WGB - 68% Rye Hearth Bread
I just got done making Reinhart's 68% Rye Hearth Bread, and I wanted to ask if anyone else has tried this and whether they had similar results. The bread is pretty dense, and has a great flavor. However, the description of the dough is very different from what he describes in his book, and I am wondering if I am doing something wrong:
- The starter is described as "tacky" after 5 minutes of hydration and some light kneading. I found the starter to be more of a paste and the only way I could reasonably handle it was using a plastic spatula, kneading by repeated folding and squishing.
- The final dough is described as "coming together in a ball," "cohesive," "soft and slightly sticky," and "passing the windowpane test." This was definitely not true of my final dough. The dough was more paste-like in consistency, for the most part impossible to shape, and I basically had to use gravity to do all of my shaping work (I let it proof in a parchment-lined bowl and then plopped it onto my hot stone for baking.
I used the optional vital wheat gluten for this recipe and I was very surprised at how little it did for the consistency of the dough. The dough did not stick to itself and is not like any dough I have experienced. That said, the loaf I made came out pretty nicely, if a bit flat (about 4" tall) with a dense crumb. So I am not dissatisfied with the recipe, but do feel like my dough in no way resembled what he describes in his book. I am using Hodgson Mill stone ground rye flour and Arrowhead Mill stone ground whole wheat flour for this recipe.
Here are the amounts in the recipe for anyone who doesn't happen to have this particular recipe but may have experience with rye breads. One thing I will note is that I used all rye in the final dough (he gives an option to add rye or wheat) which puts the percentage up around 80%. It looks like if you use all wheat in this step you get somewhere around 65%.
Soaker:
- 113 g whole wheat flour
- 113 g whole rye flour
- 4 g salt
- 170 g water
- 7 g vital wheat gluten
Starter:
- 71 g rye mother starter
- 213 g whole rye flour
- 170 g water
Final Dough
- 408 g Soaker / 454 g Starter
- 85 g whole rye flour
- 5 g salt
- 7 g instant yeast
- 14 g honey
- 14 g unsalted butter