Rye&Whisky&Honey Levain
- 500g bf (89%)
- 120g rye levain (11%rye 11%water)
- 84g rye berries (15%)
- 84g rye chops (15%)
- 84g extra corse rye (15%)
- 28g rye whisky (5%)
- 28g honey (5%)
- 377g water (67%)
- 11g salt (2%)
The evening before I wanted to bake I mixed the levain using 5g chef 100g whole rye and 100g water and set it aside to ferment for roughly sixteen hours. I also mixed the rye chops, berries, and pumpernickel flour with the honey, whisky and enough warm water to cover the seeds, I mixed the soaker with a spoon every once in a while and added more warm water as needed.
The following afternoon I lightly mixed all the ingredients but the salt and let it rest for an hour, added the salt and gave it a few 30 second sets of slap and folds interspersed with minute longs rests. Once the dough was developed to my liking I set in in a covered bowl to ferment for three more hours, then I shaped it, popped it into the pan and let it proof for 2 or so more hours. Then I baked it in a oven whos temperature descended from 450 to 380ish over the course of an hour and twenty minutes, once done baking i let the loaf rest overnight and into the following afternoon.
I just cut into it and it is darn tasty. The honey taste is barely discernible amongst the spicy, earthy farmyardy flavors and aromas of the rye, and while I can't be sure that i can taste the whisky I can smell it for sure...I think. The crumb is tight and a little tacky due to all the whole grains and I'm planning on making some killer grilled cheeses with it for dinner.
Comments
Holy alcoholic daze Batman! What a fantastic combination of flavors. Awesome job of coming up with this concoction. Would love to taste one of your grilled cheese sandwiches with this one.
Cheers,
Ian
I made a great one with brie, thin sliced tomatoes, jalapenos, avocado, green onions and bacon. And my lady friend made one with smoked gouda, sauerkraut, green onions, tomato and bacon.
rye flower honey or use the rye soaking liquid from the chops and berry soaker or rye smoked salt and rye smoked bread flour? Tsk......Tsk :-) Still, the bread sure came out great anyway - beautimous to behold and it has to taste as good as it looks. Very well done indeed WS! Your baking has taken to the Pacific NW well.
Happy baking
short of making proper rye bread If I could of got more assorted rye things in there I would of. But you can be darn sure I used the berry/chops soaker liquid.
That is an amazing looking bread! My mouth is watering! Apart from the ingredients,what really attracts me, is the shape. How do you get it so square? Are there baking tins you can close off on the top?
Cheers,
Guido
Just make sure you order a Pullman Loaf pan that comes with the lid, or understand that ou have to buy it separately.
As David said the shape is fully credited to a 9x4x4 pullman pan with a cover. I am a huge fan of them.
This is very cool, not only did you get a beautiful looking loaf which I am certain is delicious, but the 5% whisky is a great idea! Another beautiful bread, WoodenSpoon!!
I kept the whisky percentage pretty low because I wasn't quite sure how it would affect fermentation, not to mention that I made some sourmix that I know it doesn't adversely effect. But it turned out to have no apparent effect on fermentation so maybe next time I'l bump it up to 8% for an even more rye whisky bite.
One day I am going to make a rye bread. Seems a shame not to do so since I have the mill. Will put this on my tobake list.
Questions though:
If I am milling the rye berries, any idea if I can get "chops"? I haven't milled rye wide open yet, but if it mills anything like the softer oat groats, I have a feeling that rather than breaking the berry into only a few pieces I am going to wind up with coarse flour (Coarse flour is what you refer to as the pumpernickel, yes?)
you should totally make some rye! even small percentages impart some pretty top notch flavor. As for your questions, not having sprung for a mill of my own (yet) I can't answer about the rye chops for sure but I think you could get em no problem, I have also seen them called cracked rye which leads me to believe they are achieved by cracking as opposed to coarse oats being steel cut. And yes the pumpernickel flour is very coarse rye flour, kind of more like rye meal.
I'm pretty sure you can't crack the rye with the mill. I know on my Nutrimill I certainly can't. You can try using a food processor and see if that works or a mortar and pestle or do what I do and buy it :).
I use the cracked rye in a lot of breads without soaking as it does a good job of absorbing into the flour and I actually treat it as a flour just to get a little jolt of rye flavor.
I think I will give the blender a chance before buying something else. Not even sure how a chop bakes different from a coarse grind. I don't want to buy anything more to store. Just scored 50 pounds of white wheat berries and am at capacity!
This I have to try! It looks drool-worthy.
Any guesstimate of the total quantity of water in the soaker, including the "as needed" additions? Was there any free water in the dish, or had everything been absorbed?
Nicely done, WS.
Paul
As i was neglecting to weigh the soaker water I was thinking about how I probably should be. I would say total I probably used a cup and a half or two...maybe. By the end of the 16 or so hour soak everything had absorbed, but had I added any more water then I did there would of been leftover.