September 3, 2009 - 3:12am
Cooking rye bread?
Hi,
in many recipes I read the cooking is required to be made "undercover", that is with the pan enveloped in aluminum foil, while in others the envelope is not required and generally a much higher temperaturae is used.
I noticed that when I don't cover the pan the bread comes out with a gummy and tough crust, that I consider really annoying; moreover the crumb comes out lighter and less sweet.
I'd like to have some advise on the cooking method to use; at the moment I'm relying just on luck and on past experience rather than on a methodology.
BTW, how to decide when the bread is cooked? a stick inserted in the bread comes out _always_ wet, even after 6 hours.
Thanks.
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I would say that if you are making a 100% rye bread that you want a long slow bake at about 300° F or 149° C. Use a thermometer to check the temperature in the middle of the loaf to see if the bread is done. The final internal temperature of the loaf should be 200° F or 94° C. When the loaf comes out of the oven spray the top very lightly with water to prevent a hard crust.
This instructions apply only to a bread made with all rye or almost all rye.
Jeff
Thanks,
thus without covering the bread during the baking?
i agree with Yerffej about the long low-temp bake. i also find that starting it off at around 400 for the first 10 minutes, with lots of steam (1 cup of water every 3 minutes) will maximize the oven spring, which is mostly steam-driven. also, rather than spraying the crust when the loaves come out, I generally brush them generously with water and then leave the loaves uncut for at least a day, preferably two, so that the complex sugar gel that forms the crumb has enough time to set; cut a high-percentage rye bread too soon and it gets very gummy.
so that's my 2 cents ...
Stan Ginsberg
You can bake it covered or not. Try it both ways and see which you like better. The total baking time at 149° C should be somewhere around 3 hours. As Stan mentioned it is very important to let the loaf cool for a long time. 12 hours would be the minimum time to let the loaf rest after it leaves the oven.
Jeff
Ok, thanks to both. I'll try and report.