I’ve started a project to come up with a half-decent rye bread recipe. In all my years of bread machine usage, I’ve never come across a rye bread result that actually … tasted and looked like rye bread, I decided to come up with my own. My bread machine attempts have been unmitigated failures, though, so I’ve abandoned automation for the old-fashion method. This is my first attempt.
Last night, I mixed a package of yeast with a cup of warm tap water, and then poured it over 2 cups of dark rye flour and started mixing by hand. It was a messy, sticky blob in short order. I had decided in advance to use a “sponge” for the bread, so I covered the blob in the bowl, set it into the oven (it was off, just put it there to protect it from the cat,) poured myself a rye whiskey, and relaxed for the evening.
In the morning, the sponge had risen only slightly, but I was undaunted. Rye flour on its own doesn’t really give the yeast a lot to work with, so my expectations were low. I’d estimate that the sponge was perhaps 20% larger by volume than it had been the night before. It smelled of rye and wet dough, so it was time to feed the yeast.
I added
mixing as I slowly added the ingredients, until I had a mass that I could knead. It was about the size of both my hands at that point.
I let the dough rest for 20 minutes after mixing, then sprinkled some flour on top and started kneading by hand. The result looked like this:
I’m now at the point where this has been punched down and kneaded again. It continues to rise, and has regained the size it was when I punched it down and then some.
It turned out delicious.