

Anyway, I really llke Hamelman's recipe too.    It is, as you said, like a very good quality Jewish rye.  I just wish we had a good N.Y. style deli here, but we don't.  When Charlene and I lived in the D.C. area we would take the Amtrac to N.Y. occasionally for a weekend and hit the delis for those big stacked sandwiches made with those great rye and pumpernickel breads.  Oh well, maybe sometime in the future.  Your suggestion about toasting it sounds good.  Haven't done it yet but will do it tomorrow morning.  

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

Hi, Howard.

As has been said, labeling Nury's Light Rye a "rye bread" is a stretch, but it's a good demonstration of how much a dab of rye can add to a sourdough bread's flavor.

I don't recall if you have "Secrets of a Jewish Baker." Greenstein has a recipe for pumpernickel that I bet you would love, if you are a Jewish pumpernickel fan.


David

Janedo's picture
Janedo

It's the toast that got me addicted to the Nury's and why I did a modified version to get bigger slices. Every morning I like slices of the rye, which I toast and cool (OK it's weird but I don't want the butter to melt) and then I slather a creamy, whitish organic honey on top, so that the butter stays solid, mixed with the honey on the rye... to me it's pure heaven with a cup of tea.

Oh and guess what!!!!!???? I received BREAD by Hamelman. I've got some reading, it looks so great.

Jane 

Windischgirl's picture
Windischgirl

on that taste combo, Janedo.  Heaven to me is a slice of tangy toasted rye slathered with butter (I don't mind if mine melts) and swirled with honey.  Salty, sweet, dry and moist, chewy and creamy all at once.  Wow.

I too am working my way thru BREAD.  I was going to make one of the recipes a few weeks ago, just flipping thru the pages, and I realized his recipe style is so spare that I HAVE to read the intro chapters to understand what to do.  The book is a little anxiety-provoking, but I remind myself he is writing for pros and I'm not quite there yet, so I don't have as much pressure to be perfect!  But I have learned so much regarding when and how to steam, the chemistry of yeast, salt, flour, etc.  It's fascinating and I feel as if I should take notes in the margins or highlight the key concepts.  I want to remember it all...

I have the starter for Nury's rye proofing on the counter; have to see how it tolerates the excess humidity here (99% humidity!  It's like living in a shower!), even tho it's not extremely hot, for once.  Hoping I can time everything so we can have bread for tomorrow's dinner...

 

Windi

Philadelphia PA

Janedo's picture
Janedo

Since the goal with this bread isn't a crispy crust, it may not matter. It comes out of the oven crisp and then quickly softens.

Jane 

holds99's picture
holds99

Jane,

Absolutely agree, the Nury toasted rye is a real winner. 

I think you will really enjoy the Hamelman book.  As I mentioned before, when I first received the book I read the first 100 pages and then reread it and highlighted and red underlined the important information and passages.  It's such a great reference book.  I really believe if people just getting started baking would  read and understand the first 100 pages of that book it could shave years off their learning curve.  From my time working with rustic breads it seems to boil down to how well one understands and executes the 11 steps in the process that both Hamelman and Reinhart promote.  It's the old lament, If I knew then what I know now...

Howard

holds99's picture
holds99

David,

The Greenstein book is going to be my next bread book purchase. I've been wanting to do it since someone mentioned it, maybe Rudy, a while back in one of the posts. 

Incidentally, I tried the rye this morning, toasted, and it was great.  Charlene was just going to have hers untoasted.  Then she smelled the toast toasting and she quickly changed her mind.  She REALLY liked it toasted.

Howard

weavershouse's picture
weavershouse

Nury's Light Rye is excellent untoasted but it's over the top toasted. Our eggs from the henhouse, Nury's light rye toasted and a glass of juice (sometimes fried red mild/hot peppers on the side) is the way to start the day. 

 

I'm still refreshing my sourdoughs because I've been too busy to bake and now I don't know what I want to bake first. Nury's will be one I know for sure I'll do. And a rye and who knows what else. Maybe your multi-grain, David,  then the freezer will be full. I still have a half loaf of the SF sourdough left which I ended up loving. weavershouse

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I just have to say how much I am enjoying being part of this TFL crowd. We just keep pulling each other up to the next level.

I may have prompted others to try this bread or that (Nury's rye, Hamelman's Multi-grain levain), but in most cases some one else first prompted me to try them my first time - Zolablue in the case of Nury's rye, and Fleur-d-liz in the case of the Multi-grain.

I'm feeling good. (Just having gotten my internet connection back helps too.)


David

Janedo's picture
Janedo

I agree with you. I don't think I would have advanced so fast if I hadn't had you guys to talk to and make me think. A very nice community!

Jane 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Mini O