July 16, 2020 - 4:03am
suggestions if I can't find cracked rye
Hello,
I can get hold of rye flakes, rye flour, whole rye.
But nowhere can I get hold of cracked rye.
Does anyone know how I turn whole rye into cracked rye satisfactorily?
Alternatively, could I swap in Rye flakes to a recipe?
Any help gratefully received.
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Flakes are most likely steamed first before rolling. What role do they play in the recipe?
Thanks for the reply,
They are there as part of the soaker ingredients to soak while the starter ferments over 12 hours and then add to the recipe.
They will soften in the dough. Just add when making up the dough. (If the flakes would be starter food, instead of cracked grain, they would speed up the starter shortening the time before using in the dough.)
I can't help with the cracking your own rye part, although I don't see why you couldn't just pulse the whole grains in a blender or coffee mill.
However, I can say that I've soaked spelt flakes before to use in bread, and the bread was fine, but the flakes basically disintegrated and acted like flour. If you want chewy bits of grains in your bread, the flakes won't work. If you're using multiple grains in your soaker, you could probably just omit the rye and use extra of the other grains. Or you could use any other cracked grain, like cracked wheat or steel-cut oats.
You might also have some luck finding cracked rye as an ingredient in a hot cereal mix, although you'd have to be okay with the other ingredients too.
Will admit I haven't tried this myself yet, but have 30 lbs. of rye berries to experiment with. If you have a grain mill, set it to the coarsest setting available to produce cracked grain. Then sift out the flour from the result and set that aside, using only the larger particles not sifted out. Alternatively, use a blender with sufficient power such as a Vita Mix and pulse the berries. A food processor can be used for flakes, but is not likely to be satisfactory with the whole berry.
Once you have the cracked grains, weigh them and add twice their weight in water. Soak for a day, possibly longer depending on ambient temp and see if they have softened.
To make your own flakes requires a machine called a flaker. KoMo makes one, but they may be backordered. The berries need to be soaked and slightly dried so they don't gum up the flaker.
Let us know how you come out and how you got into wanting cracked grains in the first place. It's not a common topic in bread making books.
I thank you all for your useful replies.
I am going to coarsely mill some whole rye and sift as suggested and I will report on the outcome.
Thanks again, much appreciated.
This idea came from Mini Oven on a previous thread.
Since the rye is going in a soaker anyway, soak the whole rye berries, probably takes 12-24 hours, longer than it would for pre-cracked berries.
Then run the fully soaked whole berries through the blender, including any leftover soaker water. If you need to add more water to the blender , keep track so that you can subtract that amount from what you add to the dough later.
Soaking the berries first will keep them from scratching the inside of the blender container, and may allow a more uniform chunk size.
My earlier comments were intended for those considering making their own flakes. I use a KoMo Flocman flaker to make great rolled oats and other grains. If seeds are put into the hopper without being softened, the steel rollers will shatter the seeds/berries into small fragments. Softening/soaking the berries makes them more elastic and amenable to being rolled. If too wet however, they gum up the rollers. As always there's more than one way to do things and a blender, or whatever is available, can also yield results.
I’ve used steel cut oats occasionally. Doesn’t give quite the texture that I get from bulgur wheat but they definitely show in the crumb and have a nice effect on texture.
Cheers,
Phil