33% Rye Levain Batards ala WoodenSpoon
Inspiration comes from a few places. I almost never crack open either of my two bread baking books anymore, as the world of TFL is the best on the market! My main interests in the next loaf to tackle are usually spurred on by something in the Bread Browser, the Also on TFL or someone’s Recent Blog Entries posting.
For a while I’d been eyeing WoodenSpoon’s Rye Levain batard in the Also column. Having delved into the world of rye flour dough recently, the time had come. Especially since I had some still potent stiff rye levain from recent breads I made this past month. I very much like the Greenstein-Snyder method of gauging the maturity in the rise of a rye sour levain. Sprinkle some rye flour on top and watch for it to dome and separate into “islands”. With a very stiff levain build such as used here, that rise is minimal, but the “cracking open” of the loose flour sprinkled on top is a sure-fire indicator that the levain is active and healthy.
Changes from the original formula:
- adjusted for 1500g, three batards at 500g each
- No milling of my own flours – I use off-the-shelf products
- I wouldn’t know a “rye chop” if it came up and bit me from behind, so that was out
- I took WoodenSpoon’s word as is when he states “Bread Flour”. Not having any on hand (apparently too lazy to git me sum), I used a combination of AP flour and Vital Wheat Gluten, using my now handy Pearson’s Square to accurately calculate the (somewhere around) 13.3% total protein that using bread flour would provide.
- Bulk ferment for 2 hours with letter folds at 40, 60 and 80 minutes and a final 40 minute bulk bench rest.
- Refrigerate for ~1 hour, then divide and pre-shape, 10 minute rest, and final shape.
- Onto a couche, then slipped inside plastic bags to preserve moisture and prevent any surface drying. Retard for ~18 hours.
- Scored directly from the refrigerator and put into the 500dF oven, already under steam, add 2 cups very hot water to the lava rock pan, and pull my face back quickly!
- 15 minutes of steam at 450dF, rotate and continue baking for another 22 minutes with 5 minutes of venting at the end.
Retarded overnight, a light shower of raw flour, scored and ready for the oven
Steam released and rotated after 15 minutes
The Kids are Alright
A little denser than I was expecting
alan
Comments
Scoring, ears, colour and crumb. What delicious looking breads.
Your scoring is consistently great!
Bon Appetite.
- Abe.
Hummed to the tune of It's Getting Better All The Time.
Actually I go in and out of nightmare scoring phases, although not often anymore. Usually I'm on the good side of the ledger, but occasionally not so adept. Thanks for the good thoughts.
As stated in my OP, I'm finding so much inspiration on TFL, there is little reason to explore elsewhere. I know what my areas of interest are and therefore my comfort level and confidence is continuing to grow. The issue is that I'm now rarely getting back to my stock favorites. Oh, the horror!!!
alan
Beautiful loaves - well done!
who thinks that baking isn't fun - needs to find another hobby. We're all in this together. Thank you,
alan
These look amazing! Oh to get a rise like that and to be able to score so adeptly!
Best wishes, Colin.Actually on first reading of your comment, it sounds suspiciously like a comment overheard in a pick-up bar ;-)
alan
I assure you, Alan, than my intentions were entirely honourable. I shall be much more restrained in future, for fear to damaging my otherwise impeccable reputation. :-) Colin
That's some good rye bread. Love the shape color bloom and crumb. Well done all the way around and
Happy baking
are all confidence builders. I'm starting to believe that I can pretty much take a lot of other folks' formulae and get something within the ballpark.
Very nice baking. Love the shine you have on the crust and great ears.
If you want to open up the crumb I suggest increasing the water amount. When using someones recipe who is using different flour than you it is a good chance you will have to adjust the water content based on feel.
When running a formula for the first time, I like to stay with the stated amounts (however much I can). Procedurally is where I go off the tracks and stick pretty much to my own set of steps. Next time through I might bump the hydration up from this 77.4 to something like 80 or more and see where that takes me.
alan
Alan...those ears are impressive. May I know how did you achieve that? It is almost the first thing that I noticed every time I read your blog. Do you have to score deep? Appreciate some pointers.
As mentioned to Abe, most of the time I can get a pretty good score on the dough, although that still occasionally eludes me. If you have seen virtually all of my posts in the last year since I joined TFL, you would note that I concentrated solely on baguettes for the first year and switched over to batards for a change these past few months. So here is a rundown:
Loading the cool dough into the oven allows the body and surface of the dough to remain cooler much longer than had the dough been at room temperature. I believe that this will give the dough a much better opportunity to open with the steam before setting. Better ways? Probably dozens of other methods out there to get a good ear, but these seem to really be hitting the mark for me.
thanks for the kind words,
alan
Thank you very much for writing up such a lenightly but informative piece of work. I have watched David's video on scoring a couple of time. As usual, things seems easy on videos and that doesn't apply to reality most of the time :(
Though, I agree on practice makes perfect. I too, have gotten used to,scoring on cold doughs nowadays. I shall work on this area more whenever possible. Just have to get done with the sprouting now before moving onto the next venture.
Regards,
Sandy