My rye schrotbrot
Recently I received a lot of cracked rye (actually I hoped it would be a batch of rye chops, but unfortunately it's not the case...).
I put it immediately to work to prepare my preferred rye bread, something in between frisian rye and this one done from my friend Gi.
The night before I prepared a soaker with:
-320 gr of cracked rye (there are a lot of barely broken berries and some very coarse flour)
-80 gr of old bread dried in the fridge and broken in the mixer
-340 gr of boiling water
I mixed very well, but quickly, and left to rest in a closed plastic container enveloped in a pile.
At the same time I would have generally prepared a poolish with
-200 gr of dark rye flour
-170 gr of warm water (40°C)
-10 gr of rye sourdough
but this time around I prepared (1 day in advance) a three-stage leaven as in my post of Detmolder rye. For this kind of bread a three-stage leaven is not necessary, but I tought I should mention it for the chronicle. Total hydratation is the usual and magical 85%.
After 12 hours I mixed the two compounds and added 12 grams of salt, kneaded well and put the dough in a 12 inches plum-cake form, left to ferment for threee hours at ~28°C. This kind of douh doesn't rise a lot, generally never more than 1/3 in height, but the acidity developed will improve the flavour of the bread and protect it from molds.
I cooked the bread totally enveloped in aluminum foil (3 rounds) at 120°C for 10 hours, then I put the bread in a linen sheet and waited 2 days before cutting it.
The taste is fantastic, sweet and sour with a remarkable caramel intensity; moreover -and contrary to my previous long bakes- there's something remembering a faint taste of liquor that I never tasted before, it's totally new to me.
The crust is absent and the crumb is moist as it should be. Contrary to most of my other breads it dosn't even crumble when sliced thinly.
I also noticed that when sliced in advance the taste seems to improve sooner and seems to get sweeter in shorter time. Does it make any sense?
