053 - White Rye

White and Rye Loaf

December 27, 2011

[350W - 150RY - 10Y - 350WA] mix, autolyse 40 minutes (1150-1230)

[7SA - 50WA] mix, bulk ferment 2:15 (1230-1445)

initial shaping, bench rest 30 minutes (1445-1515)

final shaping, retard 8:25 (1515-2335)

bake 1:15 (2335-0050)

Used Bacheldre Rye Flour and Shipton Mill's Strong White Flour with Dove's Instant Yeast (as opposed to Allinson's dry yeast). Compared to the last loaf that used Allinson's Dry Yeast (which they say should be pre-made with warm water before mixing), I think using Dove's "instant yeast" had a noticeable effect on fermentation.

On first mixing, the dough felt fairly standard, holding together rather easily and mixing well to create a smooth surface. What was surprising was the amount of expansion during the autolyse during which the dough must have gained about 40% in volume. After mixing in the salt*water and bringing the dough back down to size, the first stretch and fold proved pretty simple. The dough did not have a tendency to break apart or lump. The subsequent foldings were increasingly easy, getting somewhat less sticky. The dough never really ballooned and I thought the instant yeast might have been near exhausted by the bulk fermentation.

After the initial shaping of the dough into a round, the dough itself wasn't very gaseous or airy but also didn't have much droop, maintaining its shape pretty well after 30 minutes on the kitchen counter. I folded the dough by thirds both vertically and horizontally, and then once more to form a stubby cylinder, pulling and criss-crossing the dough from left and right then tucking in the ends. I left the dough in a well floured muslin cloth inside of a loaf tin, where it only saw about 20% volume gain in over the course of just over 8 hours.

I plopped the dough straight onto an un-heated baking sheet right out of the fridge and slashed it twice; sort of dribbling water over the top before sticking it into a fairly hot AGA. There was a slight oven spring which contributed to the lopsided-ness of the final loaf and I still didn't manage to get the dark, shiny crust that I usually look for. After 1:15 in the oven I decided against leaving the loaf in for any longer.

The sound of a fresh loaf crackling on the cooling rack is one of the best sounds in the world. The top of the crust surprisingly showed some striation-mark looking cracks that unfortunately reminded me of stretch marks on skin. I wonder what's missing from the usual equation that creates a glossy, dark crust; perhaps being left uncovered in the refridgerator dried out the surface a bit, but the top of the loaf was sitting at the bottom of the tin during retardation, so I'm not sure what it does it.

I didn't get quite as much rise as I wanted out of the dough but the shape was quite well, if slightly un-uniform; but that's the least of my troubles when it comes to shaping a loaf of bread. I'm not sure whether the temperature of the oven was as high as I liked, since baking with an AGA even less precise than cooking with a standard home oven (but benefit from not being vented). In any case, I've been reading that sugar content in the flour determines how much the crust darkens during baking, so I'll be reading up a bit more about flours before selecting which ones to use in the future.

The texture of the crumb was soft and moist. The appearance was fairly consistent and well-colored. There was a healthy bounce to the crumb. Looking forward to baking with sourdough again, I'm convinced it will solve my fermenting and oven-spring woes but also looking to improve the breads I can make with instant yeast. More fiddling will follow. And maybe a new sourdough culture.

Submitted to YeastSpotting