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Rye Bread & Such

"Michael C. Zusman" <mikez@evanszusman.com>
Tue, 25 Jan 2000 14:04:28 -0800
v100.n009.14
I am happy to share my rye recipe.  It is adapted from a formula used by 
the American team in the Coup du Monde bread baking competition in Paris a 
few years back.  It is a bit elaborate, and also requires some less than 
common ingredients.  I am including notes and commentary for your 
edification.  The formula is for about a 10.5# batch.  It can easily be cut 
back to a smaller batch, although ideally you should end up with total 
dough weight divisible by 18 oz. (which is a fun math challenge since the 
formula is expressed in metric measures).  I recommend a good scale to any 
baker who doesn't have one.

ONION RYE

Make Pre-Ferment:
300g Rye Starter (Note 1)
300g Water
500g High Protein Bread Flour (Note 2)

Make Soaker:
500g Coarse Rye Meal (Note 3)
500g Water

Soaker and Pre-ferment should be made approximately 8 hours ahead of dough 
preparation.  Each should be covered after preparation to avoid surface 
drying.  Preferment should be well risen, and just starting to recede, when 
ready to use.  (I have cheated and made the dough only after about 4-6 
hours.  I have also been distracted and not made the dough for 12 or 16 
hours.  These variations are not recommended, although the end product was 
still pretty good.)

Make Dough:
1250g High Protein Bread Flour
250g Light Rye Flour
20-25g Instant Dry Yeast
50g Salt
150g Brown Sugar
Preferment
Soaker
500-600g Water
200g Roasted Chopped Onion (Note 4)
100g Caraway Seeds
50g Charnushka Seeds  (Note 5)

Combine initial dry ingredients first.  Whisk with your hand or wire whisk 
to disperse yeast, salt and sugar.  Add preferment, soaker and about 2/3 of 
water and mix at low speed to incorporate all, about 2-3 minutes.  Add 
onion, mix at low speed for another minute or so until incorporated.  At 
this point, dough should be fairly firm, maybe even a bit overly dry with 
some excess flour still remaining unincorporated.  Goal with a rye dough is 
to have a heavy, well-developed but still slightly sticky end product.  Rye 
is sticky stuff.  If dough is too dry, add most/all of remaining water, a 
little at a time, until dough is the right consistency or just a slight bit 
too soft.  Mix 2-3 more minutes at medium speed to develop gluten.  Add 
seeds; mix at low speed to incorporate, about a minute or two.  Turn out on 
to lightly floured work surface.  Knead by hand for a minute or two, mostly 
to feel that the dough is right (add a bit more flour, if needed) and to 
form a loose ball.

Usual rising and proofing rules:  Initial rise in lightly oiled bowl, 
covered, until doubled (you can actually do this two or even three 
times).  Punch down.  Divide into one and one-half pound pieces 
(approx.).  You then want to form log-shaped loaves about 8 or so inches 
long.

(Shaping is the hardest thing for me to do, let alone explain, so just make 
your loaves about half the height and width and 2/3 the length you hope to 
end up with, by folded letter or rolled out ball methods or whatever works 
for you, doing your best to end up with a well sealed seam and nicely 
rounded ends.  Many bread baking books have helpful pictures that try to 
show you what to do.  There is no substitute for repeated experience, 
however).

Lay out each loaf, seam side down, on parchment paper-covered baking 
sheets, lightly sprinkled with polenta or coarse-ground corn meal.  Preheat 
oven at this point to 375F.

Allow loaves to rise, covered, for an hour or so, until nearly 
doubled.  Brush loaves with egg wash mixture (1 large egg + 2T water). 
Slash tops of loaves near each end and in the middle, perpendicular to 
length of loaf, with lame or extremely sharp knife, and immediately put 
trays in oven.  (For crisper, chewier crust, increase initial oven temp to 
425F; spray oven with water right before trays go in, when they go in, 
after two minutes, after four minutes and after another minute, reducing 
temp to 375F after initial five minutes or when loaves first start to show 
color).  Bake for 15-17 minutes, turn trays to avoid uneven baking, then 
bake for another 15-17 minutes until loaves are deeply browned.  They are 
ready, as so many baker/authors explain, when a tap on the bottom yields a 
hollow sound and a thermometer inserted into the middle of the loaf shows 
an internal temp of 190F or better.  Cool on racks for at least 45 minutes 
before trying to slice.

Notes
#1:  Starter is a challenge all by itself.  You can start from scratch by 
combining a few ounces of water and an equal weight of light rye flour and 
let it sit out uncovered for a few days in the hope that enough wild yeast 
will populate the mixture to begin the fermentation process.  If it takes, 
you add more flour and water (again in equal proportions) to build the 
starter, and continue to do so over several days (always doubling the 
amounts or dumping half or more of the earlier quantity), until you end up 
with a starter that rises and bubbles up well within 4-6 hours after a 
feeding.  There is no need to use anything but flour and water.  Some 
purists rail against any added ingredients.  Others suggest a start with a 
pinch of domesticated yeast to get the ball rolling. I figure the 
saccharomyces will eventually give way to the wild stuff after a while 
anyway.  Then there is the Nancy Silverton ("Breads From The La Brea 
Bakery") method, with the grapes.  Very elaborate and ritualized.  Hey, 
whatever works to ferment your flour.

As an alternative to starting from scratch, you can take an established 
white starter and convert it to rye, i.e. start feeding with rye instead of 
white flour over a period of several days, until the rye is 
predominant.  If you feed and dump, eventually all the white stuff will 
disappear, leaving a pure rye culture.

If your starter is very active, use the lesser amount of yeast mentioned in 
the recipe (or even a little less); the more active the starter, the 
greater the leavening power it has in the preferment.

#2:  You want to use a high protein bread flour (plain bread flour, with an 
ounce or so per pound of wheat gluten added, will do nicely) because an 
enzyme in the onions tends to break down the gluten too much 
otherwise.  Also, the rye flour in the recipe has very little or no gluten 
forming capacity.  What happens to your beautifully formed loaves when the 
gluten decays excessively during the proof stage is not very 
attractive.  Trust me.  I know my friend George Greenstein ("Secrets Of A 
Jewish Baker") says to use "first clear flour."  George even sent me some, 
and it is good stuff (if you can find it).  It is not, however, high in 
protein.  So use it in other rye bread recipes, but not if you are going to 
use onions.

#3:  Available from Bob's Red Mill.  Use meal if possible because it gives 
the bread a nice texture.  If you must, you can go with a course rye flour 
as an alternative.

#4:  Two to three medium yellow onions, chopped into about an 1/8" to 1/4" 
dice, mixed well with 2-3T olive oil, should be spread on a baking tray and 
placed into a 400F oven.  After 20 minutes, you want to pull the tray, move 
the onion together into a pile, turn and re-spread them.  Roast for another 
15 minutes at 350F.  Go through the same process again, and turn oven down 
to 250F for another 20-30 minutes.  The goal here is to get your onions 
well carmelized and cooked-down to 1/4 or less of their original volume.  I 
suppose you could use dehydrated onions and save the work, but I never 
have.  The total amount of onion you use in this recipe is a matter of 
taste.  Roasted onions should be totally cooled before adding to other 
ingredients.

#5:  Spelling of the word varies.  Available from Penzey's or locally (in 
Portland) from Oregon Spice Co.  Good luck trying to find it at any grocery 
store.  Also known as black caraway, nigella or nigella sativa seeds.  Not 
to be confused with black onion seeds which are a totally different 
creature.  Chernushka seeds are small and roundish with a distinctive smoky 
flavor.  A good rye should not omit them.

Other Comments:

Don't waste your time or money on rye bread or pumpernickel mixes or other 
overpriced crap.  If you want a dark rye, add a few grams of cocoa powder, 
molasses, instant coffee powder or black shoe polish--or a little of each 
(just kidding about the shoe polish).  If you can find it, liquid or 
crystal caramel coloring ought to do the trick as an alternative.  In my 
opinion, there is no real difference between light and dark rye--the latter 
has just been colored.  Although I don't have the facts on this, my theory 
is that dark rye was created by some old Russian for the sole purpose of 
hiding the arguably unattractive grayish color of natural rye.

A word on "sour" taste.  A good bread which uses sour dough starter should 
be slightly tangy, not intensely sour.  This rye recipe will have that 
tangy characteristic (which the caraway tends to emphasize).  Any mature 
starter used in a slowly fermented dough will add this 
quality.  Personally, the thought of adding souring agents to any bread is 
abhorrent (and will throw off the pH balance of the dough).  Those who 
think that real sourdough must be really sour (think factory made San 
Francisco "Sour") have fallen prey to such additives.  If you think I am 
making this up, check the ingredients; you will invariably find fumaric or 
tartaric acid or some such thing on the list. Yuck.

E-mail me if you have any questions.

--mcz