more rye experiments

still working on trying to find the right rye recipe.  got a wild hair today and am trying my tried and true white bread recipe and substituting 1/3 of the flour with light rye, lets see how that does.

Sourdough update

Well the sourdough starter has been chugging along very nicely.  I have moved to the refrigerator method where it is fed once a week (unless needed more) and kept cool in the fridge.

I keep posting the photos on facebook, as for some reason blogger wants to limit the photos.  I am working on that.

I have recently discovered a lovely sourdough sandwich bread for Michael.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/clays-multi-grain-sourdough-sandwich-bread-recipe

I made it exactly the first time a month ago and have been tweaking ever since.  I mainly am using different seeds for the harvest grains and experimenting with using rye, wheat and pumpernickel, or any combination of that, for the wheat in the recipe.  The loaf on the left is a recent one.

Along with the three sourdough baguettes that I made.  I have decided I need a baguette pan.  I got a bakers couche for Christmas and plan to also try that out as well.

Rye Wheat Sourdough #1

I am taking the wheat sourdough recipe from KAF cookbook, and using that as sort of a starting point to make my own Rye Wheat Sourdough sandwich bread for Michael.  He wanted more airy rise than traditional so I am merging ideas.

Recipe #1
14 oz whole wheat
5 3/4 oz rye
1 T vital wheat gluten
1 1/2 oz honey
13 oz warm water
14 oz ripe sourdough starter
2 t instant yeast

mixed and resting now for one hour

then add
1 T caraway seed
1 T mustard seed
1 t dill seed
2 t sea salt

mix and rest now for one hour

shape and put in 2 buttered loaf pans and rise for about two hours until even with top of pan.  Put in preheated oven 450 for 15 minutes, then reduced to 350 until 200 degrees internal temp, which took another 25 minutes.

Already now that I have done this I read I should have held the extra yeast to the seed stage, may have to try that next time.

Sourdough Rye Bread

Wow, sourdough without added yeast takes a LOT longer to rise.  I am spoiled using regular yeast.  This bread took all day to make.  I used this recipe
http://sourdough.com/print/224
but added twice the carroway seed, 4g of dill seed and 8g of mustard seed.

Ingredient	Weight		US Volume	Bakers Percentage
Starter	188 g	6.63 oz	1.47 cups	51.51%
Water	199 g	7.02 oz	0.84 cups	54.52% (hydration)
White bakers flour	243 g	8.57 oz	1.9 cups	66.58%
Rye flour	122 g	4.3 oz	0.96 cups	33.42%
Olive oil	11 g	0.39 oz	0.8 tbspns	3.01%
Molasses	11 g	0.39 oz	0.8 tbspns	3.01%
Salt	7 g	0.25 oz	0.48 tbspns	1.92%
Carroway seeds (Optional)	4 g	0.14 oz	0.32 tbspns	1.10%
Total Weight: 785 grams / 27.69 ounces Total Flour Weight: 365 grams / 12.87 ounces

Bakers percentages are relative to flour weight (flour equals 100%) and every other ingredient is a percentage of this. Flour from the Starter is not counted. Note: This recipe was uploaded in grams and has been automatically converted to other measures, let us know [2] of any corrections.

Method

1. Mix thoroughly in a bowl, cover with a cloth and let stand 10 minutes.
2. Scrape out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 - 6 minutes, yes it will be sticky.
3. Scrape the dough off the bench and place in an oiled bowl, cover the bowl with gladwrap and let proove for about 3 1/2 hours. You can do a few stretch and folds in this time.
4. Shape your loaf and let proof for about 3 hours, the correct amount of time will be dependant on the temperature and your judgement.
5. Bake at 210C for 45 minutes.

I mixed it up this morning at 11am.  It took until about 3pm to double in size.  Punched it down and let it rise until 7pm.  It just didnt seem like it was going to rise any more.  I baked for 45 minutes.  Michael likes it dense, and it certainly is.  Here is the bread right out of the oven.

And here is a slice.  It definitely is not as tall of a loaf as my white bread is.

Michael says it has a great crust, good flavor, but not very sour.  I think it is because my starter is still less than a month old.  Will see how it progresses over time.

The Great Sourdough Experiment

For this one I want to try to do a little better at tracking.  So I am starting with the King Arthur Sourdough information from their cook book.  It just uses a tiny bit of molasses, rye flour and water to get the starter going.  This will take about 10 days to get a really good starter.  What I have to do is feed it more flour and water every day.

Day 1

It looks kinda yucky to me lol.  Very thick and pasty.

Day 2 and 3

My cookbook is sitting next to it, moved over to a larger jar in case it really grows on me.  I find it weird that I have to pour off half of it every day, seems like such a waste.

Day 4 Time to switch from rye flour to white flour

Getting some real quantity here!

Day 5

Wow got some serious action going.  Unless this dramatically changes in appearance, I probably won't keep taking a daily picture.

Day 6-12 are pretty much the same, kept pouring off and feeding flour and water.  I did accidentally use whole wheat flour on Day 10, but it really didn't hurt.  From what I can tell in blogs online, its really best to use white because the whole grains can actually feed it too much.  Who knew.

Another thing I found in this journey is that it IS really important to do the pour off.  What that does is help balance out the bacteria (the good ones) in the starter.

So for the first baking, I made the Sourdough Baguettes

I need more practice shaping them.

And the final products!  From left to right: italian herb, sesame seed and parmesan encrusted.  The last three are regular sour dough.

Not bad if I do say so!  I still have starter and have now moved it to the fridge for long term weekly feeding and storage.  Will keep it going and see how things progress.  Another blog when I make the next bread with it.

Random Bread Photos

I have been remiss in blogging my bread and hope to do better.  As sort of a 'catch up' here are some photos that I do not think I have published before.  

cheese bread

first rye bread

I will try to do better chronologically in bread, these are more recent photos, oh probably Sept to November time frame

Breadman Bread Machine

In October I decided I was ready for a bread machine.  Here is the one I got.

Breadman BK2000B 2-1/2-Pound Bakery Pro Bread Maker with Collapsible Kneading Paddles and Automatic Fruit and Nut Dispenser

I like it well enough, here are my first few forays in using it.  It does, as they all do, leave marks in the bottom of the bread.  Though I do have to say that it makes wonderful dough

finally got the flat paddle to fold down on this one

tried using the 1 pound pans, not worth it

Raisins dont mix well, but it tasted great