75% rye and Barley flatbreads
This weekend I decided to make some Swedish style breads reminded of a conversation Ive had in an arlier thread about the ultimate book on baking ryes. So instead of rushing out to get the "holy grail" of rye books I decided to make some from a Swedish baking book that I own.
The rye bread Is actually one of the best ryes I have ever made although the method seemed strange to me. First of you make a sourdough preferment with an hydration of roughly 60-65% wich is really dry for a whole rye dough. This is left to ferment for at least 12 hours after wich the final dough is made with a small kicker of commercial yeast, the recipe calls for fresh yeast wich is availble all over Sweden so that is what I used. The dough then ferments 60 minutes and is punched down once during fermentation after wich it is shaped and left to ferment for 45-60 minutes more before going into the oven for 50 minutes. Really great bread, can´t stress that enough!
The barley flatbread was a big faliure, It was far too salty and that resulted in to slow fermentation and though salty crumb. I then re read the recipe and realised that there must be a mistake, the authour specifies 2.3% syrup and 3.3% salt (roughly) which I think is a mix up the salt seems much more resonable at that level. Will probably try them again some day as I love the taste of them with some hot bean stew.
EDIT: Ho hum! Here is a pic! The loaf on the right has been man handled a and that is the reason for the flour being a bit splotched over the top of the loaf but the other is as beautiful as a newborn baby, whitch it is in some regard...
Comments
Really looking forward to your pics, Kuret! Meanwhile would you be willing to share the recipe? "One of the best ryes I have ever made" sounds like a pretty good endorsement to me! And you know from our earlier discussions, that many people here are interested to learn from you about authentic Swedish ryes.
About the salty flatbread, I have a Tibetan barley skillet bread in my list of recipes to try. It's from Flatbreads & flavors: A Baker's Atlas by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. With 5 3/4 cups flour total, their version calls for 2 tsp salt and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Not sure how that compares with your recipe's percentages for the salt and the syrup, but maybe you can work it out. Good luck with it!
Carol
Im hoping to get the pics up during the weekend. My girlfriend has lost her USB cable for moving pictures from the digital camera and Im feeling reluctant to buy a new one as they cost roughly 30$ which I feel is a bit too much for something you can find at home.
The bread was not strictly Swedish as the authour said it reminded him of a bread he had eaten in germany. But I find the procedure to be quite different from the "ultra liquid sourdough" ryes I have heard of as german style. But with the only spice being caraway it didn't feel all that Swedish, many ryes made here includes anise, fennel and caraway together, and I even throw in some coriander to make things more interesting... once I took the wrong spice jar and mistakenly used cumin instead of coriander, turned out a very strange tasting bread...
I dare not think about the percentages of formulas given in volume. Too much randomness involved when you scoop and measure that way. If you are interested I can give you the formula, however it is a straight dough bread baked with fresh yeast so a conversion must be done If you are to bake it with AD or IDY.
Kuret, please post your recipe for "one of the best ryes I have ever made". I'm anxious to try it! Thank you.
Okay, having forgot of this thread a bit but remembered it as I ate the last bit of the second loaf yesterday. Its a really great bread but I find it hard to eat a whole loaf of it before turning stale, or not stale but me getting bored with eating the same loaf day in and day out.
German rye, Swedish recipe
Levain: 38g rye sourdough (100 hydration), 152g water, 271g fine milled whole rye.
Dough: 197g fine milled whole rye 197g high protein wheat flour (I used 13%), 307g water, 15g fresh yeast (about 5g instant), 7.5g caraway, 15g salt.
Method: Mix dough without salt for 10 minutes in your mixer, add salt and mix for roughly 7 minutes more. Let dough ferment for 30 minutes, punch down and ferment 30 more.
After fermentation shape the dough, here there are two possibilities, but first preheat you oven to 480F.
1. Shape the dough into two 600g boules and let proof on parchment for 30 minutes, take a rolling pin and press it down across the middle of the loaf (|) and let it prof another 30.
2. Divide the dough into 4-6 smaller balls and put in a row inside a floured brotform. This also leads to 2 600g loaves, Id let these proof around 45 to 60 minutes based on how they feel.
Bake: 5minutes at 480F then lower temp to 400F and continue baking for roughly 45-55minutes or until the bread is done. How you check if the bread is done is up to you but I usually go by feel, I baked two 600g loaves for 60 minutes and the bottoms were quite dark but still tasty!
Enjoy!