Two Day Rye Buttermilk Bread

Continuing the trend of two day or delayed fermentation breads, it was time to try a rye-buttermilk bread. Rye, buttermilk and molasses are a made-for-each-other combination and rosemary plays well with the trio. This was the May bread for my father-in-law.

Ingredients: 
For two loaves
600 g whole wheat
100 bread flour
150 g rye (that is all I had. I would have probably used about 200-250 g if I had more, and skipped the buckwheat flour and reduced the whole wheat flour accordingly)
40 g buckwheat flour (¼ cup)

1 Tbsp chia seeds
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary
2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast

2 cups buttermilk
1¼ cups water
2 Tbsp molasses

Day 1:

Ingredients

8:37 pm: Ingredients just mixed in

8:53 pm: After resting and then kneading well.

8:54 pm: Ready for first rise

11:08 pm: First rise is complete.

I used a spatula to deflate the dough because it was fairly sticky. That would explain the marks on the dough.

11:11 pm: Deflated and ready for overnight second rise in the refrigerator

 Day 2:

12:52 pm: Out of the refrigerator on day 2

Because the dough was sticky, I decided to split it while it was still cold and then allow it to 'warm' to room temperature.

12:58 pm: Split while still cold

3:03 pm: 'Warmed' a little and risen too

3:07 pm: I swapped the loaf and boule because I wanted the larger piece to be the boule

3:54 pm: Proofed, slashed and ready for the oven

4:52 pm: Out of the oven. Decent oven spring

Glazed with some butter

Crumbly crumb

Date: April 26-27, 2012

Recipe: My own recipe

Comments:

There was decent oven spring, more pronounced along the side of the loaf than on the top. Rosemary, only ½ tbsp per loaf, lends a distinct flavor to the bread. I thought it played well with rye. Even though the crumb looks like it will fall apart, it held well and the bread was easy to slice.

Rye Buttermilk Bread

Back to the basics.  A simple rye-wheat dough with rye's favorite accompaniments:  buttermilk,  caraway seeds and molasses.

Ingredients:

For one round loaf

130 g rye flour (~1 cup)

348 g buttermilk (1½ cup)

¼ tsp instant yeast

Mix the above 3 ingredients together.  It forms a thick batter.  Soak for an hour or so (This is not necessary for bread,  but I had the time and followed the 'starter' concept,  giving the rye flour extra time to soak and develop flavor)

60 g bread flour (scant ½ cup)

250 g whole wheat flour (1¾ cup)

¾ tsp instant yeast

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp molasses

1 tsp caraway seeds

Ingredient (with soaked rye-buttermilk paste)

Mix together flours,  salt,  yeast and caraway seeds well.  Add in oil and molasses.  Stir in the rye-buttermilk mixture and mix everything well.  Let rest for 5 minutes and then knead for 5-8 minutes.  When kneading dampen hands with water to minimize the dough sticking to hands.

10:05 am: Kneaded and ready for first rise

1:03 pm: First rise is done after a long time

1:05 pm: Deflated, rounded and ready for second rise

2:25 pm: Second rise is done

2:28 pm: Rounded in a boule shape and ready for proofing

3:10 pm: Slashed and placed in pre-heated cast iron combo cooker

4:07: Unusual oven spring?

I thought this angle was pretty

Sliced well with decent uniform crumb

Notes:

Date: February 21, 2012

Recipe: My own recipe

Flours: Whole wheat flour, rye flour, bread flour

Bread specific ingredients: caraway seeds

Sweetener used: Molasses

Liquid: Buttermilk

Comments: Nothing special in the making of this bread.  I've baked rye-buttermilk breads in the past,  just that this time I used my own proportions for the flours.  Not sure that the hour long pre-soak made much difference in the end result.  If anything I think letting the first rise take its time,  even though it was about three hours,  was the key.  I've started giving the first rise more time than I used to,  partly because the house is cooler these days and partly because it appears to help the rest of the baking process.  The bread tasted good,  sliced well and kept well.

RPH Multigrain Bread

This was an experimental bread, the first I've baked with soybean flour. I also tried to use some uncommon grains: quinoa and amaranth.

Ingredients
For one loaf
40 g quinoa (¼ cup)
Rinse grains and cook in ½ cup water. Let cool. The cooked grains weighed 99g

48 g amaranth grains (¼ cup)
120 g buttermilk (½ cup)
Soak grains in buttermilk for an hour or so. (Next time I will try cooking the grains in water rather than simply soaking.)

70 g bread flour (½ cup)
15 g soybean flour (¼ cup)
350 g whole wheat flour (2½ cup)
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
½ Tbsp oil
½ Tbsp molasses
242 g slightly warmed buttermilk (~1 cup)

Ingredients

The rest of the process was the usual - kneading, two risings followed by proofing and baking.

9:34 am: Kneaded well and ready for rising

11:27 am: First rise is done

11:30 am: Deflated, rounded and ready for second rise

12:30 pm: Second rise is done

12:34 pm: Rounded as a boule

1:27 pm: Proofed, slashed and ready for the oven

Baked!

Speckled with amaranth seeds

Sliced well, decently uniform crumb

Notes
Date: February 16, 2012
Recipe: My own recipe
Flours: Whole wheat flour, soybean flour, bread flour
Bread specific ingredients: Quinoa, amaranth
Sweetener used: Molasses
Liquid: Buttermilk, water (to cook quinoa)

Comments: This bread rose well and the amaranth grains gave a very pretty effect. However, the grains were very crunchy like they hadn't cooked at all. I've always used them directly, most often soaked overnight in Peter Reinhart's biga recipes. They have always been somewhat crunchy. Next time I will cook the grains before adding them to the dough.
Overall, the bread tasted good. The soybean flour taste wasn't noticeable. Actually I don't know that I would recognize soy taste. The bread was on the sour side, I'm presuming from all the buttermilk.

RPH Buckwheat Bread

I had some ingredients on hand that I wanted to use in a bread, primarily buckwheat flour. (I bought this flour for pancakes, but I am still to develop a liking for buckwheat pancakes.) I scanned my bread books for a recipe but didn't find anything very good. Laurel Robertson's book has one recipe and a note to not use more than ¼ cup buckwheat flour per loaf. Using this as a starting point, I decided to make up my own formula. I baked two loaves, one of which was the (late) November bread for my father-in-law.

Ingredients
For two loaves

550 g whole wheat flour
150 g bread flour
60 g buckwheat flour
100 g rolled oats (ground)
11 g flax seeds (cracked)
8 g instant yeast ( 2 tsp)
14 g salt (2 tsp)

130 g cooked potato

415 g buttermilk (about 1½ cup)
20 g oil (2 tbsp)
22 g molasses (1 tbsp)
60 g orange juice (¼ cup)

Ingredients

Dry ingredients, wet ingredients and potato

Letting the fairly stiff dough rest for 5 minutes so the flours soften

3:37 pm: After 10 minutes of kneading. Rounded and ready to rise

5:28 pm: Long first rise

5:31pm: Ready for second rise

6:14 pm: Quicker second rise

6:26 pm: Total dough weight = 1615 g. Shaped into two loaves

7:04 pm: Proofed, slashed and ready for the oven

New breadboard and slicer
My mother-in-law got me this wonderful cutting board / cooling rack / serving tray. She couldn't wait until Christmas to give it to me, so I got an early present. My cutting board was getting some deep grooves from using a serrated blade and collecting the crumbs was always a pain. This one takes care of both problems. The slatted board can double as a cooling rack. It comes off and the lower portion makes a nice serving tray. It also collects crumbs when used as shown. I am still getting used to the slicer as the angle of the blade is perpendicular to the handle.

Cooling on the new breadboard

Sliced well

Dense moist crumb

The bread
Not bad. The crumb was quite dense and initially very moist (maybe even a tad gummy). The flavor was fairly bold, similar to rye bread.

Notes
Date: November 17, 2011
Recipe: My own recipe (see above), with notes from Laurel Robertson's book.

Flours: Whole wheat, bread flour, rolled oats, buckwheat flour
Bread specific ingredients: Flax seeds, potato
Sweetener used: Molasses
Liquid: Buttermilk

Comments:
I should try buckwheat flour in Peter Reinhart's multigrain struan bread.
This dough was very stiff. I wonder if adding more liquid would help make a lighter crumb.
This one was not bad for winging it, but it wasn't exceptional either.


-RPH

Potato Rye Bread

I must have missed this bread in Laurel Robertson's 'The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book' because it's in the Sprouts section and not in the Rye Breads section. It uses yogurt and fennel seeds along with wheat flour and of course, potatoes and rye. However I had buttermilk I wanted to use, RH doesn't like fennel and I didn't have quite enough rye. So the final recipe is somewhat different from the original.

Recipe

110 g cooked potato
114 g buttermilk
150 g rye flour
340 g whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 Tbsp oil
2/3 cup water

Ingredients

I blended the potatoes with a hand blender so they would mix uniformly in the dough. Not a good idea, because the blender makes the potatoes very gummy. Hand mashing would be best.
The mashed potatoes, buttermilk, yogurt and 1/3 cup water are mixed together. In a large bowl the remaining dry ingredients are whisked together.
When first mixed in, the dough should be very stiff. As the dough is kneaded the moisture from the potatoes gets incorporated. The remaining 1/3 cup water is slowly added in over the 10 minute kneading.

11:17 am: Ready for the first rise

1:12 pm: First rise is done nearly two hours later

1:14 pm: Ready for second rise

1:51 pm: Quicker second rise

2:04 pm: After rounding, resting and shaping

2:22 pm: Super fast proofing

2:23 pm : Into the pre-heated cast-iron pan

3:26 pm: Is that oven spring?

This was the first time I used a vertical slash on a round loaf. Whoa!

Slicing very wide loaves is not easy

Decent crumb

The bread
We shared some of the bread with the in-laws. We liked the taste, mildly rye and caraway seed - like.

Notes
Date: Sept 24, 2011
Recipe: Adapted from Potato Rye Bread from Laurel Robertson's book, 'The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book'

Flours: Whole wheat, rye
Bread specific ingredients: Potato
Sweetener used: None
Liquid: Buttermilk, water

Comments: I need to blog promptly so I can write useful notes about the baking experience. I think I said that a few blog posts ago too. Sigh.

-RPH