How to make Tzitzel bread? Can I adapt the Greenstein corn rye recipe?
I have been trying lately to recreate a bread that I ate as a child. It was called Tzitzel and was made by a local Jewish baker, Pratzels, in University City - a suburb of St. Louis. I have so far made 5 attempts - 4 with sourdough starters and 1 with yeast only. I am a relatively new bread baker, so I'm not sure I have the vocabulary to describe what I think these attempts lack, but I'll try. My first attempt was a bread that I made with the no knead method using two to one white flour to rye, and some whole wheat sourdough starter. What made this similar to the original was the texture (rather than the taste) which was a coarse and uneven crumb. All the attempts after that have had a fairly dense and even crumb. The tastiest by far (and the closest in taste) was my attempt at the Greenstein corn rye recipe that I found posted on this site. So the thought might be to try to adapt Greenstein to a no knead method, but I really can't even figure out how to do that, since it is raised in water in less than an hour, and only kneaded for a few minutes. BTW, I did contact Pratzels which is still in business, and still making Tzitzel - although I don't live close enough to buy it from them anymore. The owner did tell me that their starter is almost 100 years old, and that their Tzitzel is "just" a Jewish rye wrapped in cornmeal. It seems to me that once you get a decent starter, it really doesn't matter how old it is, so I'm not sure if this is material, but of course, I'm still trying to duplicate their recipe. Any thoughts on how I might make a coarse and uneven crumb rye bread and even better, if you have had the original at Pratzels, how to duplicate their Tzitzel?