| Greg's sourdough rye bread |
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After moving to Dereel in July 2007, we discovered that a number of foodstuffs we had taken for granted were no longer available. Even the bread wasn't as good as we could get in Mount Barker. So I started investigating the possibility of baking it myself.
Fairly early on I bought a bread machine, but was quite disappointed. It wasn't the most expensive, but the issues with bread machines seem to be typical. In particular, it annoyed me greatly that the kneading paddles remain in the bread during baking and leave holes in the bottom. In addition, the “baking” (really steaming) method means that you don't get any crust. So we returned the machine, and I now bake by hand, which isn't really much more difficult, though I suspect that there's more margin for difference from one loaf to the next.
| quantity | ingredient | step | ||
| 500 g (total) | Bread mix ("Manhattan light rye") | 0 | ||
| 800 g (total) | Rye flour | 0 | ||
| 960 ml (total) | Water | 0 | ||
| 150 g | Bread mix ("Manhattan light rye") | 1 | ||
| 200 ml | Water | 1 | ||
| 50 g | Sourdough starter | 1 | ||
| 350 g | Bread mix ("Manhattan light rye") | 2 | ||
| 300 ml | Water | 2 | ||
| -50 g | Sourdough starter | 3 | ||
| 460 ml | Water | 4 | ||
| 20 g | caraway seeds | 4 | ||
| 20 g | salt | 4 | ||
| 800 g | Rye meal | 5 | ||
This step isn't really part of the procedure, just notes on what you're in for, and the quantities are the total quantity for the loaf; they appear split up in the following steps. The bread is mixed in three steps to allow the sourdough to develop. Sourdough is much slower to act than yeast, and it needs to build up like this. The exact quantities and even relationships between flour and water for each step are not so important, but it's very important to ensure that the relationships between the flours and water are correct at the end. “Manhattan light rye” is what the Germans call a “wheat mix flour”: it's about 87% wheat and 13% rye, so to all intents and purposes it's wheat. Wheat and rye have completely different water requirements, so you would probably have trouble with 1300 g rye or wheat along with 960 ml water.
Most recipes give exact temperatures and times for each step; I'm still trying to work out the effect of temperature, and the times are clearly dependent on your starter. At the moment, I use room temperature.
Many recipes also say that it's not important to mix the ingredients well in the first few steps. While it's not very important, I'm sure it has an effect on the speed with which the sourdough develops, so I try to mix reasonably well.
In the mixer bowl, mix well about 150 g of bread mix and 200 ml of water with the starter. This will give a relatively thin dough which will make it easier to mix the starter evenly. Leave at room temperature (20°–25°) for several hours. My starter needs about 5 to 6 hours, so I start this step in the morning.
When the starter is clearly creating bubbles (stir under the surface to see them), add about 350 g of bread mix and 300 ml of water and mix well. Leave for another period of time; I do this in the evening and leave it overnight. Here's “before” and “after” for this step. The third photo shows some of the bubbles under the surface.
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Take about 50 g of the mixture and put it aside in the refrigerator for the next starter. I keep two separate starters, in case one fails, and use them alternately. They keep well in the fridge for as long as I've tried them. Another reason for the two starters was my interest in whether they would develop differently, but so far they haven't.
Calculate how much water is needed to make the total quantity, add it to the dough and mix well. My mixer (Kenwood KM300) needs manual help to scrape the dough off the bottom of the bowl. Add the salt and whole caraway seeds and mix well. The resultant dough will be very runny.
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Calculate how much flour is needed to make the total quantity, add it to the dough and mix well. In the Kenwood, this is pretty much the maximum load, and it needs a lot of help to mix well. The resultant dough will be sticky but consistent.
My bread pan isn't non-stick, so I use oven paper to line the pan. For my pan, cut:
Place the paper in position:
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This photo is wrong; the end sheets of paper are the wrong way round. The sheets should be 15 cm wide and 12 cm high. It'll be replaced next time.
Fill a bowl with water and use it to wet your hands and keep them wet: the dough is very sticky, much more so than a pure wheat dough. Take the dough out of the mixer bowl (it won't come all at once, and it doesn't need to) and carefully place the first part in the middle of the pan to hold the paper in place. Put more at each end to hold the end pieces in place. At this point it's not important to keep the pieces together, but it is important to keep the surface moist so that it doesn't stick.
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When all the dough is in the pan, press it together and smooth it over (don't forget the water!). At the end you should have a uniform height about half the depth of the pan, and with a film of water over the surface. Leave to rise, about 3 to 5 hours, keeping the surface moist. Here “before” and “after”:
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It's important not to wait too long; the resultant bread will suffer.
Heat the oven to 250° on grill. When the oven is hot and the bread has risen sufficiently, ensure that the surface of the bread is still moist and put in the oven. Turn the temperature down to 200° and stand by the oven, spraying with water when the surface dries out, about every 2 minutes. The grill should create a glazed effect on the surface.
When the surface is glazed enough, turn the oven to normal (bottom and top heat). After a total of 15 minutes, turn the pan through 90° to compensate for any uneven heating, spray with water and drop to 180°.
Bake for a total of 90 minutes, turning and spraying every 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and pan, peel off the paper, and allow to cool on the side on a wire rack. Don't put into plastic bags or bread tidy for at least 12 hours: it would sweat.
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The bread keeps very well, much better than yeast bread. We take about 10 days to eat a loaf, and at the end of that time it has hardly changed in consistency.
The bread I'm aiming for is the typical German Graubrot, a mix of wheat and rye. This is important, because one of the things I had to learn was that rye needs much less water than wheat, and my initial attempts, based on instructions supplied with the flour, were far too soggy. I also put in caraway seeds, which not everybody likes.
I've spent over 2 years working on my bread style, and I've come to a recipe that I'm happy with, though it's still possible that I'll change again. I'm now using sourdough instead of yeast for baking the bread; the Germans mention good reasons to do so, and some day I'll link to some of them. To give you an idea of the path I've gone down, here's what I had to say on 8 October 2009. From April 2009 until May 2010 I kept the quantities the same: 1300 g flour, 860 g water. Over the course of time I've increased the amount of water. I suspect the current proportions are pretty much the limit, though.
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