Greenstein's Jewish Rye ....flat
i decided to try greenstein's jewish rye, not the corn rye. it didn't go well, or rather end well. i just pulled the first loaf out of the oven and it's flat as flat can be. i have a feeling i either had the dough too wet, or kneaded too long, or proofed too long. not sure if one or all of those things happened. the loafs doubled nicely in the baskets, but when i turned out onto parchment paper to slash and bake, that's when the trouble begain. first loaf was too big to fit under the cloche (long cloche) so i thought i'd try w/o steaming. slashing caused the loaf to spread out .....quite a bit and i sprayed a bit of water on top of the loaf, hoping that this would help it to steam. apparently not. here's the pix (sad)
Greenstein's jewish rye
this is only my second attempt at a batard shaped long loaf and i'm not having real good success with these. the boules seem to do better for me.
i didn't wait very long to check the crumb....figured since it was a lost cause anyway....what the h#ck.
the good news is it does taste wonderful, it just looks .....Not too great.
Jewish rye crumb
here's the pix of the second loaf, a boule....got a bit of oven spring.....not very impressive though. i knead the dough for at least 20 minutes before i got the amount of window paning that i like....greenstein says to knead for 8-10 minutes. but i wanted to go by the dough and not the clock.
Jewish Rye #2 boule
I've had similar problems with loves turning out flat. I made Reinhart's "whole wheat hearth bread" and "transitional country hearth bread". This first is 100% whole wheat while the second is 50%. The first is at 70.5% hydration while the second is at 65%.
I've had trouble (more with the WWHearth) forming it into tight boules. I'm pretty new to this, but I can seem to get a good tight film of gluten around the outside. Also, when slashed, they spread out and lie flat.
Additionally, I knead the bread a little more than the recipe calls for (which is only 2 min mixing, 4 on a work surface and 1 more minute after a rest).
I'm trying to figure out what's wrong: too much hydration, over/under kneading & gluten development, over proofing, or could it simply be my inexperience with shaping?
Should I have to form the boule, rest it and then retighten?
Thanks for any insights you may have.
into my issue w/the greenstein rye.....it's something i've done before.....look quickly at the ingredient list and misread quantities. i remember i added as much first clear flour as i did rye sour...which was 3 cups. when i re read the recipe i see that the flour quantity is NOT 3 cupss but 4-5 cups.....hence the very wet dough which i was able to develop gluten in, but it took much longer than he indicated it would. that would explain why the dough didn't have the structure it should have. the good news is the bread tastes wonderful, if a tad salty......but it is moist. i've done this kind of thing before, especially on a first time recipe. i get so excited about the preparation that i'm not careful. perhaps this may shed some light on what happened for you, i don't know.
deborah