Souring the Rye, again

 After my success with the no-knead white bread recipe, I wanted to try to get more sour flavor from my rye recipe. 

Rye Bread by weight
Water	3 oz.
Milk	3 oz.
Salt	1 tsp
Caraway seeds	1 Tbl
Oil	2 Tbl
Vital gluten	2 tsp
Rye flour	9 oz.
White bread flour	6.5 oz.
Sponge

I had been using the whole-wheat program on my bread machine. That built-in program goes like this:

• Knead 22 minutes
• First Rise 30 minutes
• Punch down and second rise 20 minutes
• Punch down and second rise 25 minutes
• Bake 65 minutes

My theory on the improved taste to the no-knead white bread recipe was that the extra rise time gave the yeast more time to ferment, giving more of a sour flavor. I used the user-program mode of my machine to modify the cycles to the following:

• Knead 22 minutes
• First Rise 60 minutes
• Punch down and second rise 60 minutes
• Punch down and second rise 120 minutes
• Bake 65 minutes

The result was successful, but it appears that the last rise was too long, allowing the rise to fall. The final product has a caved-in look to the top. Here it is at the end of the baking while still in the pan.

Here it is on the cooling rack.

It was somewhat denser than my usual rye bread, but its taste was enhanced by the longer rises. Next time, I'll scale back the last rise to  one hour. I'll also try to remember to get some pictures of the whole process.