First try at rye bread (advice welcome)!!
Today was my first attempt at a rye loaf! I decided to start cautiously so I went with Peter Reinhart’s “Transitional rye sandwich loaf”. It definitely didn’t disappoint.
I wasn't sure what i was supposed to expect in terms of the crumb, i know that rye tends to yield fairly dense loaves, but this is a lot lighter than i thought, probably due to the fact that there is only about 41% rye flour.
I used whole rye flour as per the recipe, and wholegrain flour instead of the white flour called for in the recipe. I was surprised by the texture of the dough, I expected it to be almost like clay but it was much stretchier than I expected and became quite smooth after a few sets of stretch and fold. It didn’t feel like dough made with only wheat four but it was much easier to handle than I thought it would be.
The flavour of this bread is great, I think even people who are not rye lovers will like it!
Here is the formula:
Wholegrain bread flour 49%
Whole rye flour 41%
White bread flour 10%
Buttermilk 35.3%
Water 35.3%
Honey 5%
Oil 3%
Salt 1.7%
Yeast 1.7%
I did have to increase the water slightly, so the hydration in the formula is a bit higher than the original recipe i found the biga to be quite dry (probably due to the use of whole grain flour instead of white) so i added an extra 28g (the original recipe called for 142g so i used 170g).
The loaf is fairly flat partially because the loaf pan I used was too big (my bad) but I didn’t really get any oven spring. Is that normal for rye bread?
Comments
That looks pretty good for this style of bread. You definitely went the right way with adding more water as whole grain bread soaks up much more than white flour. With that much rye and whole grain flour you won't get a tremendous amount of lift in the oven. You could try proofing the loaf slightly less which might increase your oven spring but it looks to me like your crumb is pretty good for this formula.
Thanks for the comment, next time I will try putting the bread in the oven sooner and see what happens. Do you think scoring this type of loaf would make a difference? I know most people don’t score loaves made in a bread pan like this but I’m just curious…
It's usually not necessary to score the bread in a pan but some people do a simple score down the middle lengthwise. I don't think it will make a noticeable difference though.
That's i read up a bit about it, its seems like that's the general consensus.
half being rye, I'd say your bread looks grand and the crumb came out perfect. Well done and happy baking
Thanks for the encouragement and the compliment! Bread baking definitely makes me happy :) Happy baking to you too!
bread that he posted yesterday. It will give you insights on how to pack even more flavor and bring out a deeper more earthy flavor in rye breads.
We love whole grain breads with high percent rye in them !
I read that post, that loaf looks wonderful! I'm definitely going to keep trying more rye bread, i'm yet to venture into sourdough but once i've got the basics nailed i'm going to give it a go!
and foolproof.
Take 40 g of whole rye and 30 g of water. Mix and cover and let sit at 75-82 F. 24 hours later add 40 g of whole rye and 30 g of water and let the larger mix sit for 24 hours. Split the mix in half and feed each half 40 g of whole rye and 30 g of water. Stir down every time it doubles - probably 4 times in 24 hours. Feed each again 40 g of flour and 30 g of water. When one rises 25% put it in the fridge and feed it once a week - this is your mother starter and when the other one doubles you can use that in your first loaf of rye bread. Rye needs the acid in SD to make the structure to trap gas and make the bread rise.
Easy as pie and works every time. This was the way rye breads were made in much if the world for centuries - really thousands of years. Start the mix in Monday morning and be making rye bread on Friday. I've lost count how many times I have done this.
Happy SD rye bread baking
I've read lots of different ways of making a starter, some have pineapple juice and in them or grapes or they need different types of flour, it just kind of got intimidating.This looks really simple, i'll give it a try and post what happens.
Thanks!!
and convert part of it to what ever bread you are making. If whole wheat. feed bit, say 10 g, of the rye starter progressively larger amounts of flour and water over 3 stages. You could feed it 10 g of Whole Wheat and 10 g of water for the first stage of 4 hours, then 20 g each of WW and water for the 2nd stage of 4 hours and then 40 g each of WW and water for the 3rd stage. When it doubles after the 3rd stage feeding you can fridge the 150 g of basically WW levain at 100% hydration to use it over the next 2 days to make a loaf of bread or you can use it immediately for a loaf.
Or you could feed it AP flour or spelt or multigrain flour instead, depending on what kind if bread you are making. You could also thicken it up on teh 3rd feeding to get to 66% hydration and fridge it for a new different starter if you want too.
This is the easiest way i know to make a starter from scratch in a few days. If you want to make the first feeding of water for the rye starter to be acidic, using pineapple juice or orange juice, you can do that too but I have never done so and if it works every time I don;t see a reason to change things.
Happy SD baking any number of ways with all kinds of different levains and starters.
of this starter. I'm an adventurous baker so i'm sure i'll have fun with this!
Just going back to your first comment, what if i can't stir it as often as you suggest during the first days? I'm usually at work all day. Would it still be okay if i just stirred it down as soon as i get home and in the morning, even if it has more than doubled? Or should i rather try and plan it so that day 3 and 4 are over the the weekend?
Awesome bake!
I do love the closed structure of the crumb, but also the evenness of the crumb. Gotta love buttermilk!
I'm sure it tasted great! Especially the crust!! Gotta love buttermilk!
Wait to go!
Cheers!
Dave
I love buttermilk! I've only ever used it in cakes but i'm definitely going to try more breads that have buttermilk in the formula.The bread does taste good imho :)
Thanks for the compliment.
hi, Can I ask you about your kneading experiences for this bread? because I was doing something similar (a 10% rye + 80% Whole Wheat + 10% White Wheat read) today and experienced something strange during the kneading. My first 350 slaps and folds and the first two stretch and folds produced a very smooth elastic dough with very good windowpane that can stretch over a palm, but the gluten seemed a lot worse after I stretch and foled the third time. The window pane was barely passed and the dough become more sticky and less smooth than before.
Liming
I made a biga (which is just whole grain bread flour) the night before, I kneaded that for 2 mins with wet hands and then let in rest for 5 mins, then did a few stretch and folds.
When i kneaded the final dough, I was also surprised at how smooth and elastic the dough was. I was expecting it to be more like clay. I kneaded it with wet hands in a big bowl for about 6 mins to just get the soaker, the biga and the rest of the ingredients be assimilated nicely (it was really sticky though), then I left it for about 5 mins before I started the stretch and folds. I did 3 and half sets at 6minute intervals. The 3rd stretch was only half because I felt the dough was kind of tense, so I just stopped and left it for a bit to relax. (Not very scientific, but I hope you know what I mean). I stopped when it passed the window pane test.
I didn’t have an experience of it degrading. I’m not really sure what causes this; maybe the types of rye flour we used are different, or maybe stretching it after it passed the window pane test did something, or maybe the method of mixing the ingredients was different (I had a biga and a soaker)? I’m new at this so I can’t say for sure, but I hope this helps :)
Wow, this bread looks great!. Would you please tell me which of Peter's books the recipe came from? Thanks.
Chris
This recipe came from “whole grain breads”, it’s the transitional rye sandwich loaf. I hope you try it, I really enjoyed both making and eating it! Thanks for the compliment.
Thank you. I will certainly try this recipe.