The Rye Baker
Anyone else exited about the upcoming book "The Rye Baker?"
I personally can't wait, release date is almost here, been waiting a over a year. I've never pre-ordered a book before, until now!
I'm a bit of a rye nut, baked most of the ryes in Hammelman's Bread, but found it a limited resource. Used to wish there was a book with all the old-world European recipes in it.Good thing is, Stan's got a blog where he posts recipes from the book, I've been baking a new one about every other week. Lithuanian Black bread was excellent, and my latest, (pictured), Berliner Landbrot- is a fantastic, full flavored rye.
It's amazing much of these breads have the same ingredients, flour, water and salt, yet they are all completely different tasting depending on the process.
Got the book and absolutely love it. The history of rye baking and the old world recipes make fascinating reading. My favorite recipe is the Westfalian Pumpernickel with nothing but coarse rye meal, water and salt, and it takes 3 days to make. The sweet taste of the rye in this bread is unique. Only problem is that they have come it of the oven after 2 days continuous baking very hard. Haven't yet figured that out. Maybe had too low hydration.
I received my book a few days ago and haven't been able to put it down since! I'm trying out his rye culture build that he describes on page 35 and so far, it is going great guns. Easiest process I've ever tried. I see a number of recipes that i'm anxious to try. The Swabian Rye Blossom sounds like a little bit of heaven! Some recipes like the Riga Rye are going to force me to add more equipment to my bread baking arsenal, oh darn! I informed the wife that if she wanted some good rye bread like the Riga, I'd have to invest in a proofer/ holder unit. My local used restaurant equipment store offers these at a good reduced price. One of these units would allow me to hold the mixed dough at the required temperatures that are higher than "room temperature" for the required number of hours, rather than the on/off process of the kitchen oven. Here in Michigan, the winter months always produce a cool drafty kitchen, so such a unit would even come in handy for proofing my wheat breads. Back to the book, it gives a great history on rye grain and its use in bread baking. The recipes are easy to follow and their clarity should be easy for even the beginner rye bread baker to follow. All in all, I find it to be an outstanding book that certainly will open up a new adventure into my rye bread baking. Thank you Stan!