The Fresh Loaf

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Hamelman's 40% rye

mantisory's picture
mantisory

Hamelman's 40% rye

Hi everyone, this is my first post and am hoping to spend a lot of time on this forum.

Anyway, I baked a 40% Rye sourdough from Hamelman's 'Bread', and for the life of me I can't figure out what is wrong with what I am doing. Of course, it's a very wet and sticky dough at the start, but through the stretch and folds the dough did develop nicely. After four of them (around 3 hours) I did a pre-shape and put the loaf into the banneton. I let it proof for only about 2 hours, because I am afraid of over-proofing it. The thing is, right from the word go, if I did a finer test, the dough never really sprang back at all. After a couple hours, same thing. Anyway, I baked the bread on a stone with steam at the beginning via the lava-rock method...And the load did not really have any oven spring either. I am attaching a picture of the baked product and of the crumb. I am at a lost to figure out what is going wrong...any suggestions? I figure for one that it could have used maybe 10 more minutes bake time but a tap on the bottom would indicate it is baked, so...go figure :)

Thanks for any help you can give. And btw, the bread tastes okay - nice and sour, relatively moist and chewy...just doesn't really look all that great...

Byron

 

loaf

crumb

bread1965's picture
bread1965

It could be your starter was weak? How did you prep the starter for the bread?

mantisory's picture
mantisory

The starter, as far as I can tell, is okay...it was nice and sour-smelling, and fairly glutinous that I could see. I prepared it last night following Hamelman's recipe - brought the weight up to ~230g as per the book...

It's a rye starter at 80% hydration that I've been maintaining for about a year. Daily routine is keep 50g, add 80g rye flour and 64g water.

Byron

mantisory's picture
mantisory

By the way, I halved the home recipe as there are only two of us at home ;)

Byron

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

with the loaf.  In fact, it looks very good!  

What were you expecting? 

Perhaps more upper volume?  That might have to do with the amount of dough in the banneton, a narrower smaller deeper banneton might give the look you're after.  Just like pan size affects the outcome of cakes, banneton size can affect the final shape of the loaf.  You could try rolling a floured towel and placing around the inside edge of the banneton to make it deeper and smaller and see if that helps. 

Closer observation combined with comments like no spring, tasted sour, etc, and a tight crumb to one side, does make me think it could have been too close to over-proofing.  Might try a shorter stay in the banneton or eliminating the last of the folding sessions.  As rye increases in the dough, less handling is suggested when comparing to other wheat/rye doughs.   

mantisory's picture
mantisory

Good to know, thanks. I suppose I was expecting a bit more rise but then, to think of it, I didn't follow the recipe exactly - I subbed in a small amount of rye flour and a bit of whole wheat too for the final mix. This of course would have lessened the rise as well...duh!

Anyway, thanks again.

Byron

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

For a fairly high rye content, that looks quite nice. You're bound to get a more regular crumb with 40% rye in the mix than with an all-wheat sourdough. If it tastes good, then that's all that really matters. :)

mantisory's picture
mantisory

Thanks, yeah, it does taste pretty good :)

B

Elagins's picture
Elagins

That's a very fine looking crumb. When you bake with rye -- even when the percentage is below 50%, expect to lose spring and see a tighter crumb. Your loaf has what I consider an ideal crumb for a 40% rye .... so don't fret, enjoy the bread and bake some more!!!

Stan Ginsberg
www.nybakers.com
theryebaker.com

Ru007's picture
Ru007

I think it looks really good. Well done! 

I've made a 40% rye loaf before, and I've learned its all about managing expectations with rye. 

Great job :)

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

of some pastrami and a pickle!  40% rye is my favorite deli rye and this one looks fine.  I'm with Mini, a different basket will make a lot of difference too.  

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

of some pastrami and a pickle!  40% rye is my favorite deli rye and this one looks fine.  I'm with Mini, a different basket will make a lot of difference too.  

mantisory's picture
mantisory

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I suppose I just expected more oven lift, but those expectations weren't really based on anything. Now that I have seen more loaves based on that recipe I am feeling better :)

Byron