Enough of my rye humor.

Well, I totally meant to catch up on this bloggage. Apparently, I've lied to not only you, but myself as well. With that said, I will write this post, and I will write it now! I guess I keep putting it off, since it's always harder to write about the breads that don't work out quite how I want them to.

This bread was a totally different experience than all the previous breads. I know that's something I keep saying, but this was seriously different. The rye flour is a very roughly milled flour, so there is no way to make it achieve a fine texture. The best it really gets is what is basically a wet ball of sand. The best part was that there wasn't really a chance for it to be sticky like the previous doughs, which kept the entire process very clean.

The process began with two different starters. The chunks are a starter made from the sourdough starter, water and rye flour. The bowl that looks like vomit is a soaker of pumpernickel-grind flour (even more coarse than the rye flour) soaked in water. These starter rises then chills in the fridge overnight, while the soaker sits out. On baking day, out comes the starter to warm up before making the dough.

The dough is then made from more rye flour, salt, caraway seeds, the starter pieces and the soaker with just enough water to bring it together. This wasn't really kneadable, but I managed well enough. The dough was then left to rise. If you look at the picture, you can see how rough the dough is. I think I did something a little wrong, as the dough seemed insanely dense and didn't really rise like it was supposed to.

At this point, I shaped it into two batards and let them rise again. Again, there wasn't that much rise. I scored them down the middle and did the steam-based baking method again, which really isn't that bad now that I'm used to it. Just throwing the oven door open and shut for a few minutes, and then it's baking as usual.

The rye came out alright. The crust was insanely tough. Reinhart claimed that it would soften, but you can't read everything you read, apparently. The flavor was good, though, and the crumb was relatively soft in comparison. I'll probably cut the caraway down a little next time, as it was incredibly powerful.

I'm kind of interesting in holding onto the rye I still have left and see how long it stays good. I'm not sure why exactly, but the shelf life of rye is supposed to be measurable in months versus the week or two that white or wheat bread will stay good. This could be an exciting experiment. I suppose the contest will be to see if I get the next blog entry typed up before the rye goes bad.

Rye? Check.

Next up? Pumpernickel. (Another bread I kinda screwed up. Blah...)