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.

Potato Rosemary Bread

I was looking for a change from Laurel Robertson's recipes and it came to me when I picked up some fresh rosemary from my in-laws' garden: Reinhart's Potato Rosemary bread. I had made this recipe in the past for a family dinner and it was liked by all.

Starter and biga
Like a typical Reinhart whole-grain recipe, this one also has a biga and starter made a day (or upto 3 days) before baking day. The liquid from boiling the potatoes is used to soak the whole wheat flour for the biga and the starter.

Ingredients for starter and biga

Final dough
On baking day mashed potatoes (boiled the previous day) and fresh rosemary are added to the starter and biga along with more yeast and salt and some olive oil. Optional ingredients are roasted garlic and black pepper and I do plan to make this recipe with garlic at some point.

The usual ingredients + mashed potato and chopped fresh rosemary.

The recipe makes two boules or about 20 dinner rolls. I thought I would try to make one half into a loaf for sandwiches, but the dough was soft enough that it wouldn't have been easy to shape it into a loaf. I believe the potatoes were a tad over boiled and had a higher water content. I should have added more flour but I didn't.

A very soft dough

Ready for the first rise

Well risen after the first (and only) rise

Shaping and proofing
I decided to make a boule with half the dough and shape the rest into dinner rolls. I placed the dinner rolls close enough that they would proof into each other. I kept two of them apart to see if there would be a difference between the ones that stuck to each other and the ones that didn't.

Some dinner rolls and a boule

Proofed with some serious gas bubbles in the boule.

Scored dough. The rolls got four snips each with the tips of the kitchen scissors.

The bread

Out of the oven

Tight moist crumb

The boule sliced well.

Thin crust with some air pockets. Crumb with visible bits of potato.

I used a pan with hot water to generate steam. The rolls were done a little before the boule as expected. They were done in about 35 minutes and the boule took about 50 mins. The two rolls that were not attached to the others didn't get any more oven spring than the ones that were attached. We had some warm rolls with Laughing Cow cheese spread and soup. The combination tasted good. The boule has been frozen for a later time.

Notes
Date: Mar 27, 2011
Recipe: Potato Rosemary Bread from Peter Reinhart's book 'Whole Grain Breads'

Flours: Whole wheat
Bread specific ingredients: Potato, fresh rosemary
Sweetener used: None
Liquid for soaker: Potato water

First rise time: 75 minutes
Proofing time: 45 minutes
Comments: There was too much water in the boiled potatoes, I should have added more flour to make up for it. I should also try the recipe with roasted garlic.

-RPH