The Fresh Loaf

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104% Hydration 100% Rye Pumpernickel

WoodenSpoon's picture
WoodenSpoon

104% Hydration 100% Rye Pumpernickel

  • 300g Dark Rye (48%)
  • 300g Pumpernickel Flour (48%)
  • 52g Rye Levain (4% Rye 4% Water)
  • 157g Cracked Rye (25%)
  • 40g Rye Berries (6%)
  • 626g Water (100%)
  • 13g Salt (2%)

Two days before starting this bread I started keeping my chef at room temp and refreshing until it was super active. On the evening I mixed I combined all the ingredients but the salt and let sit for an hour, then I added the salt and mashed it up until the salt was evenly distributed. After mixing with a spoon for 30 seconds or so I packed the paste into my pullman pan and smoothed the top with a wet bowl scraper kind of making the edges a little lower then the middle. Then I put the cover in the pullman and went to sleep.

13 hours later the paste had roughly doubled and was gently put in a 380 degree oven and baked for an hour. Then I turned the oven down and continued baking for five hours first at 300 for a half hour, then 275 for a half hour, then 265 for three hours then 245 for a half hour and finally 230 for a half hour.

At this point the loaf temped 210 in the middle and I turned the oven off  and allowed the loaf to cool with the oven for an hour and a half, then I removed it from the pan and let it continue cooling before wrapping it in a clean towel and putting in in a paper bag for a bit over 24 hours.

I just cut into it and the taste is great, like molasses and caramal and deep dark rye flavors. The aroma matches the flavor with all the spicy sweet that you'd expect from a good naturally fermented rye.

Comments

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

Very,very nice outcome!  I am impressed.  Also impressed by the long bake time.  I tried that once but was too hard to fit into my day - to be around at critical times so I had to find another solution which did not include a WFO  :*)

Thanks for sharing and showing how easy one of these loaves can be to mix and bake.  Just stir everything up and do a lot of waiting :*)  

Take Care,

Janet

WoodenSpoon's picture
WoodenSpoon

I had to dedicate the day to it for sure, but it wasn't so different from being around for autolyses and stretch and folds and bulk/proof and the like. An easy way to spend a day off. Doing it in a WFO would really be tops though. 

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

If you want to shorten times, I just nailed down times that work in my oven with the help of TFLers where in the crust does not burn and a lot of the moisture does bake out of the crumb.  I now bake at 350° for 90 minutes covered.  Remove cover and bake a further 15 minutes followed by 15 more minutes at 325°.  My oven is convection so in a conventional oven the temps. would be 25° higher.

Janet

SCruz's picture
SCruz

Beautiful.

I've been wanting to try a bread like this. I don't understand the levain, 4% water/4%rye. Do you mean it's a 100% hydration levain?

WoodenSpoon's picture
WoodenSpoon

Yes indeed, it was a 100% hydration starter and with a total of 52 grams it is comprised of 26g rye flour and 26g water and 26g is 4% of the total flour weight.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

pumpernickel  loaf WS.  It has to taste great.  This is one of Lucy's favorite breads, but she bakes it lower, slower and longer.

Well done and happy baking

WoodenSpoon's picture
WoodenSpoon

I would of dug lower, slower and way longer, but living in a house with a fair number of housemates, evenly split utilities and a shared kitchen makes six or so hours at a crack just about all I could probably get away with.

bakingbadly's picture
bakingbadly

*Tear drop*

So beautiful... Really, really glad to read that your efforts were rewarded with excellent bread. True pumpernickels require lots of time in the oven and you did it (presumably) with a domestic oven! I'm highly impressed.

Zita

pmccool's picture
pmccool

The aroma from a rye bread like yours is heavenly, isn't it?

A question for you: is there something in the flour quantities that I'm missing?  They don't seem to add up to 100%.

Paul

WoodenSpoon's picture
WoodenSpoon

Thanks, and that smell is outstanding! I think the flours should add up to 100% I calculated in the flour in the levain as opposed to counting the levain as its own separate ingredient.

 

Kiseger's picture
Kiseger

stunning loaf, another beauty you've made!  I keep adding your loaves to my list, still looking for a good source of dark rye in London, am really inspired by your talent.  Your house must smell like my idea of food heaven!!