Prairie Gold Rye Bread
Here is my first "small" loaf of rye bread. It came in at 4 pounds 3.3 ounces hot out of the oven. It was made with flour milled at home using Prairie Gold wheat. I find that this is an exceptional bread making grain, perhaps the finest that I have ever used. The texture and flavor are outstanding.
I use the no-knead bread making method. I had been using a 7-quart Lodge Dutch oven, but my hands were starting to object so I bought a smaller 5-quart Lodge Dutch oven. It made my day. The only problem is that I've yet to be able to do away with the wrinkles on the sides. As the dough must be placed into a 450°F Dutch oven I hesitate to use my hands, so I use a large egg flipper to ease the dough into place. By the way, the loaves that I made in the 7-quart Dutch oven ended up being 6 pounds. Great bread!
Cliff.
Cliff, if your loaf is not too big, may I suggest that you try putting the shaped NK dough upright on a piece of parchment, then lower the parchment into a banneton (or bowl or whatever) to rise. When ready to go in the oven, just pick up the parchment and transfer the loaf to the hot Dutch oven. It works really well and no deflated loaf or burned fingers. [I haven't even been using a Dutch oven, just my trusty Pyrex bowl over the loaf, on top of the parchment and a hot cookie sheet. BTW, JMonkey's sourdough NK recipe is GREAT!]
I haven't tried my Prairie Gold yet, but will soon. It's good to know that you are happy with it. The high gluten flour I bought is interesting in that it seems to spread more, but rises in the oven for about 20 minutes rather than the 10 minutes I was accustomed to with bread flour or Harvest King. The dough feels looser, too. I'm going to start mixing flours and see what happens.
Susan
Susan,
Ever since I tried your under glass method I have been proofing in a smaller straight sided bowl or container like you suggested, in a towel. I us a 4:1 ratio of flour and rice flour dusting heavily so the dough won't stick then after proofing, I place a sheet of parchment over the top of the bowl, hold my hand over the top and rotate upside down. The dough gently drops into my paper covered hand and can easily be lowered into a pot/cloche by holding the corners or slid on a peel onto a cookie sheet to be covered by a bowl. I think the use of a smaller bowl (7") helps establish the size better and prevents spreading out and lower rises. It works equally well under the bowl , cloche or pot.
Cliff, I see the wrinkles in the sides. I wonder if that isn't a sign that the oven spring is running out of steam early and falling under the weight of the top crust. Maybe a little over proofed and maybe a little to much dough to start with? I would suggest trying Susan's SD Under Glass Method that she posted here a while back. Once you get hang of it you will have a better feel for what's going on in the dark under the pot lid. The color of the crust looks great and unlike anything I have made. Sort of reminds me of a cornmeal combo I did once. How is the taste? I have been trying to find a local source for the Prairie Gold flour as shipping seems to be a profit center for the company.
Eric
Eric,
Hmmm, yes, I may be using too much dough. I just took a picture of a cross-section and will post it later for all to comment on. When I use less dough I obviously don't get the wrinkles. The problem there is that there isn't much of a "shoulder" to the slices. In an effort to gain greater height around the edges I added more dough. The problem then is getting the dough into the very hot Dutch oven.
I use a greased bowl for the final proofing - 2 hours. While placing the dough into the Dutch oven the dough gets elongated. As it falls in the classic teardrop shape there are a few split seconds to try to control the placement of the dough, but not much control is really possible. I use a wide egg flipper to assist and slow down the descent of the dough too. What happens though is that the dough deflates somewhat when as it bottoms out in the Dutch oven. I can see the wrinkles almost immediately.
At this point I'll try almost anything to improve the looks of the loaf. Glad you like the crust. It is simply delicious. Everyone raves about it. It is the result of using the Dutch oven at 450°F. The lid is on for the first 30 minutes holding in whatever steam is produced. As for the flavor, it is superb. I credit this to the time involved in proofing the dough. The first proof is 18 hours, followed by kneading and a 15 minute rest, followed by another kneading and a final 2 hour proof. There is plenty of time for the flavor to develop. I also use roasted rye flakes - simply superb. I started using this method of baking bread only this year and have been so pleased with it. Before my bread making was sporadic and a chore that I wasn't overly fond of. I started by helping my mother during her last years when she couldn't do everything herself. I felt that it was important to encourage her to do as much as she could. Then I did it because my wife enjoyed the bread. I really didn't. It was a white bread made with some milk, etc.. She kept asking me to find something with a more chewey crust. I read an article about the no-knead method of bread making, bought a Dutch oven, and the rest is history as they say. I'm making several loaves a week now just for family use. The loaves were up to 6 pounds in the 7-quart Dutch oven. As I need to have both of my thumb lower joints surgically rebuilt soon the pain involved in using the 7-quart Dutch oven became too much. I just bought the 5-quart Dutch oven and scaled down the recipe by 5/7th. I obviously have some problems to work out though.
Thanks for the help, and I'll see what I can work out.
Until later,
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Eric, I made note of the 4:1 ratio the other day, and will be using that in future. Now that my towels are saturated with flour and rice flour I have not had a moment's trouble turning out my dough. "Saturated" is probably not the right word, but you know what I mean! I do like using a straight-sided bowl rather than the typical rounded-Pyrex-mixing-bowl shape for rising. Thanks for all your encouragement.
Susan
...parchment? And what happens to the parchment? Do you leave it in the Dutch oven while the bread bakes? I've never used parchment. It just might do away with those wrinkles. As far as the finished product goes, I don't think that I'd want it much higher as it would bump into the lid. I'll have to measure the inside height tonight. I do like your idea. THANKS!
Bread making surely does get addicting, doesn't it? I'm chuckling on my end as I've been changing some of the flours and their ratios in my rye breads. It's interesting to taste the results. There are very noticeable differences. I'll be starting another loaf tomorrow using winter wheat so that we can compare side-by-side the Prairie Gold and the winter wheat. From what I remember of the winter wheat it had a bit more of a "bite" to its flavor. I'll know for certain in a couple of days.
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Just leave it in the pot! My sister uses that method and is very pleased with it. I tried to upload a pic of my latest NK loaf, which looks sort of like a football in that it is the same dark brown color and has little bumps all over it, but I'm fumbling again and it's not working. Actually, I wouldn't be suprised if the picture didn't show up somewhere, just not where I had planned!
Good luck with the winter wheat! Can't wait to see it.
Susan
I collect old sports injuries and old cast iron so you have my attention! The vintage stuff has thinner walls and smoother interiors so it is lighter in weight by about 1/3. The walls are 1/8 inch thick. I love cast iron cookery but learned long ago that I got the best results from the pieces my great grandmother cooked with. I think the old manufacturing materials and methods were better. Here is a Wagner brand 7qt that I bought on eBay.
Old Cast Iron
I don't have time to shop garage sales and second hand stores but that would be the least cost option.
Hope this is helpful.
Yes, I'm glad that you tuned in and replied. I buy a lot of my stuff on eBay for 3 reasons: 1. often I can't find it locally, 2. often it's less expensive, and 3. often the variety is better.
I saw a Wagner Dutch oven on eBay when I bid/bought my 5-quart Lodge Dutch oven. I was wondering about the Wagner line. It did appear to be a lighter weight from what I could figure out on the shipping. I'll have to keep an eye open for one.
Thanks for the information - much appreciated.
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Cliff,
I caught an error in the information I gave you about the Wagner cast iron dutch oven. It is a #7 which is 3 1/2 quart not 7 quart as I mistakenly told you. Big difference!
Yeah, it's a wee bit different, but no great bother...I checked eBay - people do love the older Wagner Dutch ovens! I saw some outrageous prices for a couple of them, but none were as nice or as old as yours. That's a real gem you've got there.
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
We got rid of our teflon pans but I haven't found anything that works to fry an egg. I bought a new Lodge preseasoned frypan and it failed miserably. Stainless steel, that I like for lots of my cooking will not fry a nice egg. I remember my grandmother frying eggs in her one big castiron frypan and they slid right out as if she were frying on teflon. My question is...is there any new castiron that works, maybe the castiron with enamel exterior or any brand besides Lodge that might work. Le Creuset?
I like ebay for shopping but don't know if I could tell from the photos that a pan would fry without sticking without seeing and touching it. Also, do you use soap on your iron? We have our own 6 hens who give us such wonderful eggs and I'm making a mess out of them while I look for a pan that works. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.
Now....back to bread. weavershouse
Sorry, that subject line sounded different in my head...
Weavershouse,
I understand your frustration with trying to cook eggs in unseasoned iron. I've more than once told my husband that I married him for his set of cast iron pans :-). They are all old, all came from yard sales, antique sales, etc, and all fry the best eggs you could ask for.
Old pans are certainly the best, in my experience. The weight is better, and the interior surfaces seem to be smoother, maybe from years of spatulas scraping across them, I don't know.
I do know that they all need seasoning, even the old ones on occasion, after something unremovable has been burned on by a suddenly invisible teenager...
Bacon fat is the best of the best, but other oils, especially coconut also work well. I've never had to do the whole rigamarole, but my friend swears by wiping the pan liberally with bacon fat, putting it into the oven at 350 F, and leaving it there until the whole kitchen is smoky, if not the whole house.
I've found that it's pretty effective to wash the pan (I don't use soap; there's very little that won't come off if soaked over night in plain water), then put it, still wet, on the burner, dry it with the heat, then take it off the burner and wipe it well with bacon fat (or whatever). It might take a few repetitions, but it should fairly quickly start to cook the eggs you're looking for. Of course, if you fry the bacon first, then cook the eggs swimming in the fat, you really won't have a problem. Oops, I think an artery just hardened...
I've used an enameled iron pan a couple of times and it was nice for the weight and heat distribution, but as far as sticking goes, it seemed a lot like stainless; needed buckets of oil or butter to keep it from sticking.
Good luck!
edh
I've tried just about everything on the market, and the best pan that I've found, indeed the best cookware that I've found, is SCANPAN. Their ceramic-titanium finish is durable, long-lasting, and produces excellent results. I started with an 8" fry pan - small as I didn't want to "blow" too much money down the drain if it didn't work. Now I'm up to 3 pans and a pot while looking for more... It's not inexpensive.
For larger stock pots (12-qt.+) though my preference is AllClad.
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Thanks Cliff and edh for the tips. I never heard of Scanpan cookware and I'm going to check it out. I found an offer of $44.00 for their $85.00 9 1/2" frypan as a special. You're right Cliff it's expensive.
edh, I do remember my grandmother usually had bacon frying in her cast iron skillet before the eggs went in. Maybe that's the answer for these pans. My grandmother (we called her Nanny) never taught me that a good man would come with a good set of cast iron pots and pans! For some reason (maybe she just liked to say it) she often told me...."My mother had a skimmer with as many holes as there could be...She told me if I married to suit her, she'd give the skimmer to me". Go figure, she told me about skimmers but not men with iron. weavershouse
...to reserve it for frying just pork. A simple wipe after use is all of the maintenance required, unless one accidentally burns something in it. Then it's back to square one with seasoning it. Still, I always found it to be a wee bit of a PITA.
According to researchers though there is a downside to abandoning our cast iron cooking equipment - iron deficiency. Evidently cooking in cast iron does contribute some iron to our diet...I thought that it would have been a negligible amount, but no, the researchers claim that it is a significant amount. We may have accidentally gotten around that by using bean sprouts in our diet. I buy the Mung beans, sprout them for 3 days, clean the seed casings from the sprouts (a simple rinse in water), and enjoy. My wife, who is very particular about what she eats (although I could never prove that by what she eats) actually snacks on them. That caught me by surprise the first time that I saw her do that. Now we use them in our salads to the point where I've eliminated lettuce, and everyone is pleased with the results. I bought an inexpensive seed sprouter gadget on eBay - total cost of something like $15 delivered. It is made in India. I notice now that there are fancier ones available. They all work.
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Here is a cross-section photograph of the lead image. If anyone can see anything here that is symptomatic of the wrinkles on the outside I'd appreciate you pointing it out to me...I'm trying to figure this out.
I've got the parchment paper and have another loaf ready to go into the oven in about 10 minutes. Today's loaf is made with winter wheat so that I can try to do a comparison with this loaf of Prairie Gold Rye bread.
Thanks to all of you who have been helping me. I really appreciate it. It's fun! I feel 20 years younger...well, until I have to move...lol...
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Cliff, are you greasing or oiling the dutch oven? Maybe your dough is rising and then slipping down the slick sides of the DO? Good luck with the new loaf!
Waiting with bated breath,
Susan
Susan,
The Dutch oven is always oiled for storage, and before putting it into the oven I pat it gently with a paper towel to absorb any excess vegetable oil. It is in the oven empty until it reaches 450°F. at which time I put in the dough. I would think that the oil would be burned off by then. It's only a very light coat to start with, and when I take off the lid there is usually a medium-sized puff of smoke that comes out. I'll take a closer look at it the next time.
The other loaf is in the oven - should be ready in about 10-15 minutes. Its internal temperature is 185°F. as of a couple of minutes ago. I had to go out unexpectedly so the dough went into the refridgerator for a couple of hours. I think that I put it in the oven before it reached the usual height. I'll know when I take it out and put the ruler up to it. Right now it looks pretty good - the top that is.
The timer went off, & I've got the bread out of the oven & cooling - took a photo of it too which I'll post shortly. The best word to describe the loaf is "ugly". It's about 3-5/8" high in the center. Acceptable. I was hoping for 4" but didn't get it. I should have let it rise more after I took it out of the fridge. The sides have lots of wrinkles from the parchment - trying to fit a rectangular piece of parchment into a round Dutch oven causes that. There appears to be a shallow indented groove (start of a wrinkle?) around the perimeter by the looks of it...hmmm, dunno... I'll slice into it in about an hour from now to see how it tastes with some cold butter...yummy!
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Well, here is the ugliest loaf of rye bread that I have ever produced - it's almost embarrassing. It's final proofing was interrupted by some time in the refridgerator. I may not have let it warm up sufficiently before baking. I certainly should have let it rise a wee bit more.
Many of the wrinkles on the side are due to the rectangular sheet of parchment paper trying to fit into a round Dutch oven.
There appears to be the start of a circumferential wrinkle a couple of inches up from the bottom of the loaf. I'm wondering if I had let the loaf rise more before baking would that wrinkle have developed deeper, or perhaps a second wrinkle started?
I found a Pyrex lid that will fit my Dutch oven. I think that I'll use it the next time to see if I can watch the loaf develop after it's put into the oven. I won't let anything interfere with its development too (no fridge time).
I'll check out the flavor/texture/etc. in about 30 minutes...
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Cliff, stop what you are doing and send me that ugly loaf right away! It looks great to me but I NEED to taste it to be sure. I think you are being a little self critical on this.
You have to remember the NYT NK bread isn't supposed to have any structure or tension. Just drop it in and yell-YAHOO! It's supposed to be ugly, crispy and tasty (fermented). If you look at the boules that Susan makes you see a well shaped mass that has structure and stays together on its own without spreading much. In her case she has to watch how much the dough weighs because the rise is sooo good. To much dough would rise into the top. The glass cover should be fun to keep an eye on it.
I would try Susan's "Under Glass" recipe she posted. You can cook it in your pot but I think you will be surprised in how nice it bakes if you follow her delicious directions!
Eric
Eric,
Any idea on how best to clean the glass in the oven door? Mine is getting a little smoky colored and blotchy. We had some friends living in our house for about a year before we could ocupy it. She did a lot of baking that made a...well I don't want to call it a mess, because it wasn't, and she's such a sweet person...but it discolored the glass in the oven door.
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Choice of: oven cleaner or cleanser or soda & slightly wet rag or dishwash liquid and steel wool. The list goes on and on.... Mini Oven
Cliff,
I cleaned my door last week with a new Dawn direct foam pump product. It is made to be applied to a sponge and used in a concentrated form. I think it has some water softener in it. From my use around the house it works much better than regular dish soap and there are no "oven cleaner" chemicals to worry about. Works for me.
Eric
I would guess intially that the horizontal wrinkles around the loaf develop when the dough sets at a certain curvature and then more dough is pushed over the top of that curl (rather than rising and falling back down on itself, for example-- I would expect the bubbles to be flatter or wider if the dough was collapsing). It seems unlikely that yeast action alone would cause the dough to spread up and so dramatically out over that little lip of set crust...
You mentioned trying to ease the dough into place with the flipper-- Do you spend much time adjusting the dough after you drop it in the pot? I would guess that if you're able to just drop it in the pot in a single unceremonious PLOP and let it cook with no further adjusting, pushing dough around or even slashing (although slashing seems a less likely factor to me, depending on what you use-- lame? razor-pop on a coffee stirrer? Steak knife?) then those wrinkles would less likely appear.
Also, it seems like you use enough dough that it shouldn't particularly matter whether the loaf is perfectly centered-- it should spread to all edges anyway. Have you tried without actively centering it and had unsavory results? As a worst-case scenario I can imagine a concave half-bubble receding into the outer crust somewhere around the bottom of the loaf, but I wouldn't expect that.
Looks tasty, in any case...
John
John,
I don't spend much more than a couple of seconds "adjusting" the dough in the Dutch oven. The "adjustment" is limited to tilting the Dutch oven to one side so that the dough flows to the low side of the dough ball. I only used the egg flipper to slow down the dough mass as it oozed from the bowl into the Dutch oven - trying to keep it from elongating too much.
Before using the egg flipper to control the dough drop I just let the dough plop into the Dutch oven. Scared the you-know-what out of me as the dough collapsed. I thought that I was going to end up with an exotic rye tortilla. The finished loaf was lop-sided; however, the dough did recover nicely and rise in the Dutch oven. It just didn't end up uniform in thickness. Because of the size of my proofing bowls the dough always covers the bottom of the Dutch oven upon final placement.
I just started slashing the tops with these 2 loaves. I use a single-edged razor blade - new & very sharp, indeed. Other than for appearances I'm not so sure what the benefits of slashing the top are. B.S. - before slashing (a wee bit of humor there) - the tops split on their own randomly. Now the slashes just control where the splitting occurs, from what I can tell.
I don't know if I'm using enough "make-up" flour in the final kneading either. I simply read about how to use the no-knead method and took it from there. I've never seen anyone else make bread this way. It's not the same with rye bread dough as it is with white bread doughs. Rye bread dough always seems to be sticky to me; whereas, white bread doughs get nice and silky. The gas bubbles in my bread are pretty much uniformly eliptical in shape and vary randomly in size from the bottom to the center to the top of the loaves. I get no large gas bubbles at all, and I get no areas devoid of gas bubbles either (crusts excluded), at least that I've seen, and I scrutinize just about every slice.
Perhaps I'll give half of this loaf the to doctor next door and start another one tomorrow...hmmm, could do it tonight, but I don't think so...
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Looks overproofed to me. Try reducing final proof time. 2 hours is too long. The wrinkles really don't bother me and it looks good. I can almost smell it! Try only 1 hour or even just 30 minutes. The crust should have a rough surface and be careful when cutting your finished loaf to avoid scraped or cut knuckles. Mini Oven
Overproofing is the culprit. Thanks for the lead. I watched it carefully this week, and that's the problem. Next time, less time :-)
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
The verdict is in.
I cut into the fresh loaf of rye bread made with winter wheat flour and compared it to a loaf of rye bread made with Prairie Gold wheat flour. There is a difference in tastes.
The rye bread made with Prairie Gold wheat flour has a taste that I would describe as "mellow" and "fairly simple" as in "not complex". I detected basically one flavor. When I breathed out through my nose with a mouthful of the chewed bread the sensation was again mellow and almost sweet, perhaps sweet isn't the best word to use, but I can't think of another one to use here right now.
The rye bread made with winter wheat flour has a taste that I would describe as more "complex" and robust or stronger. There appeared to be multiple flavors as I chewed and savored it. When I breathed out gently through my nose (don't know why I do this, but I do) the taste was noticeably stronger and more complex than the Prairie Gold wheat flour. The recipe that I use is really a Jewish Rye bread recipe, and this is an excellent example of it, I would say.
I made a loaf of rye bread last week using about a cup less of rye flour and a cup more of Prairie Gold wheat flour. That was an excellent loaf - mellow and subtle in flavor - very smooth. I would call it an American Rye bread. Where the Prairie Gold wheat flour really is outstanding though, in my opinion, is when it is used in whole wheat bread - no other flour used. It is GREAT in this application. In fact I would stick my neck out and say that I don't think that any other wheat can come close to it. I liked it that much. I do not normally like whole wheat bread - never have. The Prairie Gold whole wheat bread won me over in an instant.
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
Cliff, thanks for the rundown above. I know they both were delish! I still haven't broken into the Prairie Gold berries yet--having too much fun figuring out the high gluten flour. Glad you're getting lots of input on the wrinkly loaves. With all the knowledge of this group behind you, you'll figure it out!
Susan
This morning I did a comparison of the two breads by toasting them. That may sound minor, but it yielded a significant difference.
I had the toaster set up so that by toasting one slice twice (one toasting on the highest setting just wouldn't toast either bread's slice) of the winter wheat rye bread the slice would be toasted just perfect with the the edges starting to turn a dark brown without burning. OK, 2 times down for the winter wheat rye bread slice, and it's just right for me.
The Prairie Gold rye bread started to burn approximately 3/4 of the way through the second toasting cycle, and I do mean a major burn, 20% of the slice was black and smoking so I popped it up quickly - too late. It was too far gone - off to the garbage can for it.
So, for some unknown reason to me the Prairie Gold rye bread can't take the heat...poor joke, eh? It still makes a delicious toast though. Does anyone have an idea why this is happening?
By the way, the winter wheat rye bread tastes even better after "aging" overnight. It is still wonderfully robust with a complex flavor. Gads, I'm starting to sound like one of those wine gurus that I just can't stand - apologies, but I don't know how else to explain it.
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
- that's what you have, Cliff. You remind me of my wine club buddies, except we inhale to discover layers of flavor. Don't do that! You'll get a crumb up your nose!
What a crummy comment...lol...
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay
For some reason today my dough "took off" on its final rise. As I transferred it into the hot Dutch oven I saw the top dome of the dough collapse downward dragging toward the inside of the loaf the edges with the cornmeal. When this loaf is finished baking I expect to see a big smiling wrinkle winking at me around its perimeter. So, the next time that I bake the bread I will cut down on the final proof. I was giving it 2 hours - I'll try 1-1/2 hours next. One thing though, I am getting a larger loaf with "sides" on it which was my original goal. It makes for a more rectangle-shaped slice of bread with which to make toast and sandwiches. I am also finding the 5-quart Lodge Dutch oven much easier to handle, along with the smaller dough ball. The 7-quart Dutch oven which had been recommended is a wrist buster. If anyone wants it, it's for sale.
Cliff. Johnston
"May the best you've ever seen,
Be the worst you'll ever see;"
from A Scots Toast by Allan Ramsay