Sourdough Rye

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pepperhead212

Executive Chef
Joined
Nov 21, 2018
Messages
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Location
Woodbury, NJ
Anybody making sourdough, because they can't find yeast? Or was that just one of those "early in the pandemic" shortages?
I still have over 2 c of instant yeast, but I did this anyway.

Nothing like bread to smell the house up! Hard to believe that I baked again, in this heat! It's in my countertop oven, so it's not too bad, as far as heating up the kitchen.

More sourdough rye - using all sourdough starter for the rise. Wasn't sure how well it would rise, but it did better than I thought it would!

I just "refreshed" the firm starter I found in the fridge, behind a lot of stuff, and used some of the extra starter, before putting it away again. I put it in the FP, with rye flour and water, not quite firm, and left it overnight, and it more than doubled. I added the rest of the ingredients, besides the flour, then switched to the KA, and added the flour. It's almost 50% rye, 25% WW, and the rest bread flour, and 1/4 c gluten. Probably the gluten made it rise well.
Sour rye, rising fairly quickly by now. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Sour rye, risen 65 minutes, ready to bake. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished sour rye, risen better than expected. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished sour rye by pepperhead212, on Flickr
 
Funny your posting this, this morning I was up really early (4am) with not much to do. I decided to clean up my office since I haven't been in there since I finished my taxes. Anyway, I came across a bunch of recipes that I printed, including one for rye bread. I made it a few times, and it came out very good. I think Ill make it again later in the week.

***Your loaves look great !!!***
 
I'm a rye bread lover, too, Kathleen. I had totally run out of rye flour (first time that happened that I can remember), back when this pandemic was a couple of months old, and I wasn't going to go to the place I got the dark rye flour from all the time, so I bought 35 lbs of rye berries online! Also did this with hard white WW berries. I had to dust off my grain mill, as I hadn't used it much, since I had that VitaMix.
 
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I'm a rye bread lover, too, Kathleen. I had totally run out of rye flour (first time that happened that I can remember), back when this pandemic was a couple of months old, and I wasn't going to go to the place I got the dark rye flour from all the time, so I bought 35 lbs of rye berries online! Also did this with hard white WW berries. I had to dust off my grain mill, as I hadn't used it much, since I had that VitaMix.

That is very cool. I've never ground my own grain. How long did it take you to do it?
 
It's very easy and quick to use, Kathleen. Actually, cleanup is what takes longer.:LOL: I used to grind several things at a time, so I only had to clean once. Now, for most of those grains and legumes, when I want small amounts of them I use my Vitamix. For the WW and rye, I'll use the grain mill. The Nutrimill Classic is the one I have - it has a capacity of about 5 lbs., and it grinds just over a lb. a minute. It is vertical, so to speak - my other main option when I got this was Wondermill, but that one has the hopper on the side, so it takes up more space. Here's a link giving a lot of info on them. Prices have gone up a lot since I got mine!
https://pleasanthillgrain.com/nutrimill
 
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Thanks Josie and Kathleen! I have posted 3 of my rye recipes (I think that's all?) on the yeast bread section of this sub-forum. Those are all yeast risen, though the Old Milwaukee Rye has a long pre-ferment, and I often use that method, even in those other recipes given here. This method I gave here, for this sourdough bread was something I just threw together, to use up that extra starter I had, though I did throw out the first excess starter (which had a very alcoholic aroma!), when I refreshed it the first time.Here are those first three recipes I posted. Any questions, I'll try to answer them.
Old Milwaukee Rye

Dark Potato Rye

Russian Black Bread
 
I would like to see a picture of your countertop oven. It's got to be quite large to be able to fit this bread.
 
bbqcoder That oven is just over 20" long, 14½" high, and about 13" deep. It's not the best cookie baker (small sheet doesn't hold many), but I can bake up to three 2 lb loaves of bread at a time in it. I learned early on how well bread bakes in a convection oven (the reason I had to get a convection as one of the two ovens in my range, when I set up my kitchen), and it doesn't put out as much heat as my gas oven, either.
Farberware countertop convection oven, from 1977 by pepperhead212, on Flickr
 
Thanks Josie and Kathleen! I have posted 3 of my rye recipes (I think that's all?) on the yeast bread section of this sub-forum. Those are all yeast risen, though the Old Milwaukee Rye has a long pre-ferment, and I often use that method, even in those other recipes given here. This method I gave here, for this sourdough bread was something I just threw together, to use up that extra starter I had, though I did throw out the first excess starter (which had a very alcoholic aroma!), when I refreshed it the first time.Here are those first three recipes I posted. Any questions, I'll try to answer them.
Old Milwaukee Rye

Dark Potato Rye

Russian Black Bread


Thank you! I cannot wait to try one of them!
 
More sourdough rye!

Three days ago, I dug out (while getting something else that was buried in my fridge) my firm sourdough starter - not used for about 7 or 8 months, and it's amazing how good that stuff keeps! I refreshed a small amount of it overnight, then yesterday I refreshed a little more, and in 6 hours that was ready to use - liquid starters would take much longer to reactivate. I took the usual 10 g, to refresh before putting back in the fridge, and used the approx. 70 g of starter to make the sour rye starter, with 170 g filtered water and 190 g (about 1 1/2 c). I set that to rise the rest of yesterday, and part of today - about 36 hours.

Late last night, using a recipe from Peter Reinhart's WHOLE GRAIN BREADS - the Whole Wheat Mash Bread as a reference. I made what he terms a "mash", using 300 g water, 120 g WW flour, and 1 g (1/2 tsp) diastatic malt powder. 165° water is whisked with the flour in a small, lidded saucepan, along with the malt powder - temp drops to about 150°, then it is covered, and put a 150° oven for 3 hours, to let the enzymes go to work. It is cooled covered, overnight.

In late morning on bake day, the sour starter was getting a generous aroma, and this was put in the KA bowl, with the mash, 4 tsp salt, 1 tb caraway seed, 1 tsp nigella seed, 1 tb (20 g) honey, 21 g neutral oil, 3 tb essential wheat gluten (optional, but helps with the rye) and 255 g, or about 2 c WW flour, with about a cup more to add. I use the flat beater to totally mix all this, then switch to the dough hook, then process it on medium, about 6-7 min, adding just enough WW flour to make it clear the sides, but still slightly stuck to the very bottom. The model recipe was all WW, and had some instant yeast added with the final ingredients, but I used the rye starter, and left the yeast out.

This turned out a 51.6 oz (1463 g) ball of dough, which I sprayed with oil, and set to rise - took about 2 1/2 hrs to double, which is fast, for just the sourdough starter! I split it into 2 loaves, shaped them, and placed in sprayed, NS loaf pans, then covered, for final rise - started with 45 minutes, then after another 30 minutes, it was ready to bake - again, fast for sourdough!

The smell was incredible after about 20 minutes! It cooled about 1½ hrs, and I couldn't wait any longer! Only slightly warm still, and the flavor is great - sour, but not too sour, and good texture. Will be making a sandwich on it, with some Seltzer's Lebanon Bologna, which I have unopened in the fridge.

I'll definitely make this again, after tweaking the recipe.
Really old firm starter, refreshed twice, starter already rising. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Rye starter, after about 36 hours. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

finished sour rye dough, just started rising. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Fully risen sour rye dough, after about 150 minutes. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Two sour rye loaves rising, 25.8 oz each. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Risen sour rye dough, ready to go into the oven. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished sourdough rye/WW bread. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Sliced sourdough rye bread by pepperhead212, on Flickr
 
Only one, but there's only me, so I don't really need more. It's another freezer I could use, but really don't need.
Why do you ask?
The way you described finding your bread starter made me think there is a lot of things in your fridge. And not just the immediate things that are used on a daily basis. You are much more organized than me.
 
You're right, @cookiecrafter - there's a lot in there! What it is, however, is a lot of ingredients in jars and the like (one section with oriental ing., one with mustard and similar condiments, one with olives, olive paste, and the like, and one drawer with cheese, and the like, and the door with bottles, and I could go on!), that need refrigerated, not the usual perishables. A lot of these things can be kept at room temp, but in the fridge, will keep forever. A friend is always joking with me when he opens the fridge, and doesn't see any leftovers, and says "there's nothing to eat in here!"
 
You're right, @cookiecrafter - there's a lot in there! What it is, however, is a lot of ingredients in jars and the like (one section with oriental ing., one with mustard and similar condiments, one with olives, olive paste, and the like, and one drawer with cheese, and the like, and the door with bottles, and I could go on!), that need refrigerated, not the usual perishables. A lot of these things can be kept at room temp, but in the fridge, will keep forever. A friend is always joking with me when he opens the fridge, and doesn't see any leftovers, and says "there's nothing to eat in here!"
Kenji López-Alt says that if you look in a chef's home fridge, you'll most often find ingredients rather than food ?
 
This bread has become my two-weekly bake-session, because they come out as expected. Other varieties with rye etc also. White bread is more for fun, because we eat more dark, once in a while to try things out.

I found Canadian 16% stonegrinded wholewheat flour on vacation
Usually I use a Dutch 10% wholewheat, stonegrinded in a real old windmill.
There are several grain-mills still over the country. And they have to work harder the last 20 years, more people are baking. Which is good because standing still is not good for those precious monuments.
Left is Canadian, right is Dutch, baked exact the same way.
The Dutch, although low in proteïn has always a nice taste. But the Canadian has bit more "sparkling" taste.
Hard to get, or by postorder. Don't want to do that.

Measures: Everything in grams.

Windmill is De Hoop (=Hope ) in Oud Zevenaar, The Netherlands
 

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