Better Rye Bread

 Maurizio at The Perfect Loaf wrote an article about making sourdough rye bread. It completely turned my method on its head. He uses a large sponge (he calls it a preferment) using all rye flour and a shorter rise before baking.

It worked great!

I didn't copy his recipe. I like the rye and spelt recipe that I have been making for years. I just moved my ingredients around to mimic Maurizio's process.

1. The night before baking, I make my sponge with:

Sponge
Water	220 g
Rye Flour	180 g
Ripe Starter	110 g

 It starts like this:

In the morning it looks like this:

All of the water from my recipe has gone into the sponge. I used most of the rye from my recipe, but it is too dense to mix if I put it all in. The white flour that I used to use to make my sponge now goes in at the end, so there are 200 grams of white flour where there used to be 100.

In the morning I add the rest of my ingredients:

Rye Bread
Sponge
Milk	4 oz.
Salt	1 tsp
Caraway seeds	1 Tbl
Oil	2 Tbl
Vital gluten	2 Tbl
Rye flour	60 g
Spelt flour	100 g
White bread flour	200 g

I used to use a custom program on my bread machine to maximize the rise time. Maurizio says that is not necessary, and he is right. I now use the normal whole wheat cycle on my machine, and I get a nice tall and light loaf of rye bread.

Thanks, Maurizio.

Higher Fiber

 I need to get a little more fiber in my diet, so I've experimented with increasing the whole grain flour and decreasing the white flour in my recipes. I'm also switching my weight measurements to grams so that I it is clear when I am referring to weights (grams) and volume (ounces). I've also changed the order of ingredients in the recipes so that they are in the order that I add them to the bread pan. For the liquids, I have started using plastic measuring cups for the exact quantity instead of reading the volume off the side of a glass 1-cup measuring cup. I think I can get more accurate measurements that way.

Measure with this

Instead of this

For my rye bread recipe, increasing the rye flour ratio works best when combined with increasing the vital gluten.

Rye Bread by weight
Salt	1 tsp
Caraway seeds	1 Tbl
Vital gluten	1 Tbl
Oil	2 Tbl
Water	½ Cup + 1 Tbl
Milk	½ Cup
Rye flour	340 g
White bread flour	100 g
Sponge

Whole Wheat by weight
Salt	1 tsp
Oil	2 Tbl
Water	¼ Cup + 1 Tbl
Milk	½ Cup
Whole wheat flour	340 g
White bread flour	100 g
Sponge

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.

The Whole Shebang

I've been tinkering around with my starter refresh and my recipes, lately. This post brings the whole work flow into one spot. All ounce measurements refer to weights.

Refreshing the Starter

I've developed a process for refreshing the starter that provides a nicely active culture with zero waste. Start with 2 oz. of old starter from the fridge. Add 2 oz. of water and 2 oz. of white bread flour. Mix it vigorously and put it in a warm (70+ degrees F.) place for 8-10 hours. It should double in size and look bubbly.

Prepare the Sponge

All my recipes use the same sponge. Take 4 oz. of newly refreshed starter. Add 4 oz. of water and 4 oz. of white bread flour. Mix it vigorously. It starts off looking like this.

Place it in a warm spot for 8-10 hours. It should double in size and look bubbly, like this.

Rye Bread Recipe

Add the ingredients to the bread pan in the order shown in the recipe. It's not that critical, but the liquids and spoonfuls go on the bottom. The rye flour goes on top of those. The white flour goes on top of the rye, and the sponge goes on top of the white.

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

Set the bread machine for the whole wheat cycle and press start.

The top can look a little ragged. I call this the Pompadour hair style. I thought I had that fixed, once. Maybe not.

Whole Wheat Recipe

As with the rye recipe, add the liquids and spoonfuls on the bottom followed by the whole wheat flour, then the white flour, then the sponge.

Whole Wheat by weight
Water	3 oz.
Milk	3 oz.
Salt	1 tsp
Oil	2 Tbl
Whole wheat flour	10.5 oz.
White bread flour	5 oz.
Sponge

Set the bread machine for the whole wheat cycle and press start.

I don't have a recent picture of a completed whole wheat loaf. It sometimes sports the Pompadour hair style. These loaves tend to rise rather high, yielding a tall loaf of bread. I might try swapping some of the white flour for whole wheat in the future.