Raisin Rye Bread

August is turning out to be a slow month in the baking department. It is simply too hot around here to want to turn on the oven. Can't wait for October.
I hadn't baked a rye bread in a while. Laurel Robertson's 'The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book' has several recipes with rye bread but many of them need a special sourdough starter. I hadn't baked this Raisin Rye bread before and was quite excited about it.

The ingredients
This bread uses a mixture of whole wheat flour and rye flour, about 3 : 2 ratio. Besides raisins, some molasses is also used, resulting in a fairly sweet bread. There's also cider vinegar to help with the flavor, caraway seeds and the usuals: yeast, oil and salt. I chose to puree the cooked raisins to help them blend better into the bread.

The ingredients

Clockwise from left: pureed raisins, flours + salt, yeast + water,
water from soaking raisins + molasses + cider vinegar + oil,

The raisins are mixed in towards the end of the 10 minute kneading.

5:12 pm: Ready for first rise

6:21pm: First rise is done

6:23 pm: Ready for second rise

6:59: Second rise is done

The loaf pan
I decided to use the cast iron loaf pan for a change. It would have to be non-preheated, since I don't think placing proofed dough in a preheated loaf would be easy or reasonable. I heated the oven to 400º F to help the pan heat faster, but turned down the temperature to the specified 350º F after putting the pan in the oven.

7:11 pm: After rounding, resting and shaping

7:40 pm: Risen, but not a whole lot. Underproofed?

8:39 pm: Out of the oven and glazed with some butter

Sliced well

Decent crumb but dense at the bottom and sides

The bread
Although the bread didn't rise very well, or get any oven spring, it sliced well and tasted pretty good. It had a distinct taste of rye and raisins, but the caraway were lost. It was too sweet for RH to have more than a couple bites, so I got to enjoy it for a long time, mostly with almond butter and sliced bananas, of course.

Notes
Date: Aug 7, 2011
Recipe: Raisin Rye Bread from Laurel Robertson's book, 'The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book'

Flours: Whole wheat, rye flour
Bread specific ingredients: Raisins, caraway seeds, cider vinegar
Sweetener used: Raisins, molasses
Liquid: Water

Comments: Pureeing the raisins was a good idea. They spread more evenly throughout the loaf and the specks looked pretty. I wonder if the denseness at the bottom and sides has something to do with using a cold cast iron loaf pan where the top of the loaf got more heat initially before the sides and the bottom. Would this taste good with less raisins or no molasses added?

Time to brave the heat and bake a no-sign-of-sweet bread.

-RPH

Transitional German-Style Many Seed Bread 02

OR Baking Off-Site

This was an experience of a different kind. We were going to spend five days at my in-laws' vacation beach house on the Oregon coast. I thought it would be fun to have fresh baked bread to snack on. I wanted to bake a bread that could be eaten by itself and be hearty. The best one of that kind in my repertoire is Peter Reinhart's Transitional German-Style Many Seed Bread. (The previous attempt had accompanied us to Disneyland). Also, I could put together all the dry ingredients at home and I would only need water to make the soaker, biga and the final dough. Perfect!

Ingredients
I was ready to experiment with the ingredients a little. I wanted to make it more whole grain and add some dried fruit to add moisture and sweetness. I replaced most of the bread flour with whole wheat flour and used some all purpose flour for the rest of the measure. While putting together the soaker, I added sugar mistaking it for salt. I had to leave it in and add the salt. I reduced the sweetener quantity in the final dough hoping it wouldn't affect the soaking chemistry. This was the final composition of the soaker: 170 g whole wheat flour, 57 g rye flour, 11 g flaxseed (instead of 7) , 5 g salt, 4 g sugar (added by mistake). The biga was made of 170 g whole wheat flour, 7 g vital wheat gluten, 50 g all purpose flour, 0.25 t yeast. The dough had 50 g sunflower seeds, 50 g pepitas, 40 g, raisins, 40 g chopped apricots, 33 g chopped walnuts, 18 g sugar.  The other (regular) ingredients for the final dough were 56 g whole wheat flour, 7 g yeast, 5 g salt. Note that the combined weight of the seeds and nuts was quite a bit greater than specified in the book.

The wonderful kitchen at the beach house overlooking the ocean

The soaker, biga, and final dough ingredients carried in packets

Soaker and biga put together the first evening

I added about 2 teaspoons of olive oil so the bread would stay fresh longer. I also had to add a couple tablespoonfuls of water to get the right consistency for the dough.

Putting together the dough

Ready for first rise

After the first rise

After the first rise, I needed to delay baking, so I rounded and rested the dough for about half an hour. In the cooler temperature this wasn't too much.

Free form loaf in the absence of a loaf pan.

Proofed and ready for the oven

Baking
This was my first attempt baking with a convection oven, so I set the temperature at 325° F for 35 minutes (instead of 375° F for 35 - 45 minutes). However at the end of 35 minutes it didn't look done, so I put it back in at 350° F for another 10 minutes which seemed to do the trick. (I missed my digital thermometer) I used the steam pan method suggested in the book but I wonder if starting out at the low temperature dried out the bread.

Cooling on a makeshift cooking rack

Sliced thin quite nicely

Love the seeds and nuts in the crumb

The bread
The bread sliced thin quite nicely and tasted pretty darn good. I love the taste of the apricot bits in the bread. It was good toasted and spread with strawberry jam. Not a bread for savory sandwiches, but a good hearty snacking bread. It is somewhere between a holiday bread and a plainer seed bread.

Notes
Date: May 19, 2011
Recipe: Transitional German-Style Many Seed Bread from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads

Flours: Whole wheat flour, rye flour, all purpose flour
Bread specific ingredients: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, golden raisins, dried apricots, flaxseeds (vital wheat gluten)
Sweetener used: Table sugar
Liquid: Water

First rise time: 105 minutes, followed by rounding and 30 minutes of resting
Proofing time: 70 minutes
Comments: See description above for measures. Added water and a little oil to get ingredients together. Need to learn more about baking in convection oven. Careful carrying flours through airport security next time. TSA officials might look at them suspiciously and want to put them through additional scanners.

-RPH

Naturally Sweet Wheat Bread

But actually, RPH's Multigrain Bread attempt

This bread was inspired by the Naturally Sweet Wheat Bread recipe from the 'King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains' book. However it included more bread flour than I wanted to use, so I decided to try some modifications. I don't think it all worked well, the end result was decent and I would want to try this again with some more changes. Because I changed this recipe quite a bit, I think I need to write out the changes.

The recipe

Original recipe	RPH version
2 T orange juice 2 T water 2 T vegetable oil 1 T honey ¼C (1.5 oz) raisins 2 T (1 oz) packed brown sugar	Same as original except I only used 1 T brown sugar
¾ C lukewarm milk	¾ C lukewarm milk
1¼ C (5 g) whole wheat flour ¾ C (2¾ oz) medium or white rye flour 1½ C (6.375 oz) unbleached bread flour	4.4 oz whole wheat (the last of the bag) 2.8 oz rye flour 3.45 bread flour 3 oz barley flour 0.25 oz ground flaxseed 0.20 oz vital wheat gluten
1½ t salt 2 t instant yeast	1½ t salt 2 t instant yeast
C = cup T = tablespoon t = teaspoon g = grams	-

My flour measure was a tad short of the original recipe. Barley has significantly less protein content than bread flour, so I tried to to make up for it with some vital wheat gluten. I should have probably added some more, but I didn't want to make the bread too chewy.

Lots of ingredients in this bread

The ingredients from the first row in the table above are ground together until the raisins blend in. I didn't do a very good job so I had several biggish pieces of raisins left. I think it added interest in the final result. The flours, salt and instant yeast are mixed in a bowl.

Milk, flours + salt+ yeast and liquid measure

After mixing together and kneading for about 10 minutes

Decent rise after a long first rise

Second rise
The recipe did not suggest a second rise, but because I was using more whole grain flours, I decided to do a second rise to give the flavors time to develop.

Deflated, rounded and ready for a second rise

Not a significant second rise

Shaping and proofing
The dough filled the pan quite a bit less than my doughs usually do. Probably because 14ish oz of flour is less than usual and also because the dough hadn't risen much. After an hour and 45 minutes I thought it was time to go in the oven.

Shaped to a very small loaf

Barely filling the pan and not risen above the rim

Slashed and ready for the oven

The bread
There was practically no oven spring. The bread sliced well. The crumb was fairly dense. The best part was the interesting taste of wheat, rye and barley. This bread was on the sweeter side and I am glad I used 1 T less brown sugar. Next time I would completely skip it. The bread was more suitable for nut butters and marmalade than savory sandwiches. We did have it with egg salad sandwich once and it didn't fall apart.

Tiny loaf is out of the oven and brushed with butter

Sliced well and thin

Slices

Decent crumb with distinct flecks of raisins

Notes
Date: Mar 20, 2011
Recipe: Naturally Sweet Wheat Bread from 'King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains'

Flours: Whole wheat, rye, barley, bread flour
Bread specific ingredients: Raisins, orange juice, vegetable oil
Sweetener used: Light brown sugar, raisins, honey
Liquid: Milk

First rise time: 2 hours and 35 minutes
Second rise time: 90 minutes
Proofing time: 1 hour and 45 minutes
Comments: Not too bad for not following the recipe. I should try adding more vital wheat gluten when replacing bread flour with barley (or rye). I should probably have also added a little more liquid and made a slightly wetter dough. Barley flour probably absorbs more liquid than bread flour does. I felt it was very stiff as I kneaded but thought it would soften during the first/second rise. I should know better than that by now. The bread could also use less sweetener. Of course, then I would have to change it's name.

-RPH