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Almost no oven spring for rye bread

dorcssa's picture
dorcssa

Almost no oven spring for rye bread

Hi all,

I am getting really frustrated with baking bread, as I get almost no oven spring for the last few weeks. I mostly use a rye starter (a bit over 100% hydration, otherwise it is just way too thick), and it doubles after feeding nicely, so I think it's pretty active. I had success before with making rye bread so I don't think it's my oven (I had some ok buns from wheat also, they rose a lot). My kitchen is around 21 degrees but maybe it was colder in the winter and spring, when I had better results? Most of the time the inside of the bread is pretty gummy and there are dense parts, it doesn't matter if it's 100% rye or part. 

I am using this recipe for a few bakes now: https://www.baking-sense.com/2019/08/01/sourdough-rye-bread/

I have tried to make it two different ways, once with a no knead overnight proof, where I mixed everything and let it ferment for 8 hours. The dough rose a lot, I could barely form it, it didn't hold its shape and stack everywhere. It did rise a bit. I suspected overproofing, so I fed the starter again, mixed everything and tried following the recipe more, with kneading (which was a pain as it was way too sticky) and stretch and folds. I didn't wait so much because it looked like it was getting airy much faster than the recipe said, but when I tried shaping it, it was still way too sticky. I hold its shape a bit better, but while I preheated the oven is spread out and when I slashed, deflated like the overproofed one and had even smaller oven spring. Although this time around the whole proofind and shaping took only 4 hours, and right after shaping the finger poke test told me it is not overproofed. 

Couple of things to mention.

Here in Denmark I can only buy whole grain rye, maybe it behaves differently than most recipes expect, but I feel like the dough is too wet after following instructions, shouldn't it be the other way around?

It is rare I see bread flour here and it is pretty expensive, so for the wheat I use normal, but it has 11% protein, so not that low. 

My oven has a fan and a hole in the back where the steam could go out, but as I said, I had success before, so I am not sure that is the problem. I have the same results usually with or without the fan on. 

Any insights or help is appreciated. 

AdamEyl's picture
AdamEyl

So, whole grains behave differently than "standard" white flours. There are 3 parts to the wheat berry, bran, germ, and endosperm. White flours are made from just the starchy endosperm. Whole wheat flours include the bran and germ. The bran is the important thing here, it's doesn't really soften or break down in a dough, it retains sharp edges that essentially cut up the gluten strands in your dough like razor blades as you knead. If you have a fine mesh sifter you could extract a large portion of the bran from your raw flour before mixing and you'd likely get a better result as far as rising and openness of crumb go. Personally, if I'm sitting out the bran on a loaf with a high percentage of whole grains then I like to roll my balled dough in it to encrust the outside. That way you can retain the wonderful flavor and nutritional properties of the bran while also getting a "better" performing loaf. 

The second thing going on here is that rye flour just has a low gluten content. Without getting into the specifics of different types of proteins contributing different characteristics to the dough depending on the specific rye flour that you're buying (as it sounds like your selection is pretty limited), it's just not going to rise like wheat flour based doughs if it's 100% rye. If you use a combination of rye and wheat flours, sifting them to remove bran, you could get loaves that rise better. The real fun is in changing those elements around and developing a recipe for a bread that's just right for you.

iwonder's picture
iwonder

Another newbie here--when you say, 'roll your balled dough in the sifted bran', does that mean at the start of BF when it's least fragile?  Will that mean you can't do regular stretch and folds or laminar folds for fear of incorporating the bran into the dough?  If I proof the dough in the fridge overnight, do you think the it could handle being rolled in bran when it comes out the next morning?

Just wondering what your experience is.  I love the idea and taste of the whole grain breads I make, but do wish they'd stand up a little better after shaping.

Thanks!

AdamEyl's picture
AdamEyl

I roll my dough balls in the bran after bulk fermentation and before proofing. So shape them, coat them, then let them proof, if you're going to incorporate the bran this way. I have a little spray bottle of water that I use to help the bran stick to the skin of the dough