Rustic Honey Rye Bread

Hello loyal follower(s)

    Bread making has been curtailed due to my diabetic condition.  The urge to develop a  new recipe using some of the newer neat techniques won out.  Last Monday utilizing the recipes for Rustic Rye bread from the June 11, 2011 blog and 33% Whole Wheat Rustic Italian bread from February 1 2012 blog, I wanted a new recipe.  The first recipe used a hard anodized aluminum Dutch oven while the second used no pot or pan just parchment paper and a pizza stone.

First of all I used the product shown, to disinfect the working surface of the countertop.  This product was the first choice of Cook's Illustrated magazine for sanitizing or disinfecting surfaces.  However, to disinfect you must spray it on the surface and let it set for 10 minutes to disinfect or 30 seconds to sanitize.  Then rinse with clean water.


Back to the bread---------

Keeping the mixing to a minimum, I over minimized yielding a poor quality dough (misadventure #1)

I followed the loaf formation instructions from the second recipe.

Here we had the mutilated loaf ready for the oven.

The broiler pan was place on the lowest oven shelf and boiling water was added to it when the bread was put into the oven (misadventure #2)

The internal temp was 200℉ so I considered it done, (misadventure #3).   Are you getting the picture of how this turned out.

The crumb looked good, but it was gummy.

Gumminess can be caused by to much humidity or maybe too much salt.

The salt checked out OK, it was less than 2% of the weight of the flour.
Maybe the broiler  pan of boiling water was too much water vapor.

ROUND TWO

As I write this the second attempt at the new recipe is just finishing up in the oven.

A little longer mixing time yielded a better feeling dough.  Here the dough was starting the second fermentation.

Round two ready for the heat.

The sugar in the second recipe was replaced by honey.

The exterior was great looking with a hard crust.

It took a long time to bake, and maybe I overdid it but I was trying to avoid the soggy crumb like the first attempt.

the crumb looked good and tasted good also.  Personally, i prefer bread with a little less rye flour.

I would use  five cups bread flour and three of rye flour rather than 4 bread flour and 4 rye flour otherwise the recipe was a success.

The recipe follows;

À bientôt,

Mr Nut

Rustic Honey Rye

Modified from Kneadlessly simple by Nancy Baggett ©2009

Modified for cuisinart 7 qt stand mixer with 

Speeds 1 - 12

Yield two  9” x 5”  inch loaves

 Made without molasses, brown sugar, or any of the other ingredients used to deepen rye bread color as in the Swedish Limpa  from the grandmother of Cyndy’s recipe from circa 1910. This bread is lighter than many of the other rye breads. The flavor of the grain takes center is apparent, and, since the dough is not sweet, the pleasing slight bitterness of the rye comes through.

    Long first fermentation was used in this recipe.  The fermentation process is aided by the addition of dough enhancer (see blog of April 5, 2011).  A combination of caraway, fennel, and dill seeds lends the best flavor to the bread. 

Ingredients: 

4 cups (20 ounces: 560 g) rye flour

4 cups (20 ounces: 560 g) unbleached white bread flour.

1/2 cup ( 2.5 ounces: 70 g)dough enhancer. 

1/2 cup  ( 2.5 ounces: 70 g) Vital wheat gluten

1 tablespoon Sea salt

2  tablespoons assorted seeds, preferably 2 teaspoon each caraway, fennel, and dill seeds mixed together (or substitute 2 tablespoons caraway seeds). (save 1 teaspoon of seed mixture for pressing into top of dough just before baking)

2 teaspoons instant yeast.

About 4 cups  warm water  (110 -115℉).

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar.

1/4 cup honey.

Canola oil or oil spray for coating dough

Directions:

1. Dry mix: In the mixer bowl using the Chef’s Whisk at speed one, mix together the blue ingredients.
2. Wet Mix: In a separate bowl mix by hand the red ingredients.
3. Combine by adding the wet mix to the dry mix. Keep mixing to a minimun, and aim for a stiff dough. Move  the dough from the mixer bowl to another bowl (oiled ) so you can clean the mixer bowl.
4. Rest: Allow the mixture to rest for about five to ten minutes to check the consistency of the dough; it should be stiff but workable.

1. Move the dough to another large, oiled bowl. ( so the stand mixer bowl can be cleaned). Spray the top of the dough with oil, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. 

1. First fermentation: Set the dough out at room temperature 72-75℉ (use a heating pad if room is cool) for 12 to 18 hours. Only If convenient, deflate the dough about halfway through the rise.
2. Deflate dough:  Gently press down on dough to deflate. Holding edge of dough with fingertips, fold dough over itself by gently lifting and folding edge of dough toward middle. Add more  flour if the dough is sticky, aim for a stiff dough. Turn bowl quarter turn; fold again. Turn bowl and fold dough 2-4 more times (maximum of 6 folds).  
3. Forming the Loaves:  Gently scrape and invert dough out of bowl onto dusted work surface.  The side of dough that was against bowl should now be facing up and divide the dough into two pieces, form rounds and let them rest covered for about ten minutes.
4. To shape the dough:  After delicately pushing each dough round  into an eight to ten inch squares, fold top left corner diagonally to middle.  Repeat with top right-corner. Begin to gently roll dough from top to bottom.  Continue rolling until dough forms a rough log.  Gently shape dough into 9-inch football shape by tucking bottom edges underneath.    Transfer the loaves to a15 inch square sheet parchment paper. Sprinkle or spray the dough top generously with water. Sprinkle on the remaining seeds, patting down to embed slightly.  Dust loaf with flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap; let loaves rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, place baking stone on rack, place broiler pan on lowest oven rack and heat oven to 500 degrees.
5. To bake: First heat one quart of water to boiling and set it aside.  Using a  single-edged razor blade, or sharp chef’s knife, cut slit 1/2 inch deep lengthwise along tops of loaves, starting and stopping about 1 1/2 inches from ends; spray loaf lightly with water. Slide parchment sheet with loaves onto baker’s peel, then slide parchment with loaves onto hot baking stone in oven. Now pour the boiling water into the broiler pan.  Bake 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees and quickly spin loaves around using edges of parchment; continue to bake until deep golden brown.  When the color of the crust is what you desire, cover each loaf top with aluminum foil to prevent over browning of the crusts and continue baking until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of loaf registers about 200 degrees, about 60 minutes longer. Note: the appearance of the loaf is more important in determining the doneness of the loaf than the internal temperature (from Cook's illustrated magazine, May-June 2011 page 31). Transfer to wire rack, discard parchment, and cool loaves to room temperature, about 1  hour.  But it turns out you better bake it for the extra 60 minutes.

SERVING AND STORING: Cool before slicing and storing. The flavor improves after several hours of storage. To maintain the crisp crust, store in a large bowl draped with a clean tea towel or in a heavy paper bag. Or store airtight in a plastic bag or foil: The crust will soften, but can be crisped by heating the loaf, uncovered, in a 400°F oven for a few minutes. The bread will keep at room temperature for 3 days, and may be frozen, airtight, for up to 2 months.