Jewish Rye finally!!!
![Finally got to upload the pics of the starter and the Jewish Rye loaf. Mr Joe said it was exactly like he wanted (a BIG THANK YOU Mark, and all who had input) he said if I did anything, my crust needed to be "crackier" if that is a word! I knew what he meant anyway! I' m sure the shaping didn't suit, but he was happy overall. Thank you all for all your help and inspiration. It is what keeps all of us going!I will try to post all the pics on this one page. If I'm not able to, please forgive. I'll also TRY to upload a loaf of potato bread I did over the weekend. Mark, if you, or anyone else is out there on this starter, I have been maintaining it on the counter, and it is doing quite well. Can/ should I even bother to refrigerate it. If you do, do you still feed daily? It is doing so well I almost hate to change anything different. Check ya'll tomorrow!](/files/images/DSC03026.JPG "Finally got to upload the pics of the starter and the Jewish Rye loaf. Mr Joe said it was exactly like he wanted (a BIG THANK YOU Mark, and all who had input) he said if I did anything, my crust needed to be "crackier" if that is a word! I knew what he meant anyway! I' m sure the shaping didn't suit, but he was happy overall. Thank you all for all your help and inspiration. It is what keeps all of us going!I will try to post all the pics on this one page. If I'm not able to, please forgive. I'll also TRY to upload a loaf of potato bread I did over the weekend. Mark, if you, or anyone else is out there on this starter, I have been maintaining it on the counter, and it is doing quite well. Can/ should I even bother to refrigerate it. If you do, do you still feed daily? It is doing so well I almost hate to change anything different. Check ya'll tomorrow!")
Finally got the Jewish Rye finished!: Finally got to upload the pics of the starter and the Jewish Rye loaf. Mr Joe said it was exactly like he wanted (a BIG THANK YOU Mark, and all who had input) he said if I did anything, my crust needed to be "crackier" if that is a word! I knew what he meant anyway! I' m sure the shaping didn't suit, but he was happy overall. Thank you all for all your help and inspiration. It is what keeps all of us going!I will try to post all the pics on this one page. If I'm not able to, please forgive. I'll also TRY to upload a loaf of potato bread I did over the weekend. Mark, if you, or anyone else is out there on this starter, I have been maintaining it on the counter, and it is doing quite well. Can/ should I even bother to refrigerate it. If you do, do you still feed daily? It is doing so well I almost hate to change anything different. Check ya'll tomorrow!
I told you all my computer skills are terrible, I hope this goes in. The last one is lost in space.
Jewish Rye starter: Well, I couldn't get more than one image to load, so I will do this one at the time. Oh bother....
Congratulations! Tasty looking bread you have there. How nice to be able to recreate a memory for your friend. :)
your Jewish Rye Loaves look wonderful, I like especially the spiral-shaped one!
Audra,
As Manuela said, I too especially like the sprial one! They look awesome. Why change your starter routine if it's working so well? I keep mine on the countertop (well, in a bowl, on the countertop) and I feed it daily. Unless it looks like it's past fully developed (collapsed upon itself) before 24 hours, your routine looks good. Thanks for the cool pictures.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
I couldn't get a good surface tension, and it kinda squished on me. Do you think I didn't knead long enough, or maybe didn't proof long enough? I kneaded it by hand, and did it for 10 minutes. The dough felt good, soft, and spring-y. Well one thing I do know is that practice makes perfect, so I plan to do another Tuesday. Mr. Joe said the taste was absolutely perfect. He was amazed it was so close to his dream bread on the first try. He said my crust should be crustier, and he did want it to be more loaf shaped for a more sandwich shaped sandwich, which was my intention but just couldn't pull it off this time. As with my other breads the more often I make them the better the results. I would have already tried again, but a slight KIDNEY STONE slowed me down, dang thing! It's funny, with a little one at home sometimes its hard to find the time to think of things other than Sesame Street and Spongebob, while I was in the hospital under slight sedation, the room was empty and all was QUIET (something that is never at my house!) all I could think about was that bread and how I might get better results! Crazy huh? Oh well, our obsessions keep us going sometimes! Thank for all your help!
Audra
Audra,
Too bad about the kidney stone - that's rather inconvenient!
I've had some squishyness issues with my ryes and so I've added another fold into the bulk fermentation process. Now I get the kneading done, rest for 45 min, fold, rest for 45 min, fold, rest for 45 min, then fold and shape (no preshape). This seems to make it pretty tight and the extra fold adds volume and spring to the dough. I think it effects the white flour in the dough more so than the rye. I don't know if you have bannetons/brotforms, but I use them for the rye. A hotter initial temperature for 10 minutes or so (450) might do the trick as far as adding crispiness to the crust. Ten minutes is usually a pretty good amount for kneading; sometimes if it feels to loose, it could be that the dough is a little too wet. I think I would try to make it just a little bit drier, plus add another fold, then see what happens.
I'll be putting up a video on my site really soon on some bread basics, maybe too beginnerish for you, but it'll explain some of the techniques and stuff I use when hand kneading and folding.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
You've done this way more than I have. That might just do the trick. It (the dough) seemed almost ok when I shaped, but just not quite tight enough. The fold might just fix my problem. And the hot oven too. I always think that my oven is slow. I have a thermometer inside, but I notice on cookies and other timed baked goods, usually require a bit longer. I might try my pizza stone if I just can't get the crust going on my on. And yes, I will be on the lookout for your videos on your site. When I get off the track, it is always good to go back to the basics. Most of the time, I think that I overthink my problems. On days when I have a minute, I like to go to youtube and watch the bread videos. I find them facinating, my best friend just rolls her eyes and walks away! But she never refuses bread!Thanks for all your help, I'm amazed you have time with your bakery and all, but I'm glad you found a spare minute! Happy baking!
Audra
Hi Audra,
This is related to the PSB recipe from a couple of weeks ago, not the rye. I don't remember exactly when I did the wrong conversion, but in making the portuguese sweet bread today for my tutorial, I realized that the recipe I posted online had the wrong amount of salt. So you might want to recheck my numbers if you want to try that one again. OOPS! Sorry about that.
-Mark
http://thebackhomebakery.com
I'll be sure to. Thanks for the heads up!
audra, the "crackier" crust he is referring to probably comes from those great old traditional Jewish bakeries that use wood ovens. Glad it turned out well.
and it turned out much better. It had a much better rise, and a nice rounded top. The crust was much crackier, and I'm glad after buns of steel idea on the wood oven. I would have been on a dead end road on that one.( that wood oven bakery thing is so cheating!) I'm going to keep practicing even on the days Mr. Joe isn't needing bread. I must go to my brothers deli and see if he can get me some carraway seed in a larger/CHEAPER quantity. Those little ones from the grocery store are getting pricey already. Thanks for everybody's help, this has been a very fun adventure, and its only just begun! Happy baking!
Audra