My rye bread tastes very bland.
Hello,
I'm very new to bread baking. I've started two sourdough starters, in the meantime, I'm practising with commercial yeast. Yesterday I made a rye bread recipe from James Peterson's "Baking" book. The wet dough was very difficult to work. The final product looked nice, but it tasted very bland. I'm wondering if there was enough salt in the recipe, or if there is something else I should be adding? The recipe called for:
2 1/2 cups organic rye flour
2 1/2 cups AP flour
2 cups plus 1 TB barely warm water
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
Half of the flour plus water and yeast is made into a sponge and the salt is incorporated into the sponge (very different from some other recipes online that call for salt to be added after). I realize because the recipe doesn't give weight measurements (my one criticism of this otherwise helpful book), I may have added too much flour. But is there another reason why my bread tasted bland? I'm disappointed but didn't expect my first attempt at rye to be perfect:) It was good practice for me to try the stretch and fold method that I learned from Reinhart's book...I just wish it had more flavour!
Thank you,
Mira