Pain au Cidre (Normandy Apple Cider Rye)
This recipe from The Rye Baker surprised me with how complex the flavor was despite the simplicity of the method (i.e., no sourdough). Most of the rye recipes in the book are built on sour culture to provide the acidic environment and flavor; this one uses hard apple cider to accomplish those goals.
The dough is a 71% medium rye and AP blend (both King Arthur) with Blake’s Flannel Mouth hard cider (6.5% ABV and slightly sweet) as the liquid (71% hydration). There is also a bit of sugar and IDY. The recipe was scaled to one can of cider and it yielded one 782-g loaf.
I had not attempted this recipe sooner because it specified a 20 minute knead with a mixer and that was more than an iffy shoulder could handle for hand mixing. I recently purchased a Bosch Compact mixer so that obstacle was no longer preventing me from trying the bread. I’m glad I did!
Comments
Beautiful!
I baked this one a while back and didn't achieve anything close to the the fantastic loft or soft crumb that you got -- maybe because I mixed by hand and skimped on the kneading.
I've migrated to some sourdough-based cider rye recipes since then, but you've made me think I should return to this one. Thanks!
Rob
Hi Rob, thank you for the kind words. I do think it's worth revisiting. I'm completely out of commission right now with my shoulder, but I will definitely be coming back to this one. Tell me more about these sourdough-based cider recipes. I will want to put them in the ever-expanding queue.
Ginsberg describes an open crumb; I don't know if what I got is "open" or not not. I actually think it may have been slightly underproofed because I got a tear in the sidewall and the base of the crumb looks a little dense. But the crumb was soft and the flavor is outstanding.
1. my go-to sourdough cider rye recipe is isand66's somewhat non-traditional cider/sweet pototo rye from this site -- https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/58427/apple-cider-rye-potato-bread -- which, though only around 50% rye, has an amazing flavor that grows and changes over time as all good ryes tend to do. My biggest modification is that I don't roast the sweet potato but rather add it raw and grated, which I find controls the sweetness somewhat.
2. as I don't have The Rye Baker book, I'm wondering if the formula you used is the same as the one presented on the splendid table website: https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2016/12/06/normandy-cider-rye.
3. While I'm on the subject of non-traditional ryes, I just made Lutz Geißler's Schokoladenbrot (https://www.ploetzblog.de/2015/09/05/im-schoko-rausch-schokoladenbrot-sechzig-prozent-roggenbrot/), which uses both sourdough and yeast to ferment a 90% rye with 80g of melted chocolate kneaded into the dough. It's not sweet at all, but tastes and smells wonderfully of chocolate. I made it for a German friend and she suggested it reminded her of good pumpernickel.
Rob
IMG_9146.jpg
Try reducing the yeast and putting it in the fridge for a day or two, should accomplish the same thing as all that hard work kneading. I hardly ever knead more than a few minutes.
Not sure why this post isnt linked to the post I was responding too... ;0)
Love the russet hue and moist-looking crumb. That's a tasty-looking bread. "Scaled to one can of cider" seems prudent; a six pack of rye bread is probably over the legal limit.
When I went to look up the formula, I was surprised to find that I didn't own a copy of The Rye Baker. I ordered one tonight in Kindle format, but returned it because the formulas were unreadable. Sure hope they fix that.
–AG
Thank you! It is a tasty bread.
The formula tables are THE weak spot in the Kindle version. I find they expand well enough to read, but it is a royal pain switching back and forth. I usually just transcribe the formula to a spreadsheet for scaling and that makes it easier. And it allows scaling to one can of cider. If I had followed his recipe, I could've consumed the leftover partial can, but I started in the morning and it was just a little tooo early to start imbibing!
That looks great to me too. Interesting use of the apple cider for acidity and flavour too I guess. Great to see a rye recipe that is simple yet tasty, nicely baked.
Benny
Great looking loaf! I hear you on the ever-expanding queue... My parents are coming to visit and my mom likes rye breads. This might be one that gets tried soon, especially since I already have the KAF Medium Rye and AP flours. A can of hard cider is easy to find. :-)
Any chance you have a link to a spreadsheet or the formula you used to scale to a single can?
Not under or overproofed in my opinion. Extra cider could be handy for a simple glaze.
I might try this with diluted fresh pressed orange juice instead of apple cider. Rhubarb with apple sauce for sweetness worked well in a previous experiment, the acid coming from the rhubarb. Why not oranges? A wallop of Orange marmalade is also good in rye dough.
Thanks Mini!
I thought the sidewall tear might have indicated slight underproofing but I'll defer to your judgment as you've made waaay more ryes than I.
I also have some apple-sour cherry hard cider that I thought about using in this bread. Or even sour cherry juice which is fairly common here around the Great Lakes.
when diluted with flour. I won't stop an experiment but I might be more tempted to make jelly.
How about using the squished out cherries, the fiber pulp from pressing out the juice? Cherries are getting ripe on my neighbor's tree.
My own new baby sour cherry tree has 5 cherries on it. I might have to net the tree to get at least one to taste. Raspberries are getting ripe, picked a handful this morning.
Oranges have acid and will effect your fermentation and if not careful you will end up with a brick…..trust me I’ve been there 🙄