The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

First try at 50% Rye 100% Sourdough Leavened 500g Batards

dciolek's picture
dciolek

First try at 50% Rye 100% Sourdough Leavened 500g Batards

Some things went right, some went wrong -- but the crumb and sourdough flavor were outstanding...

1) 100% sourdough starter leavening built from fridge to active starter in three stages 25g to 50g to 100g to 200g over 36 hours.

2) 70% hydration with 50% fresh homeground Ohio organic rye in the flour bill.  Starter was 20% of total loaf and all white at 100% hydration.

3) 30 minute autolyze (without salt), add salt and kitchen aid knead for 6 minutes, 4 hour bulk ferment, shape and into the fridge overnight to retard and develop flavor.

4) Out of the fridge in the morning to proof at room temp until doubled, another 6 hours or so.

5) Bake at 550 for 10 minutes in an aluminum foil sealed tall full size pan -- with 6 ice cubes to steam.

6) Remove foil, bake at 475 for another 10 minutes -- inside of loaf to 205 degrees.

Crumb is soft and silky, flavor great from the long retarding -- but I think I oversteamed it (weird looking bubbly crust) and it didn't achieve good color development before the internal temps were top of range.  The oven spring was limited even though the loaf was very light and spongy in the end -- maybe it grew too much during bulk and proofing to not have much left. 

Am happy with the flavor and it looks great on the bias cut -- but I feel there is more to optimize here.  Any recommendations?

Batards

Batards

BakersRoom's picture
BakersRoom

For one, you could use higher hydration.  For a 50% whole grain loaf, I'd probably go for in the 80-85 range, or maybe even a little higher.  

4 hours of bulk sounds like a lot for 20% innoculation, but it could be okay if you baked it straight from the fridge.  Try that instead of letting the dough double.  You see, the dough doesn't 'double' in the fridge because its too stiff from being cold, but if its properly fermented before you put it in, it will proof just fine in the fridge before the yeast get too cold to be active.  I think you are overproofing by leaving it out for 6 hours, when its probably done already. 

dciolek's picture
dciolek

Hydration!  Of course -- I had been using the exact same hydration percentage I used for my all white bread flour recipe, and I should have recalled that whole grain rye flour needs more and has a stickier gluten.  Although I'm nervous about what an 85% hydration dough would be like to handle/knead -- will give it a try and lean on the bench scraper and slap and fold with messy hands. :)

Regarding bulk and proof times -- I will admit I was targeting 10 hours total only because I was looking at a sourdough rise time chart I have for pizza dough (a completely different animal in hindsight).  Will try cutting the bulk and proof in half (2 hours bulk, 3 hours proof) and see how much they rise during the proof.  Maybe will use a benchmark at all room temp and then figure out how to add retarding in the fridge to the workflow.

dciolek's picture
dciolek

Try #2:  I took the hydration to 85%, 30 minute autolyze, 6 minute "assisted" KitchenAid kneading (used scraper on outside edge of bowl to push the wet mass into the dough hook for better folding action), rest 10 min, 3 stretch and folds 15 minutes apart, 2 hour bulk rise not waiting to "double", shape, proof 3 hours, bake with oven steam to 205 internal temp.

The result: less rise, less oven spring, similar but softer crumb and less sourdough flavor since no retarding overnight.  The stretch and folds were performed in a full size serving tray coated with olive oil to keep the stickiness down, so it definitely absorbed some oil which contributed along with the extra water to the softer/moister crumb.

Was reading that rye needs good acidification (sourdough's LAB action) to improve the swelling power of the pentosans that are prevalent in rye flour and to partly inactivate the amylase to avoid impairing normal crumb formation.  So I think the overnight retarding of the dough favors that LAB action over yeast enough in order to be helpful.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/food-science/rye-flour

Next time, I will keep the higher hydration and shorter bulk ferment, but add back the overnight rest after a longer room temp proof until it achieves good volume on the shaped loaves before going to the fridge, then bake it straight from the oven.