Cold rye soaker
Hi,
recently I talked to my rye pusher complaining that several soakers done with hot water didn't come out sweet, or at least not as sweet as I remembered from previous occasions. He told me that if not done properly the temperature of the water may denaturate the enzymes and make more harm than good; he invited me to do the soaker with salt and room temperature water. Salt is needed to stop every kind of fermentation and supposedly -even in large quantities- it doesn't minimally affect amylase. Soaking time should last between 12 and 24 hours.
I followed his advice and wow, it really worked great! I did my usual rye bread with this formula:
-soaker with 4 gr of salt, 180 gr of r.t. water and 150 of rye flour - 24 hours
-poolish with 15 gr of starter, 180 of r.t. water and 150 of rye flour - 24 hours
-dough with 6 gr of salt and 200 of rye flour
-10 minutes at 250°, 40 minutes at 200°, rest in the oven until cooled.
The bread came out really sweet, even sweeter than all breads made previously without a very long baking, even a touch darker. Next time I'll add all the salt to the soaker.
I knew that this tehnique would sweeten the bread somehow, but not that it would work at the same extent as a soaker with how water.
Sometimes things work out better when they are easy:-)