Fun with fermented rye
This is one of those bakes that sort of comes together by accident. I had soaked some rye grains a while back, planning on using them in a pumpernickel, but it turned out I had soaked too much grain, so I drained the remainder and let them sit for a day. They sprouted (as they do), and I stuck the bowl in the fridge, planning on 'doing something' with them later. By the time I remembered to pull the bowl out a couple of days later they had mostly malted (i.e. they had a tangle of little rootlets along with the tiny sprouts). I could have toasted them and made some red rye malt, but instead I decided to try something I'd been thinking of for a while - fermenting them. I soaked them in about half kombucha and half water, then covered (to keep out the pesky fruit flies) and let them sit at room temperature again for a day or two, then cooked them for around 20 minutes. They ended up tender and very, very fragrant!
The other thing I wanted to try was to make a formula for a poolish bread that could be made in one day. That meant pre-fermenting a fairly high percentage of the flour in a poolish for a shorter period of time. I used a blend of bread flour, whole wheat and whole rye flour, and threw in some raisins (and a bit of spices) just because I felt like it.
The dough was really beautiful, coming together quickly and developing very nice gluten and structure.
After about three stretch & folds on a wet counter, I put it into an oiled container to ferment.
It only took about an hour to nearly double, with a lovely dome. It was pillowy and soft.
After a pre-shape and short rest, I popped it into the bannetons. It proofed quite quickly, taking me by surprise, and the oven wasn't quite ready so I think it over-proofed just a touch.
There wasn't a lot of oven spring but it was still decent, holding its shape well and expanding somewhat.
And the crumb is very nice! Creamy and moist, and very tasty for a fairly quick bread. The grains almost disappeared into the dough which isn't too surprising considering all the soaking, sprouting, fermenting and cooking they went through! I'm glad I put the raisins in; they're a nice touch. :)
I don't think I'll make quite this same bread again, what with all that work for the grains, but I will probably make it again with a different cooked (and possibly fermented) grain porridge.
Comments
Beautiful! Love the idea of the fermented sprouted grains. I have to try a version soon.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards
Ian
Yes, so many good ideas and so little time, right? Same way I really must try one of your cream cheese loaves 'soon'. :)
I am exhausted just thinking about it! Well done Lazy Loafer, a great bake indeed.
Leslie
Not too much work, actually. More a lot of trying something and then forgetting what I was going to do next! Fortunate neglect, is perhaps the right term. :)
Like the idea of taking the sprouted rye berries a step further to ferment them. Do you have a picture of the cooked and dry rye sprouts? How much moisture is left in the sprouts? Are they mixed all together in the final dough? I may give this a try. Thanks for sharing!
They turned out very nice - not mushy like a porridge but plump and soft, and still separate. I didn't really dry them before incorporating them into the dough, just drained off the excess water and then left them in a covered bowl in the fridge. I get frustrated with rye berries sometimes. Soaking them doesn't seem to soften them much at all, and even when cooked they sometimes end up like little bits of flint in the bread. This was probably a bit over the top, but turned out nice!
breads - you also invariably make me laugh with your stories of "how the bake came to be"! I currently have the best visual of a quite frustrated and determined baker glaring at a bowl of rye berries with the thought balloon: "soaking didn't work, cooking didn't work - darn it, I'll ferment the buggers!"
You do realize, of course, that you are totally decimating the fairy tale perpetrated by all of the "master bakers" of how deliberate and scientific all baking decisions are, and how meticulous planning and measuring is imperative to any kind of success when baking ;-) You seem to have a knack for taking the random oops and turning them in to experiments and then wonderfully successful bakes. Love it!
That crumb truly is luscious, but I can see why the overall approach seems like a bit too much work for a regular thing. How did the fermenting affect the flavour? Is there enough of a difference to justify doing the full-out fermentation (say, for a pumpernickel), or is the difference more in the texture? Is there fermentation in my future, along with sprouting and malting???
Thanks for bringing so much joy to my day, as usual - and hope that you and yours are well and enjoying the autumn!
Best, Laurie
I think you know me too well already! And I love your posts too - you are always so chatty and informative; it's like sitting down at the kitchen table with a good friend and a cup of tea!
You should see me on my regular baking, actually. It seems like half the time I forget what I'm making, or how many loaves, or I leave out an ingredient and have to try and add it back in later. The old mind wanders, you know?
I think the fermenting gave a bit of a sour flavour to a non-sourdough bread, which was nice for this bread. I wanted more flavour, given that the dough itself was fermented fairly quickly. Fermenting the rye berries for a pumpernickel would be lovely, I think. I'm not sure that the sprouting / malting step added too much to it, other than softening the grains more. I will try fermenting some other grains before cooking them into porridge and see how that goes.
Thanks Laurie. Stay warm in your half-summer, half-winter Cowtown weather!
Are rapidly reaching the top of my to do list... Bookmarking this for future reference... Thanks a lot for your interesting boundary pushing bakes.
I'm not sure I'm pushing boundaries so much as forgetting where they are supposed to be! And maybe making up for previous mistakes. :)
I love reading your posts and I am definitely bookmarking this! I have a friend that is supposed to give me a scoobie (scoby) (can't remember the right word for it) and this is something I really would like to try!
Maybe the next step for your lovely porridge breads, eh? :)
"Scoobie" made me laugh. :D I think it's a SCOBY (symbiotic combination of bacteria & yeast); basically the same thing as sourdough culture only fed on tea and sugar instead of flour. I'd send you one (I grow a new one every week or ten days), but I'm not sure it would survive the post. :) Anyway, between kombucha, kefir and sometimes yogourt it's pretty easy to find something fermenting around this house (not to mention beer, wine, sourdough and yeast water).
I made this today and even though I forgot the spices was thrilled with the result. Converted to all sourdough for my usual community bake. Flour used (5 loaves) was 1465g white Wholegrain Milling organic white, 200g WMC organic stoneground wholewheat, 80g rye flour. Starter was mature rye starter. Rye grain soaked from Monday arvo until Tuesday night just until signs of the merging radical (sprout) then into a jar filled with water and 1/4 cup water kefir added. Fermentation kicked off virtually straight away. I didn't cook the fermented grain as it was nice and soft with a very sweet flavour. Raisins were soaked for about an hour in boiling water, drained and the liquid used as part of the water content. Spices........well next time! Thanks for the lead.