Toasted Rye/Whole Wheat Sourdough
This bread uses rye and wheat flours in the same proportions as dmsyder's San Joaquin breads, but the process and levain are different, and the rye is toasted. I included a little sugar because that seems to go well with the rye.
The loaves proved to a surprisingly large size, baked up beautifully, have a wonderful crust, an open crumb, and a mild lovely flavor with cereal notes. I don't taste any sourness.
The dough has 65% hydration (not counting the starter ingredients) and 30% starter, with no levain build stage. The shaped loaves were proofed freestanding and retarded overnight in the refrigerator. Pictures first, then details. The sheen on the crust is not an illusion. Actually, in person the sheen is even more pronounced. It's something I expect to get on most of my free-standing bakes.
The truncated bit on the left side of the crumb photo is where the two loaves merged, like Siamese twins joined at the hip.
Formula
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Total flour 600g (not including starter)
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5% toasted rye
10% whole wheat (93% extraction stone ground)
85% all purpose Pillsbury Unbleached All Purpose)
30% starter (100% hydration, fresh white AP flour))
65% water
2.0% sugar
2.5% salt
This produced two loaves of about 475g each, or a little more than one pound.
Process
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- toast rye
- mix starter, all flours, salt, sugar, water
- rest 30 - 45 minutes
- knead/stretch
- 2 S&F in hands over next 1.5 hours
- finish bulk ferment (5 hours total)
- scale, form two loaves, preform, rest 10 minutes
- proof loaves 1.5 hr covered with plastic wrap
- refrigerate loaves overnight
- warm up loaves 45 minutes, uncovered last 10
- preheat oven to 450° F
- bake with steam at 425° F for 38 minutes
- cool down in vented oven for 4 minutes (turned off).
The dough rose quickly in both bulk ferment and final proof, where it took me by surprise. I have a tendency to underproof my loaves - though they seem developed by the poke test - and though I was worried these had overproofed since they had swelled so much, as you see they came out quite beautiful.
The loaves proofed side-by-side on a parchment-covered plastic cutting board. They got so big that in the end they touched and merged together at the middle, like a tray of buns. They started to overflow the cutting board by bake time.
As usual I baked with a baking steel and steam. My oven vents steam out of a range-top vent within a few minutes, and this time I blocked the vent for a few minutes to keep more steam in the oven longer. The dramatic sheen and the rich color you can see in the pictures are enhanced by the steam. I used to get them with a previous oven, but my present one vents more aggressively.
The crust is very crackly and flakes into shards when you bite it, and you can bite through it without a fight. The crumb is very open for a 65% hydration bread. It's a little soft, which might be because I didn't wait for a complete cooldown, or could be a hint to use bread flour next time.
All in all, a big success.
TomP
Comments
Wow! Outstanding result, thanks for sharing.
: )
So do you taste the toasted rye flour? How did you do the toasting?
It's hard to be sure without making one both ways, but I think I do. There seems to be more of a dry cereal taste, a little different from the usual darkish rye. But there is only 5% rye, so it's hard to be sure. I'm making a non-toasted version today, but with some masa harina added.
I used a small skillet on the stovetop to toast, but in hindsight I could have done better using a baking sheet in the oven.
TomP
Today's un-toasted version came out about the same but even a little larger. As to changes, I did not toast the rye, I added 5% masa harina, and slit the whole wheat into two parts: ww and emmer. All whole grains had the bran sifted out. And I used bread flour instead of AP for the rest.
There was a difference in proofing. I retarded the bulk ferment in the fridge after 6 hours, and shaped the loaf the next morning after letting the BF tub warm up for 45 minutes at 72 deg F. After more than an hour nothing much seemed to be happening and I put the loaf into my proofer box at 80 deg F/27C for another 2 1/2 hours. Finally it had risen as much as I hoped for and I left it on the counter uncovered for another 15 minutes to develop a bit of a skin for good slashing.
Why the loaf needed so much proofing I have no idea. I don't taste that cereal flavor from the previous batch, so I think the toasting did make a difference.
long-proof-1.jpg
long-proof-crumb.jpg
Looks great Tom!
Thanks! It's a good toasting bread, as it turns out. Today I made a sandwich of cheese, a chopped tomato, and chopped onion on toasted slices dressed with mayo and it was delicious.
Try one with no sugar? Is that on the to-bake list?
Not specifically, but I could queue it up.