July 24, 2011 - 12:33pm
Trial and error, or better living through chemistry
Day before yesterday, I made an exceptionally fluffy sesame semolina bread and now understand the meaning of "flaccid" dough. Today, I gained cognitive competency over the term "brick" by making a 100% rye loaf, perhaps more suited for ballast. Just thought I'd share.
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You now have to find the proper topping for the dense and coveted dark rye, loaded with delicious rye flavor. Cream cheese, capers, salmon and a few pieces of onion. It's all in your perspective. Be sure to wrap the loaf in a tea towel for a day to let it stabilize before you appreciate its brickness Lol.
Eric
Mine got topped with smoked trout this morning with cool whipped-cream/horse-radish sauce sort of globed everywhere! I get sentimental rye flecks in my eyes just thinking about it.
Mini
Mini, I read your recipe and all the comments for it and lots of other stuff here and elsewhere that indicated that to get the real deal moist dark rye to thin slice one needs to assemble it in steps and then bake it around the clock and then let it sit for days. But I have a serious case of "Short Attention Span Theater" and the bread box was empty so tried to use my usual hasty methods. They do not produce the "real deal." Sigh. Maybe this winter in the cold and dark, I'll try to make a starter and then make the rye. Meanwhile, one of the great things about homemade bread is even when it's bad it's better than store bought! For the time being, it's back to 50/50 rye/white for me.
Heidi
Steps? I'm not sure what steps we're talking about.
If step one is revving up a starter, step two mixing the stuff (the true no knead) and step three shaping and allowing to rise; step four baking for about 1hr 15 minutes or less and then letting it cool; with step five to wrap overnight to balance the inside moisture; then I guess I'm guilty of a step procedure but it is hardly the work of a "3 step Detmolder rye" and waiting days before eating it. I'm just too lazy for that mind boggling stuff. (Although I have the feeling I did some of it accidently just by the way I keep my starter and how I feed it for a bake.) If you make it big enough it will last for a few days! :) Like chocolate cake, if it lasts for several days, it also improves with time. Makes the last piece worth looking forward to.
My rye starter never fails to impress me. Truly the easiest of starters to maintain. Start it while the weather is warm.
Mini
The rye brick does have redeeming qualities but I will need to go for a longer version to get that wonderful gelatinous texture of the real thing. Pics below are at about 20 hours old, including it "dressed" for lunch with ersatz cream cheese & jarred fig-olive tapanade with little sweet gerkins on the side.
It's a bit darker than the pictures show.
I agree with Moma - the consistency looks right. What about the taste?
Karin
The flavor is pretty good but needs a bit more oomph.
I was very short on caraway seeds and had no fennel or coriander seed. I also think that it will be better when I get another bag of the Bay State Dark Rye flour from Stan at nybakers.com. This loaf was a combination of some Hodgson Mill rye I picked up at the grocery store and some I got awhile ago that myspicesage.com calls "pumpernickel flour." The Bay State Dark has a really wonderful flavor -- more so than these other rye flours. I also poured a big dollop of molasses in it and a splash of cider vinegar since I was using yeast (not starter).
They look lovely! I wish I could get bread like that easily in my local shop. Many supermarkets here sell rye breads similar in looks, some of them imported from a country like Germany, but maybe because there isn't much demand, they never taste fresh, often very stale and awful.....and definitely with unmistakable flavour of very 'industrially, mass-produced' breads......
As the brick slices and tastes even better today than yesterday (I should really listen to y'all), I'm going to make more, writing things down and see if I can make a reliable European-style rye that has enough of the density and flavor of the "real thing" yet fits my throw-it-in-a-bowl-wait-bake slap-dash habits. We'll see ...