Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Caraway Rye Bread

This was sort of an experimental loaf. The ingredients were pretty standard, but I adjusted the way I combined them. I'm happy with the way the loaf came out. Flavor was good, texture was good, and elasticity was good when I was kneading and forming the loaf.

I'm not saying that anything I did was essential to making the bread, but it all made perfect sense at the time. Since I was using milk, it needed to be scalded before use, and then it had to be cooled before using so it didn't kill the yeast.

Since I keep my whole grain flours in the freezer or refrigerator, it made sense to add the cold flour to the warm milk to moderate the temperature.

Meanwhile, I mixed the yeast, yogurt and sugar while the milk and flour mixture was cooling off. I figured that it would give the yeast just a little bit of a head start at softening and activating.

Caraway Rye Bread

1 cup milk
1 tablespoon Greek-style yogurt
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup (3 1/2 ounces) rye flour
1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon caraway seeds

Heat the milk to just below the boiling point in a small saucepan, and set it aside to cool for a few minutes, then add the rye flour and stir to combine/ Set this mixture aside to cool until it is lukewarm.

Meanwhile, combie the sugar, yeast, and yogurt in the bowl of your stand mixer.

When the milk and flour mixture had cooled sufficiently, add it to the yeast mixture, stir to combine, and set aside for 10 minutes.

Add the bread flour and knead with the dough hook until the mixture becomes elastic.

Add the salt, caraway seeds, and olive oil, and continue kneading until it has all been incorporated.

Form the dough into a ball and put it back into the bowl (or a clean bowl, if you prefer) drizzle a little olive oil over it to coat, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Set aside to rise until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour.

Sprinkle some cornmeal on a baking sheet and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Sprinkle a little flour on your work surface and knead the bread briefly, then form it into your desired shape. I went with an oval loaf.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Slash the loaf as desired and bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, until nicely browned.

Let the bread cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

This has been submitted to Yeastspotting.
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1 comment:

Mimi said...

Great looking rye bread!! I also made a rye bread this week. I had forgotten what a joy it is to have a good rye loaf for sandwiches!!

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