The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Leader's Polish Cottage Rye--the helium really helped with the oven spring!

xaipete's picture
xaipete

Leader's Polish Cottage Rye--the helium really helped with the oven spring!

This was a delicious bread! It was everything I hoped for (thank you David!). This massive loaf had a delightful sourness with a nice rye flavor, a well-developed structure without any hint of heaviness, and a wonderful aroma. I would definitely make it again.

This was a three-build bread: I made the German rye sourdough Thursday night and the rye sourdough Friday night. I used KA bread flour and home-ground unsifted rye (the formula called for white rye so this was a substitution). Everything ticked along exactly as expected. I put the final dough mixture together Saturday morning and mixed it in my Kitchen Aid on speed 4 for 14 minutes (again, thanks for your help on this David!), scraping the sides down twice. After I literally poured the mixture into a dough bucket, I let it ferment at room temperature for about 2 1/4 hours. Meanwhile I scoured the house for an appropriately sized proofing basket for my 2 1/2 pounds of dough finally turning up a basket from a closet.

After rubbing a considerable amount of rye flour into a flour-sack couche, I emptied--again almost poured--the dough into its center. The dough was too slack to shape, so I just lifted the whole thing into the basket, covered it with plastic wrap, and let it proof for another 1 3/4 hours during which time it nearly doubled. I then placed a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet, sprayed it with PAM, placed it over the basket, flipped it over and watched the dough come tumbling out.

After three quick scores about 1/2-inch deep, I slid the spreading mass onto a preheated oven stone on the middle rack, plopped 3/4 cup of ice cubes in a skillet beneath the stone for steaming, shut the door, and hoped for the best. As I watched through the oven window I was delighted to see a lot of oven spring. The dough expanded both upwards and sideways increasing in volume nearly 50%. I was very pleased and hopeful. I threw a piece of foil over the loaf after 20 minutes because I worried that it was getting brown to quickly and then checked it to see if it was done at 40 minutes. It registered 96º C. so I removed it to a cooling rack. I was very happy to feel that the loaf was wonderfully light. I knew I had a winner.

Notes: I used the rye sour from Leader's book. It had sat in the refrigerator un-refreshed for a month but seemed to perform just fine after only one feeding and 12 hours on the counter (actually, I let it sit on the counter for 24 hours before using it); no doubt, this is a testimonial to the rehabilitation properties of rye flour.
You can see the hole in the top of the loaf where I injected the helium. polish cottage rye
I took some more pictures but didn't have the CF card in the camera so I'll post more tomorrow.
Here are some more pictures. Vodka is the traditional accompaniment.
polish cottage rye
polish cottage rye crumb
This is a picture of about one-third of the loaf in its proofing basket; I'm including it so you can see how really large this massive loaf was.


After our dinner of sausages, grilled red peppers, and sautéed onion relish, we enjoyed a fre$h cherry pie. The pie's crust was perfectly flakey and delicious owing to the incorporation of a small amount of solid Crisco with the butter (as usual, I promised myself that this was absolutely the last time I would use the white stuff!).
fresh cherry pie

--Pamela

Comments

Marni's picture
Marni

I'm so glad it all worked out just as you wanted.  I love watching loaves rise in the oven- so rewarding!

Your pie looks awesome!  Did you pit all those cherries yourself?

Marni

xaipete's picture
xaipete

My cousin is up for the weekend, so he offered to do it. It didn't take too long.

--Pamela

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Pamela, Beautiful Loaf!  WOW, it's hugh!  The crumb and crust couldn't look better....lovely!  Your dinner sounded delicious to go with the loaf..and the cherry pie is my favorite pie. 

Sylvia 

xaipete's picture
xaipete

The bread was great and the pie was 'greater'.

--Pamela

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I'm happy you found it as satisfying a loaf as I did - both to bake and to eat!

At the moment, I'm stuck in Portland having to settle for Pearl Bakery bread and pastries and to send messages from Stumptown Coffee Roasters over a triple iced latte.

It's a rough life.

David

Paddyscake's picture
Paddyscake

Imagine us poor folks who have to settle for this all the time!

Pamela..gorgeous HUGE loaf! and the cherry pie, mmmm, yum!

Betty

 

xaipete's picture
xaipete

Hi Betty. It's always esp. satisfying to work hard on something and have it come out well. This was my first big loaf so this experience was particularly satisfying.

--Pamela

xaipete's picture
xaipete

Sounds like your weekend is particularly rough and probably pretty boring too! It's a great loaf; we're enjoying it a lot.

--Pamela

hsmum's picture
hsmum

Sorry, Pamela, but your post made me blink several times.  You're just teasing about the helium injection....aren't you?  If not, can you comment a bit for us newbies?  I'm sure my question makes me sound either impossibly naive and ridiculous...or completely ignorant of sophisticated bread-baking techniques, but my curiousity has the better of me on this one.

Karen

xaipete's picture
xaipete

It's amazing today what you can do if you know the owner of a store that inflates balloons with helium. Helium, which is both safe and inert, also adds substantive value to the nutritional content of the loaf when eaten because pockets of helium still trapped inside the gluten membrane are responsible for a rise in vocal pitch which, in turn, influences the thyroid gland which then creates an augmentation of one's basal metabolic rate such that it is easier to lose weight.

--Pamela

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

This is a very controversial topic.

Helium inflates the loaf, but it also makes your tongue swell so it can barely fit in your cheek. Many prefer plain, old-fashioned hot air.

David

SteveB's picture
SteveB

You silver (swelled) tongued devil!  :)

SteveB

http://www.breadcetera.com

 

hsmum's picture
hsmum

Okay, impossibly naive and ridiculous it is, then.  (She said, sheepishly.)

Karen

Paddyscake's picture
Paddyscake

Besides being fantastic bread bakers, a number of these talented folks also are extremely witty! Dave and Steve especially and now I'll have to add Pamela to the group.

Glad you joined us!

Betty