Bread Number 101: Rye, My Mistake

I've made this bread four times and it tastes like a brick. Hamelman, the author, and lead baker at the King Arthur Flour Company (and former owner of a bakery in Vermont), suggests waiting to add the salt until the final dough phase, which means preceded by the vast majority of the fermentation time. This is unusual. Bread dough recipes uniformly advise throwing in the salt prior to the main fermentation, rising period.  

Hamelman has various dark rye recipes that go from 65-90 percent. We liked the 70 percent okay, nothing to write home about, but the dark dark rye of the 80-90 percent end of the range will not become either a household favorite or earn a place on the roster of breads I make frequently.

At 89 percent rye, one should not expect a light fluffy bread anyway; still, as far as taste, this one was a loser from the start. You have to actually like a dismally dark rye to eat this one more than once, My husband said that it tastes like a Russian Rye bread, so it is recognizable as a bread.

If there is one thing in its favor, other than being healthy, this is a good bread for a teleworker as there are four stages over the course of two days, with waiting periods of various lengths. Please be careful, however; this should be considered a three-day bread as the bread should rest for 24 hours after baking. This is not a Monday morning bread unless one begins on Friday. 

Ingredients

261g Rye flour

50g Bread flour

15g Malt

215g Water

6g Salt

Remember to add the salt. I was also going to try soaking the rye flour in the water at particular stages preceding the fermentation periods, the better to eek out more flavor, some sweetness, from the rye. I got busy and I forgot, but I would be curious if that singular, significant change would make a difference.

Day One

Good for starting in the afternoon and letting rest overnight, unless it is wintertime, in which case that second stage might go more toward the outer edge of 24 hours.

Stage 1

4g rye flour 

4g water

4g starter (one could precede the building of this dough with building a rye starter, but at a measly total of six grams total, I decided to use regular wheat-based starter)

Mix, cover, and rest for 5-6 hours. I found that the waiting period of the recipe was good for a warm kitchen or a summertime kitchen, but too brief for a winter kitchen's colder temperatures.

Stage 2

Rye starter from Stage 1

2g of starter - optional to add a bit more starter

50g rye flour

39g water

Mix, cover, and rest for 15-24 hours. One can see fermentation activity almost immediately, though this is not the bubbly exuberance of a wheat build.

Day Two

Need a half day, but only about two hours when you have to return to the dough with any frequency.

Stage 3

Rye starter from Stage 2

138g rye flour

138g water

Mix, cover, and rest for 3-4 hours. 

Stage 4

Rye starter from Stage 3

15g malt

261g rye flour

50g bread flour (or adjust based on the percentage of rye you prefer) 

215g water

6-7g salt (Hamelman recommends a baker's percentage of 1.8, but I generally prefer 2-3 percent)

Mix, cover, and rest for 10-20 minutes.

Baking preparation

Shape the dough and let rest, covered, for one hour. For the same hour, preheat oven to 490 degrees.

Put loaf in oven. I use a covered loaf pan for this one as it doesn't hold its shape well, but it was okay the time I made a boule. Reduce oven temperature to 480 degrees.

Ten minutes later, reduce oven temperature to 410 degrees. Total baking time will be 50-60 minutes. 

Let the bread stand untouched for 24 hours. The flavor will supposedly deepen. I did this and I still was not fond of the taste. Not my cup of tea.