90% rye

Hey All,

Wanted to share with you something that I have been working on for the past 2 days or so.  I was poking around my local Gristede's supermarket the other day and found Hodgson Mills Stoneground Rye Flour for $5.99.  I usually only go to Gristede's if I'm lazy or desperate as there are much better places to get groceries in NYC.  Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find what I did.  Also, I have some organic spelt berries that I'm trying to get rid of or use as it's not my favorite grain.  So, when I got home I consulted Hamelman's Bread book along with the Hofpfisterei München website looking for some inspiration.  I found the following.  If you click on the links on their website as follows: Sortiment => Natursaurteigbrote => Pfister-Oko-Dinkel-Grunkern-Volkorn...  It's a 92% spelt(dinkel) and 8% rye(roggen) bread...  I was inspired by this, but did the complete opposite and thought it was a 92% rye bread...  Anyways, my inspiration doesn't need to be correct, right?

Anyways, back to the 90% rye/ 10% spelt bread that I'm making.  I've tried to make a very detailed photo documentation for all of you.  So here goes!

This is what started it all.  The Hodgson Mill Rye Flour I found at the local Gristede's around the block from me.  $5.99 for 5 pounds.  Not a bad find...

My recipe page 1

My recipe page 2

8/25/10 - Stage 1 (Freshening)

16g Rye Flour

24g Water

8g Sourdough Starter (100% Hydration)

48g Total

7:00pm - Mix all, cover, let rest for 5 hours.

8/26/10 - Stage 2 (Basic Sour)

100g Rye Flour

78g Water

48g All of stage 1

226g Total

12:00am - Mix all, cover, let rest for approx 17 hours.

Stage 2 after mixing a bit

Stage 2 smoothed over with water before covering and letting rest for 17 hrs.

Stage 2 after approx 17 hrs

Stage 2 after approx 17 hrs - detail of what's inside

8/26/10 - Stage 3 (Full Sour)

270g Rye Flour

270g Water

226g All of stage 2

766g Total

6:45pm - Mix all, cover, let rest for approx 3-4 hours

Stage 3 mixed

Stage 3 smoothed over with water before covering and resting

Hand grinding spelt grains for final dough with a hand crank grain mill

Spelt flour close up out of the hand crank mill

Stage 3 after 3 1/2 hrs

Stage 3 side view - gas bubbles

Stage 3 - inside texture

8/26/10 - Final Dough

514g Rye Flour

100g Spelt Flour (freshly ground)

408g Water

18g Kosher Salt

766g All of stage 2

1806g Total

9:15pm - Mix all, cover, bulk ferment for 20 minutes.

Stage 3 in pieces in large mixing bowl with pre-measured amount of water

All ingredients of final dough in mixing bowl

Mixing with rubber spatula

More mixing

More mixing and mushing...  Just mix well so everything is well combined...

For nice ball with spatula, smooth over with water...

Place in plastic bag, bulk ferment for 20 minutes...

Final dough after 20 minute bulk ferment

Inside texture of dough after bulk ferment

9:45pm - Divide dough into 2 equal weight pieces

Form into boule, dusting lightly with rye flour to prevent sticking

Place in linen lined baskets for proofing

Place in baskets in plastic bag for proofing, approx 1 hr.  Place baking stone on 2nd rack up from bottom, place steam tray, preheat oven to 550F with convection.

Boules after proofing.  Notice cracks on surface.

Close up of cracks

Turn out on to peel

Dock loaf with chopstick

10:50pm - Turn off convection.  Place loaves directly on baking stone, add 1 cup water to steam pan, close oven door.  Turn oven temp to 500F and bake for 10 minutes without convection.  Then remove the steam pan, turn oven down to 410F and bake for another 60 minutes or until internal temp of loaf reaches 205F or more.  Sorry for the blurry shot...

I'm tired...  To be continued...

Continuing...

This is about 10 minutes into the bake right before I remove the steam pan.  Notice the oven spring...

Loaves out of the oven 1 hr after removing the steam pan

Crumbshot!

Thanks for reading...  Enjoy!

Hey All,

Just wanted to share with you all my bake from today...  Lots of stuff to share.  On the left side is just a sourdough bread that is similar to the Pane Casereccio di Genzano from Dan Leader's Local Breads...  The other two are 90% rye breads from Hamelman's Bread.  For the rye breads, I freshly hand milled organic rye berries for each of the steps using the Detmolder process.  I just used my storage stiff sourdough starter to start the rye sours...  The last 2 photos are some sandwiches that basically contain all my girlfriend's favorite ingredients: smoked salmon, avocado, mango, fresh mozzarella, and mesclun.  Strange combo, but we learned about this combo at Le Petite Abeille in NYC...  Enjoy!

Tomorrow I'll post some crumbshots of the rye bread as Hamelman recommends letting the bread rest for at least 24 hours for the crumb to stabilize...

Tim

Edit: Rye bread pics are up...  We made some toast with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and herring...  Yum!

90% Rye Bread (Based on Hamelman’s 90% Rye from Bread)

Rye Sour #1

26g Organic Rye Berries (freshly ground)

24g Firm Sourdough Starter (60% hydration)

50g Water

100g Total

Rye Sour #2

200g Organic Rye Berries (freshly ground)

156g Water

50g Rye Sour #1

226g Total

Rye Sour #3

290g Organic Rye Berries (freshly ground)

290g Water

226g Rye Sour #2

806g Total

Final Dough

580g Organic Rye Berries (freshly ground)

110g Bread Flour

476g Water

20g Kosher Salt

1 tsp ADY

806g Rye Sour #2

1996g Total

Instructions:

Evening of Day 1

6:50pm – Measure out ingredients for Rye Sour #1, grind rye berries, mix all in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, rest on counter.

11:50pm - Measure out ingredients for Rye Sour #2, grind rye berries, mix all in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, rest on counter.

Morning of Day 2

8:30am - Measure out ingredients for Rye Sour #3, grind rye berries, mix all in bowl, cover with plastic wrap, rest on counter.

11:45am - Measure out ingredients for final dough, grind rye berries, mix all in bowl with wooden spoon.  Do not touch this dough with your hands.  Just mix it well, and smooth it over with a wet spoon. Cover with plastic wrap, rest on counter. For 30 minutes.

12:15pm – Divide into 2 equal pieces.  Flour your work surface, shape into boule, place into linen lined banneton seam side down.  Proof for 1 hour.  Place 2 stones in oven on different levels, along with seam pan.  Preheat to 550F with convection.

1:15pm – Turn boules out onto lightly floured peel, dock if desired with chopstick or skewer, place in oven directly on stone.  When all loaves are in, add 1 cup of water to steam pan, close door, turn oven down to 480F, no convection, bake for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, rotate loaves, turn oven down to 410F.  Bake for another 60 minutes, rotating and switching loaves between stones halfway through.  Loaves are done when internal temp reaches 210F.  Cool loaves completely and let rest for 24 to 36 hrs before cutting.

Notes: I did not go through the 15-24hr fermentation for rye sour build #2 as per Hamelman's instructions.  My attempt was not very sour tasting, which for me is good.  Also, I should have let the loaf rest for the full 24 hrs before cutting.  It was a little gummy, but this was quickly resolved by toasting...  Also, I have the small iron hand crank mill that Gerard Rubaud uses to grind...

Last weekend I finally had time for baking, after a long and exhausting week. Continuing the exploration of Hamelman's book "Bread", I ventured into the Detmolder method section. I love ryes and I love a good challenge, so naturally the three-stage 90% rye had to be made. My rye starter is always very lively, but to my surprise, it was going out of control by the end of the third build. The final dough was a sticky mess; in fact, it resembled clay more than any sort of dough. Hamelman warns not to add more flour even if the dough is tacky. I stuck to his advice. This is what came out of the oven.

I waited a day before cutting into it to let the crumb set fully. This loaf was sweeter than any other rye I've made before. The crust was delectably crunchy and almost nutty. The crumb was dense, as could be expected of a 90% rye, yet moist and airy.

That same weekend I also made a whole wheat muligrain (pg.169). Hamelman recommends some grains, but leaves the choice largely up to the baker. I used a combination of wheat and rye berries, corn meal, millet, and sunflower seeds. The flavor was incredibly rich and deep, with a tender whole grain presence in the middle and a lingering sweet honey finish.

And finally, there was a Vermont sourdough (pg. 153), also delicious. The dough was a pleasure to work with. This book is a tremendous resource, I can't recommend it enough.

Hamelmans 3 Stage 90% Rye

Crumb and shell

This was a fun project for me. I have done the 3 stage Detmolder starter build before and I know the flavor will be incredible when I get to cut this open in 24 hours.

I followed the formula in the book closely including using Medium Rye for the final dough mix. The only place I deviated was using KA bread flour instead of a "hi gluten" flour. I'm out of first clear at the moment and that would have been my first choice. The starter build was whole rye.

I don't have a docking tool so I used my special "Docking Pencil" which has never failed me in the kitchen.

This bread was baked for 480F for 10 minutes then 1 hour at 410F. When I get to cutting and eating, I'll post a picture of the crumb.

Added by Edit:

I posted the picture of the crumb just now. OK, I cheated and it has only been 14 hours since it was baked. The crust (shell) of this loaf is very hard. If you dropped it on a bare foot, well it would hurt. The crust is inedible for me. The dog came back for seconds so maybe if you have great teeth you could eat the crust. I trimmed the hard part and ate the inside crumb and of course it was delicious. To me it looks under proofed and too dense. 

As I said above to Jane, my dough was very dry. I haven't been able to find an error in my transcription or conversion and I added a lot of extra water to get it where I thought it should have been. Maybe it was still to dry. Also, I see I did bake it to long. Hamelman says 1 hour if it scales at 2.5 Lbs. I divided a 3Lb 8 oz batch in half so it was over done by that standard.  

I put the now sliced loaf in a zip lock bag hoping it will soften some. "Archie" is hoping it doesn't! 

Eric