I have just finished making a loaf of Rose Levy Beranbaum's "Levy's real Jewish Rye Bread", from "The Bread Bible." I had made variations of her formula noted in other blogs and only recently obtained a copy of the book which has her original recipe. With all the waiting (autolyses) and rising times, this bread was almost a 24 hour project. I started the sponge at about 3 pm yesterday and took the finished loaf out of the oven at 3 pm today. It has now cooled and I sliced it in order to give half to friends. As I don't have a cloche, I shaped the dough into a batard and gave it "spiral" slashes. It worked. I know I should have weighed the ingredients but last night and this morning I used measuring cups for the flour and liquid. I will have to try this again using the scale, as Rose says that the finished dough should weigh about 965 grams and mine weighed in at 860, about 3 oz. lighter. Because of this, I shortened the baking time just a bit. The crust came out a nice golden brown, and the crumb is "rye bread dense" without being pasty. (I cut off the heel on one side and tried it with butter. Yum.) I will do this one again.
I just tried to insert two photos of the crust and the crumb and seemed to run into a problem. The site replied that the max size is 600 x 800 and that my files were too large. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance. Candango
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Use a photo editor to shrink the size of your picture- there is likely one already on your computer as part of the standard software that is typically preloaded when you initially purchased the PC. I had a 3meg 4x6 photo that would not upload for the same reason. I used the editor to shrink the photo to a size such that when i clicked on photo properties, the pixel counld be read. Thus you can increase or decrease accordingly to meet the limitations imposed when uploading. Hope this helps,
Cheers
Thanks Nick, I'll give it a try.
I make it about every third week or so. I've made it as a boule and batard, and I think the batard always turns out better--the texture comes out more evenly, I think.
Did you reduce the amount of caraway? I did--I think she calls for two tablespoons, but I only use two teaspoons. And sometimes I substitute a bit of fennel seed for part of the caraway. I've also had success turning this into a "pseudo-limpa" by replacing part of the water with pale ale, adding a bit more sugar (sometimes in the form of sorghum), and adding orange zest. Hardly authentic, but very tasty.
I have made Rose's version only once so far and a "variation" of it (from Canada) twice. Have not yet decided which I prefer, but both call for two T of caraway, which is a lot, but so good tasting that I have not reduced the amount yet. I do intend to keep playing with this recipe. It takes almost a day to make, but it is definitely worth it.