Berliner Landbrot - The Rye Baker
This is rye week (I typically bake once a week, alternating between rye and Hamelman's 100% workday whole wheat), so I made this https://theryebaker.com/berlin-ryeberliner-landbrot/, adding caraway seeds and scallions, just because I like them.
I'm on a 3-week run of tight crumbs, which I would like to break. But this doesn't look too bad compared to the photo at the website. And I did use all medium rye instead of the 30% white rye in the recipe; I also used the 10% AP flour in the recipe, trying to finish off some old supermarket cheap bleached AP flour that has been hanging around in the pantry way too long.
And it tastes delicious, great with lox or cheese. I miss ordering bagels in Spanish at the nearby Brueggers, but the whole grain bread is healthier and is just as good with lox.
Louis- I don’t think a tight crumb is really an issue so long as the bread has a nice consistency. A lot of the whole grain breads that I have made have usually been quite dense if they have a high percentage of whole grain. I think you have reached the goal of making much healthier bread that tastes really good. Also, I think rye breads are typically closer-grained. That is probably a characteristic of the grain.
As for bagels, I really recommend making them, unless you have a really good bagel shop nearby. Even if you do, they are fun to make. https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/70118/my-bread-log I don’t think that the Brueggers chain makes particularly good bagels.
I like/love them both way too much. But I need to focus on whole grains for health reasons; sometimes you can find whole wheat bagels, not always and they aren't great.
Bruegger's at least boils their bagels; EInstein Bros steams them, which I realized the first time I bit into one. There might be a better bagel bakery in the area (San Diego), but Bruegger's is 3 blocks away.
For me, making bagels is more of a PITA, and I don't want to buy any more ingredients like the malt syrup for boiling.
That looks scrumptious!
This recipe is one of my faves and I've baked it many times. I wouldn't worry about the slightly tight crumb. It's meant to be a pretty dense bread -- though my experience is slightly skewed because I've always made it with whole rye. That might also explain why I've always gotten a bit more emphatic caramelizing and scarification on the top.
I'm sure yours has great flavor. Enjoy!
Rob