The Greenstein-Snyder Gang returns to Alfanso's kitchen
Not to be confused with the Lansky-Luciano Gang.
I was okay at best with my first try at the Jewish Sour Rye bread the other day, and learned a lot. But I was anxious to get back Jack and Do It Again. And there were lessons learned, which I applied here.
I made the rye sour from some of the leftover ball of rye starter from the other day. 20g along with 375g rye and 375g water. One stage build - 5 1/2 hours to complete.
Lessons applied:
- 2 x 725g batards
- don't bother with the corn meal on the bottom - just gets messy
- Give these beasts plenty of room to grow for their proof
- have all my mise en place
- didn't bother with any alternate scoring
- bumped the amount of caraway seeds by ~50% (I like them!)
- didn't toss out the cornstarch glaze during baking so was able to apply final sheen.
Overall, I have to say that I am pleased with the improvement between the first try and this bake.
Note added the following morning: overnight the crust had significantly hardened. Yesterday and last night the crust was pliable and a bit leathery to the bite, but not now. This is the crust that I had hoped for soon after baking, but I had to wait for it to develop.
Here are the boys just after steam was released
And the final product
Comments
that is the way Jewish deli rye is supposed to look! If it tastes half as good as it looks you have some killer rye bread on your hands.
Well done and happy baking alfanso
Great looking ryes Alfanso. I like to put the caraway on the outside of the bread as well sometimes since I'm a big fan of caraway as well.
Regards,
Ian
Waiting for crumb photos and tasting notes ... somewhat patiently.
David
Thanks to all for your kind comments.
I wonder how much the caraway seeds affect the flavor, but the taste seems authentic. I like Ian's idea of putting the caraway seeds on the outside too.
As much as I love fresh bread, I really love toast, so I'm looking forward to breakfast tomorrow and getting a few slices into the toaster and crisping up the crust again. A little too soft for me right now, so I'll get it back in the oven to crisp it up for dinner tonight. Yes, we dine quite late, but only for the past 35 years.
I thought that maybe I'd ht the jackpot and get that crackled crust, but there must be some secret that's being withheld from us.
If they taste as good as they look, and I'm sure that they do, you have some killer bread there.
Paul
I love rye but I never tasted rye in this style...