rye bread

First I should say that this bread is around as Russian as I am, which is maybe some.  Months ago, I bookmarked Lief's interpretaton of Breadnik's interpretation of Russian Coriander Rye.   This is my interpretation.   Original posts are here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/18561/breadnik039s-russian-coriander-rye-levain and here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/keyword/russian-corianderrye.    I followed Lief in going with a purely levain version, and used the same ingredients (mostly) albeit in different proportions.   And also modified the times by a lot.   It's cooling on the counter now, so I don't know how it will taste, but the smell (as always with rye) is heavenly.   It's also a treat to cook with coriander, which fills the kitchen with a marvelous aroma when it's crushed.  This dough is very high hydration (95%) and fairly high proportion of rye (60%) but actually quite easy to work with.   Here is my formula and method:

A few notes about this:   I don't really understand what dark rye is.   Is it  just another way to say whole rye, or actually a different grain?  I've never baked with this before.    I used Sir Lancelot for the high gluten flour.   I wonder if this is what made the dough so easy to work with, even with the high hydration and the high rye content.   I fermented the first build of the starter overnight, and then the second for 6 hours.   Four hours after the second elaboration it looked like this:  

This looked plenty fermented but it still had what I would term a fresh grassy smell.   Two hours later, the fresh smell was gone, but it hadn't really switched to a ripe sour one either.   So I probably could have let this go a little longer, but it did seem to have plenty of rising power.    I baked in a Dutch Oven which I don't usually do, not because the dough was so slack (it wasn't) but just because I was baking a boule, and it's a little easier to skip all the steaming and so forth.   Now I'm just waiting for breakfast.

And the crumb:

This is a very highly flavored bread.   The coriander alone makes you sit up and notice. I thought with 7 grams it would be hardly perceptible.  Crust is crunchy and overall bread texture is substantial but not heavy.    This is quite delicious and certainly a change from the ryes I've been making.    Next time I might decrease the sweeteners.   

It's been quite a while since I've made a rye bread, and I've been missing it. I've been admiring the ryes other TFL members have been making, especially those with a very high percentage of rye. I've also noted the comments about the special sweet flavors reported when hot rye soakers or mashes have been included.

This weekend, I made Hamelman's “80% Rye with a Rye-flour Soaker” from “Bread.” This is the first time I've made a bread with over 70% rye flour and the first time I've used a hot rye soaker. The results were just astonishing. This is my new favorite rye bread.

I proofed the loaves seam side down, so the seam side was up when the breads baked. I did not score or dock the loaves but let them “burst” willy nilly. As occurred the last time I did this, I'd sealed the seams too well, and the loaves didn't burst as much as I'd hoped. None the less, I got really good oven spring, and the loaves had a high profile when sliced.

After the loaves were baked and cooled, I wrapped them in a spare raw linen couche for about 24 hours before slicing. The crust had softened and was nice and chewy. The crumb was pretty much as expected.

The flavor was notably sweet but with a nice tang and earthy rye flavor. It is delicious just plain and made a wonderful sandwich with smoked turkey breast. I'm anticipating great enjoyment when I have some with cream cheese and smoked salmon for breakfast tomorrow.

David

Well, I had some good luck this past weekend.  It seems that I'm in Krakow at the perfect time of year:  the 2010 Bread Festival was in full swing.

You can read my short piece here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/820336/dan_suchocki.html

Here are some pictures:

Baked 2 different breads, taking up the Hamelman's challenge, one quite successful and the other,  just had too many mistakes.  You will understand what I mean when you look at the pictures.

Cheese Bread with quite a bit of modification to the recipe.  Great oven spring, still learning to score to get the ears.  Not enough cheese,  quite an open crumb,  thin crust,  and 100% sourdough only.   check out the details here.

Flaxseed Bread - too many mistakes here,  and this didn't turn out well at all.  Taste was ok, but it was dense and it didn't have much oven spring.  

1.    This was my 3rd loaf (not counting my other bakes like muffins and flatbread) on a weekend,  and its one of the more difficult ones.   2.    Warm water for the flaxseed.  My water was still warm when I added into the flax seed.  I think that creates the gluey form more. 3.    Use of olive oil to handle the dough, the smell and taste doesn't seem to go together 4.    Brushing with butter - it made the rolls soft,  and not at all what I was hoping for. 5.    Shaping my rolls created a hole in the roll,  should have done better than that. 6.    Not allowing time for the dough to rise properly. 7.    I don't think I baked long enough or I didn't let it cool properly before I kept it,  as it turned moldy after 5 days.  

Well,  I still have  a lot to learn. 

Hello all!!

Has anybody ever tried to make the recipe at the back of the package of Rogers Rye flour??

Well, I am making it right now, it's on its first rise. As always there is something wrong with my dough, it was very very super wet, the recipe calls for 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups of white flour in addition to the 3 cups of rye flour. Although the recipe does not call for sifting the flour prior to measuring, I did it, (for the first time, I took the time to sift the flours). By the way I used 3 1/2.

I have no idea if the pre-sifting has anything to do with this disaster, but after mixing all the ingredients I was ready to start kneading, and as I said the dough was waaaay too wet, it was all stuck to my hands and to the table, there was no way I was able to form a ball, after kneading for 5 min I decided to add more WF, I ended up using about 2 cups more and still the dough was super sticky I had to lift it with the scraper 'cause it would not leave my hands and the board, Anyway I put it to rest I don't know what the final product is going to be like, so in the mean time why is this happening to me I mean why is the dough so so so wet?

did this happen to any of you as well.

Thanks

I made these today with a chef.  This recipe was meant to go into a bread machine,  which of course,  the machine is me.  I made this all by hand. I tried 2 things today.  1 was to cover the loaf with a claypot to bake,  and another stay in the claypot to bake.  Of course it turned out that the one that stayed in the claypot got a nicer crust - golden brown.

But somehow with this formula,  the bread didn't rise too much,  I might have overproof it - 1 1/2 hours.  Went out for supper during that time,  by the time I got back, the dough looks more than ready.  The one with the claypot covered had a little more rise,  as I baked it immediately after I return.  Here it is:

The one that goes into the claypot,  didn't rise much. Just a little jutting up from the top that I score.  

Both were not as crispy as I like....I still do not have baking stone....sigh....I can't find it in China yet....can someone send me one?!....  But the inside is chewy, soft,  and the taste is a little more salty - I don't know if this is because of the salt I added or the chef that was quite well fermented....weather was good over here in Shanghai...warming up...

The crumbs are well spread out,  not a lot of holes. And the 2 loaves have slightly different taste,  somehow the boule turns out to be less salty,  why?  perhaps I left it overnight in the fridge,  it had absorb what ever is in the dough.

I guess I can say this is a pass?...

Jenny

www.foodforthoughts.jlohcook.com

I cooked a 10 pound corned beef today and we had a New England boiled dinner. It's my start of the St. Patrick's holiday meals. Tomorrow will be the corned beef sandwiches on the Rye below. I have made this Deli style Rye a hundred times and just about every time I swear I ruined it and don't expect it to spring in the oven. When I open the door and see that nice puffy brown loaf I can smell the caraway and I just know I beat the odds one more time. That's the thing about rye, especially really sour rye that sat on the counter for 24 hours and the fridge for 2 days. It's been hectic around here and I didn't get to it when I had planned.This is evidence that even ugly bread can be delicious. I don't know WHAT I was thinking when I slashed  these two. It certainly wasn't baking. These have a poppy seed and large crystal salt topping.

One loaf will go to my son along with a care package of a couple pounds of meat and potatoes/carrots. I think  I need to go down to his apartment and bang some pans today to check for survivors from last night.

Eric

Last week nicodvb posted his most recent trial of 100% Rye flour bread. He declared it as good so I thought I would try it out and see if I could follow his steps.

I did stray off the green line just a wee bit when I used boiling coffee to scald the rye the night before. I also added some rye meal and some boiled rye berries that had been rinsed and strained after a 30 minute softening on the stove. And I just couldn't help myself from adding 2 T of German bread spice. So my version is a little darker than nico's due to the coffee.

There was so much going around the house today that I missed the step where he covers the dough for the first 20 minutes. I gave it an extra steam injection to help move the bar in the right direction. It smelled wonderful during baking. Rye has a deep full healthy smelling aroma when baking. I checked the internal temp once at 45 minutes and found 160F so I gave it an additional 15 minutes at 350F.

My loaf doesn't look as pretty as nicodvb's but let me tell you, it is tasty. A very sweet and full flavor. I think once the moisture settles down it will be perfect but slightly dense. Thanks nico for posting your results.

Eric

Proofed and ready to bake.

Just out of the oven. It isn't as dark on the top as this.

The crumb is a little dense, but delicious never the less.