Help! Galacian Rye recipe
Hi everyone,
I've baked an 85% hydration Galacian rye (https://leitesculinaria.com/107405/recipes-galician-rye-bread.html?unapproved=644640&moderation-hash=03d3364121f9d944a203b9fee8957386#comment-644640)
the first couple of times were successful, but the last 2 times the crust has gone seriously awry and I can't work out what error I've introduced. It is all cracked up and open all over; no blow outs. Its quite crisp, but a bit brittle and not great looking. The inside is fine and it remains delicious
In contrast to the recipe, I cooked under a la cloche dome for 30mins before removing the lid. I did this is earlier, successful versions as well though.
The flours are a German roggenmehl 1150 (protein not given) and strong UK bread flour at 13.4g protein.
The dough feels fine and shapes wells and doesn't spread out too much. But it look torn. Is this a strength problem? Have I been too rough with the final dough and damaged the gluten? too much bench flour? An oven spring problem?
I'm currently stumped. Any ideas greatly appreciated.
thanks all
A
I have had the gluten cloak tear like this when I over-tightened it during final shaping. However, with that said, you bread crust looks pretty darn great: crisp and brittle are often considered desirable characteristics in a bread crust. Looking at the comment thread for the recipe I see a wide range of crust types, and the admin says the bread is different every time.
With that said, if you want the crust to stay smooth and unbroken perhaps you could try tightening it less in the final shaping, and spraying it heavily with water right before covering and baking it. Those steps may help the gluten cloak to stretch and expand to accommodate the oven spring, rather than tearing.
Another alternative would be to score it, if you want a tidy-looking loaf rather than the rustic bloom you have now.
I've been resisting reaching for the lame as the earlier rustic versions of this one looked great.
I think overtightening might be it. The earlier ones I think I worked quicker as I'm still practicing high hydration.
I'll give less tightening next time. I'd not thought about spraying it as I was using a la cloche. Great tip! I'll try that too!
Thanks!
and I thought "Oo, lovely high rye."
Cracking of the skin is very RYE. It does look a little light in color but cameras and lighting are probably to blame.
Dont quite understand "...a bit brittle and not great looking." Hmmmm.
That is reassuring. I've not done a lot of rye but have had some experience of cracking in higher rye percentages. I thought maybe the bread flour would counteract it as it seemed to in the earlier efforts which cracked a little but not as much.
It was lighter than expected. This rye I'm using seems a bit lighter than others I've used. Maybe I'll bake it a bit darker.
And embrace the cracks!
Thank you
I also like the rustic look of loaves like this, but since I've read working with rye has some challenges, scoring might help. A quick check on this site found a couple previous questions related to cracking with working with rye loaves: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/42180/help-rye-bread-cracks-while-cooking and http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19340/rye-bread-crust-question-experts
Hope you find some helpful information there!
I will try scoring just to see but am a fan of rustic look as well. I often don't score and bake seam side up for that reason. This one just cracked a lot more than the previous versions.
Thanks for the links. Hopefully some more in there.
Thanks