Rye Sourdough, tacky/sticky, and 'Room Temperature'
Hi all,
I'm hesitant to post as I'm certain that my questions have been answered elsewhere on the 'net, however I'll ask anyway...
I've been carefully working away at my very first starter, with the intention of making a 100% rye loaf. It's winter here, and the starter has taken a while to get moving; now it looks good, and over the weekend I decided to take a shot at making something with it. I used the 100% sourdough rye recipe in Peter Reinhart's Bread Bakers Apprentice, as this was one of only two or three recipes that didn't mix wheat into the rye flour (this is important for us).
At the end of the baking, my first two loaves resembled, well, heavy projectiles with a solid crumb and no rise until they went into the oven. I figure that the writing was on the wall, as the first ferment (barm into firm starter as per the recipe) and second ferment (starter into final dough) had no real rise occuring.
I see two questions presenting, that I'd love to get some experienced advice on!
- first, many receipes suggest 'room temperature' for water, standing dough for fermenting, etc. Our house temperature is around 60 degrees F, and I suspect it's too low to qualify for fermenting and the water temperature. Should I be raising the temperature of water going into the dough, and is there a particular temperature that you'd suggest I aim for to encourage good rising/fermentation?
- secondly, recipes suggest that dough be sticky or tacky at the early stages, but I'm not quite sure I'm able to recognize or distinguish these states yet. Are there any online videos/pictures that might highlight what these mean - especially for a rye dough?
Thanks so much for any help you can provide a budding baker! :)