Tag Archives: Rye Bread

The Rye Experiment – Part 3 – The Final

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Back to the experiment and on to Part – 3 the Final. This Part was supposed to be completed last week, but due to an unfortunate brain freeze I used the wrong flour. This time I used the First Clear Flour instead of the AP flour used by mistake in Part 2a. (Ahhh, to be 65 again!)

However, this time I also used a Dutch Oven instead of baking uncovered. The rationale is I want the best combination of crumb, crust and flavor. The Dutch Oven provided the traditional chewy ‘Deli Rye’ crust. This recipe and method is a winner!!

So the recipe remains the same as Part 2, except I used a Dutch Oven. I used First Clear and Pumpernickel flours. I used an egg wash when there were about 15 minutes left in the bake. In my case I added it when the internal bread temperature was 195 deg. F.

Caraway Rye Bread KAB – Final

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/caraway-rye-bread-recipe

INGREDIENTS
• 1 cup (227g) lukewarm water
• 1 cup (106g) white rye, medium rye, or pumpernickel flour
• 4 teaspoons (14g) sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/2 cup (113g) sour cream (low-fat is fine; please don’t use nonfat)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons (10g) caraway seeds, to taste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/3 cups (280g) First Clear Flour
• 3 tablespoons (25g) vital wheat gluten

METHOD

  1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the water, sugar, rye flour and yeast, mixing to form a soft batter. Let the mixture rest for 20 minutes; this allows the rye flour to absorb some of the liquid, making the dough easier to knead.
  2. Add the remaining ingredients, and mix and knead the dough together — by hand, mixer or bread machine — until it’s fairly smooth. The nature of rye dough is to be sticky, so don’t be tempted to add too much flour.
  3. Place the dough in an oiled bowl or large (8-cup) measure, cover, and let it rise until noticeably puffy, 60 to 90 minutes.
  4. Gently deflate the dough, knead it briefly, and shape it into two smooth oval or round loaves; or one long oval loaf. Place them on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.
  5. Cover the loaves, and let them rise until they’re noticeably puffy, about 90 minutes. Towards the end of the rise, preheat the oven to 350°F.
  6. Just before they go into the oven, spritz the loaves with water, and slash them about 1/2″ deep. The oval loaves look good with one long, vertical slash; the rounds, with two or three shorter slashes across the top.
  7. Bake the loaves for 35 to 40 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads 205°F to 210°F. The single, larger loaf will bake for 45 to 50 minutes. If the bread appears to be browning too quickly, tent it lightly with foil after 25 minutes of baking.
  8. Remove the loaves from the oven, and transfer them to a rack. While still warm, brush them with melted butter, if desired; this will keep their crust soft.

Sandwich Rye – New Recipe

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I was going to continue the experiment with Part 3, but wanted to try this new recipe I found at ayearinbread.blogspot.com. It’s interesting as it uses bread flour, molasses and citric acid. It had a good flavor, crumb and a great crust. Oh, I also needed to make a few (3) loaves of white sandwich bread for PB&J lunches. The oddest thing happened with the white bread. Two of the loaf rose nice and round, but one fell. No idea.

Sandwich Rye
http://ayearinbread.blogspot.com/2007/09/kevin-sandwich-rye.html

• INGREDIENTS
• rye flour 1 c 146 g
• bread flour 2 1/4 c 330g
• instant yeast 1 tsp
• wheat gluten 1 1/2 tbsp
• citric acid (sour salt) 1/4 tsp
• caraway seeds 2 tbsp 20g
• molasses 1 1/2 tbsp
• butter melted 1 tbsp
• table salt 3/4 tsp
• water 1 c + 2 tbsp 256 g

Egg Wash
• egg 1
• water 1 tbsp

METHOD

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix together the yeast, gluten, citric acid, caraway seeds, rye flour, and 2 cups (280g) of bread flour. Add salt and mix in. (Note, the salt is added after mixing the original ingredients to minimize it’s direct contact with the yeast, which it can kill).
  2. In a measuring cup, mix together water, molasses, and butter using a small whisk. With the motor running at low speed, pour liquid into dry ingredients. Once moistened, switch to the dough hook and finish blending. The dough should be moist and sticky, add just enough additional flour, a tablespoon at a time, to have dough clear the sides of the bowl. Increase speed to medium and knead for eight minutes. (Note, dough will clear sides but stick to bottom, scrape it up with a rubber spatula every couple of minutes.)
  3. Scoop dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly a few times then form into a ball. Place the dough in a bowl sprayed with cooking oil, spritz top with oil, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk — about 1 1/2 hours.
  4. Gently deflate dough, scoop onto a lightly floured surface, fold a few times, and allow to relax for about five minutes. Shape dough into a loaf and place on a piece of parchment on your peel or on a baking sheet. Lightly spritz tops with oil and cover with plastic. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. In the meantime, heat oven to 400F (200C) and place rack in center position. (Note: it’s important to give the oven a long preheat before baking, particularly if you’re using a baking stone.)
  5. Whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon of water in a small bowl. Brush loaf with egg wash and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate rack front to back and continue baking 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. The interior should read 190F on an instant read thermometer.

The Rye Experiment- Part 2a

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Oops! I used the pumpernickel flour but forgot to use First Clear instead of AP flour. The plan was to use the best combination of ingredients to make the best loaf of rye bread.

I made two small free form boules. They held their shape really well.

Maybe tomorrow I will read my own instructions all the way through before baking. The results were pretty darn good today, though!

The Rye Experiment, Part 2

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As I said in Part 1, this variation will simply substitute First Clear Flour for the White Rye in Part 1. I added an egg/water wash to this loaf to increase the color of the bread. I did not coat the finished warm bread with butter, which darkened the Part 1 loaf. I also baked it in the bottom of a Dutch Oven to help keep its shape. (No real difference.) I won’t publish the recipe again, just go to Part 1 and make the change noted above.

Part 2 Rye Bread

Manufacturing reports the crumb may be a little better. The holes are slightly larger and more evenly distributed. The crust is a little chewier and darkened just about right. The rise was higher. QC has yet to report.

Part 3 will substitute Rye Bread Improver for the Vital Wheat Gluten. I am thinking Part 4 will be the winner of Parts 1-3 and substituting pumpernickel flour for the other rye flour. Stay tuned.

Part 1 Rye Bread for Comparison

The Rye Experiment, Part 1

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Fran and I are self quarantining so we can join Daniel and Frances’s “pod” for Christmas and New Years. To pass the days I decided to experiment with variations of rye bread recipes. KAB has a good, basic caraway seed rye bread recipe, which I used as a starting place. (Recipe below.)

Following the recipe as written resulted in a well risen, soft rye bread with a good crumb. Today’s roast beef sandwich with lettuce, jalapeños and lettuce was excellent.

The first variation is to replace the white rye flour with first clear flour. In case you were wondering first clear flour is what remains after milling patent flour. It compensates for the low gluten content of rye flour. It is the traditional flour used in Jewish bakeries and adds loftier rise and better chew. This variation will be in the next post, The Rye Experiment, Part 2.

No, I didn’t have to buy anything for this experiment. Here is a picture of my specialty flour cupboard. Standard flours (AP, bread, whole wheat, pumpernickel,) are kept in a separate storage unit.

Caraway Rye Bread KAB

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/caraway-rye-bread-recipe
INGREDIENTS
• 1 cup (227g) lukewarm water
• 1 cup (106g) white rye, medium rye, or pumpernickel flour
• 4 teaspoons (14g) sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/2 cup (113g) sour cream (low-fat is fine; please don’t use nonfat)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons (7g to 14g) caraway seeds, to taste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/3 cups (280g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or First Clear Flour
• 3 tablespoons (25g) vital wheat gluten or rye bread improver, optional, for best rise

METHOD

  1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the water, sugar, rye flour and yeast, mixing to form a soft batter. Let the mixture rest for 20 minutes; this allows the rye flour to absorb some of the liquid, making the dough easier to knead.
  2. Add the remaining ingredients, and mix and knead the dough together — by hand, mixer or bread machine — until it’s fairly smooth. The nature of rye dough is to be sticky, so don’t be tempted to add too much flour.
  3. Place the dough in an oiled bowl or large (8-cup) measure, cover, and let it rise until noticeably puffy, 60 to 90 minutes.
  4. Gently deflate the dough, knead it briefly, and shape it into two smooth oval or round loaves; or one long oval loaf. Place them on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.
  5. Cover the loaves, and let them rise until they’re noticeably puffy, about 90 minutes. Towards the end of the rise, preheat the oven to 350°F.
  6. Just before they go into the oven, spritz the loaves with water, and slash them about 1/2″ deep. The oval loaves look good with one long, vertical slash; the rounds, with two or three shorter slashes across the top.
  7. Bake the loaves for 35 to 40 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads 205°F to 210°F. The single, larger loaf will bake for 45 to 50 minutes. If the bread appears to be browning too quickly, tent it lightly with foil after 25 minutes of baking.
  8. Remove the loaves from the oven, and transfer them to a rack. While still warm, brush them with melted butter, if desired; this will keep their crust soft.

Catch Her in the Rye

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Day 2 of California’s Shelter-in-Place order and Bake #2 for “DeDe Bread.” Today I made two identical loaves of rye bread. One was delivered to my local family, and the other is currently being consumed by Quality Assurance Department.

Day 3’s plan is to make a replicate of today’s loaf plus a crusty loaf made in the Dutch Over. Before either loaf is delivered to likewise Shelter-in-Place friends and family the QA Department will be sampling a slice or two.

Homemade Rye Bread

INGREDIENTS
4 ½ tsp (16 g) packages active dry yeast
2 ½ cups warm water (just barely warm to the touch)
2/3 (225 g) cup molasses
2 tbl caraway seeds (optional)
1 tbl salt
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tbl Rye Bread Improver
2 cups rye flour
5 cups bread flour

METHOD

  1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the molasses. Put yeast mixture into a large metal bowl.
  2. Add the caraway seeds, salt, vegetable oil, cocoa powder, 2 cups of rye flour and then 2 cups of bread flour, mixing into the yeast mixture after each addition with a wooden spoon.
  3. Add more bread flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is not so sticky and it is too hard to mix it with the wooden spoon. At that point, spread a half cupful of flour onto a large, clean, flat surface and put the dough onto the surface.
  4. Knead the dough with a Kitchen-aide bench mixer using the dough hook. Add more bread flour in small amounts until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Once the sides of the bowl are fairly clean then knead 8 minutes.
  5. Let the dough rise: Spread some vegetable oil around a large bowl and place the dough in it, turning it so it gets coated in the oil.
  6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp cloth. Let rise at room temperature until it has doubled in size, 1 to 1 ½ hours.
  7. Gently press down on the risen dough so some of its air is released. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, knead the dough a few turns and then divide it by cutting it in half with a sharp knife.
  8. Shape each half into loaf. Place dough loafs into either oiled 8×4-inch bread loaf pans, or onto a flat baking sheet or peel that has been sprinkled with corn meal, depending if you want to cook the loaves in pans or directly on a baking stone. Cover with plastic or a damp cloth.
  9. Let the loaves rise: Let the bread rise again, this time not doubling in volume, but rising by about half of its volume, about 30 to 45 minutes, half as long as the first rising. The dough should be peeking over the top of the loaf pan if using a loaf pan.
  10. If you are using a Dutch Oven or baking stone, place it in the oven and preheat oven to 350°F for at least half an hour before baking.
  11. If baking in a Dutch Oven pick the dough up by the corners of the parchment paper and place the dough and parchment paper into the Dutch Oven or directly on the baking stone. Score the loaves a few times on the top of the dough right before putting it in the oven. Be careful, the Dutch Oven or baking stone will be hot.
  12. Put loaves in the oven. If you have a mister, mist the dough with a little water the first 10 minutes of baking. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until done. The bread should sound hollow when tapped.