Vacation recovery and second rye loaf

A Well Rested Starter

I had a good deal of bread to eat, and I went on vacation, so my starter hadn't been used in over two weeks.  I wanted to try the rye bread recipe, again, with the modifications that I suggested, earlier.

Caraway Rye Bread
Remove 4 oz. of starter from the fridge.  Add 6 oz. of white flour and 6 oz. of water.  Set in a warm place for about 6 hours until it doubles in size.  Then, add
Water	½ Cup
Salt	1 tsp
Caraway seeds	1 Tbl
Vital gluten	2 tsp
Rye flour	1 Cup
White bread flour	2 Cup
Water as needed

I was somewhat concerned that my starter might not be active enough, coming straight out of the fridge and not having been fed in over two weeks.  It turns out that it easily came back to life.  I decided to complete the first step straight in my bread machine pan.

I measured the starter by weight and added the additional water and flour.  I turned on the bread machine on the white bread cycle (it shouldn't matter which cycle) for a few minutes to mix the ingredients.  I also discarded all but 4 oz. of the remaining starter and fed that with 4 oz. of water and 4 oz. of flour.  I set them both in my warm spot and waited for 6 hours.

Voila! The starter had doubled in volume and the culture for the new loaf was active.

I added the remaining ingredients, but did not add any water "as needed."  I wanted to wait to see how the dough ball looked after it had been kneaded for a while.  I used the French bread cycle, because it had longer rise times in the program.  There isn't a big difference from the times in the whole wheat cycle.  I suspect that either would work as well.

The resulting dough ball looked good, so I didn't add any additional water.  In retrospect, I think a stickier dough might rise better, so I think I'll add a bit of water next time.

As before, I got a weird-looking loaf, but it is still tasty.  I'm hoping that a less stiff dough might take the shape of the pan better.

I could try to perfect this, but I think I am going to move onto a different recipe next week.