Romancing The Seeds!

Mini

When I first tipped it out it almost fell apart but it hung together.  It smells so good!  Crumb shot to follow in about 9 hours from now.

:)

I cut into it and it is too good to ignore.   Um...  might want to up the salt but that could easily be done with some salty meats and cheese... 

The patches do remind me of a leather handbag I seem to'ave lost track of.

I'll let you know.  Right now I have a tube of squeeze salmon, seems to be working....  Thin sliced onion dragged through green pumpkin oil is also fun.  Chop sticks are great for that.  This looks real culture smashed right now.  And here comes the sun!  :)

"Deep nutty flavor"

Oh now I shall describe thee!  And crunch!  From chia and hemp seeds.  Looking at it coming from the oven, one would have thought I was in a chocolate factory and these the latest morsels.  But the aroma! Oh the aroma!  Lets just say I was not disappointed in the least.  As far as the crumb goes it holds itself together pretty well.  I might not trust a heavy piled on open face sandwich without inspecting the seams first but that is just a minor problem.  Next time tweeked away.

I've been reading a lot on evolution lately, sort of picking up where I left off.  Understanding how so many puzzles fit together is getting easier with time and the steady supply of research.  Been thinking about my starters and how they evolve too!  Cabin fever?  Naw, I haven't tried burning parchment on the stove yet if that's what you mean.  Although the monkey rye loaf might be considered overdone or too decorative.  I like the large seeds making floretts on the dough surface, that could be exploited.  Heck!  Those long deep snowy winters in Upper Michigan prepared me for dealing with the worst kind of cabin fever.  Even the kind without snow.

Thanks guys! 

Our 4 legged friends know what's up! 

I combine all kinds of seeds and change around too.  Some seeds get hard on the outside of the loaf so I put them into the inside, like the red rice in a previous loaf.  I find the soaked whole grains do better inside the dough.  Another thought would be just to do the whole thing in just two kinds of seeds or one kind and where they touch each other in the inside scratch 'em up a bit with a fork so they stick or just glob a few spoonfuls of dough in the middle.  Easy enough. 

I can also see burying some dried raspberries and fruit inside (oops, now I got myself going...) And of coarse toasted hazel nuts and walnuts may work themselves into the next loaf.  Almond splinters on the outside and some of those tiny negella seeds would be interesting as well.  Various colored sesame seeds and fennel seeds -- maybe in smaller lumps or thrown into the bundt mold before stacking.  Or nasturtiums!  Flower and fruit! I like a loaf that I can cut in half, set the cut edges on the board (with the entire crust in the air for all to see) and serve it on the "half shell."  Even sliced, it would present itself nicely. 

More Thoughts:

High % Rye dough, especially this rye dough is not easily shaped, braided or twisted because it is like working with wet cement, although I might be tempted to do more handling after extruding ropes into seeds first.  (I would really have to be motivated to do the extra dishwashing or use wet hands.)   Wait...  A dishtowel with seeds spread out in a rectangle and a spoon globbed row of dough.  I can see it!  Pick up the edges of the towel (like making a strudel) and roll the row to coat.  It would look like a log and easier to touch.  Do this for two or three ropes and lay them side by side and the third one on top of the two.  Now twist them gently together without tearing.  Can you see it?  I can.   Press from the ends to compact the loaf if needed and lay into a pullman pan or long loaf pan or drape a pan with parchment.  Or around the bundt or cake pan or tube pan or even one of those chicken gooser pans. 

This twisted rye dough could also be snailed up or double twisted back on itself.  And what would happen if the twisted log was stood on end and pressed gently downward into a pudgy stump and then allowed to proof?  The top could be left plain pressed or docorated with large seeds set on end into the dough or nuts and there would be a triad pattern on the top...  maybe.  I don't know how much squishing and shaping would deform it ...yet. 

I know I have a few clover shaped cookie cutters and a heart that might make an interesting score on top or is that better left to cake decorating?  Valentine or St Patrick's Rye?  (oops, fell into the kitsch ditch)  

In fact I never got my hands sticky!  I did have two spoons to clean along with my mixing bowl and heavy duty spatula.  I used a drop method.  Drop into seeds and drop into pan.  I'm going to try some twists next.  That might get messy twisting strands.  Coating the outside of a rather sloppy dough makes it so manageable!  Opens a whole new world of rye-doh playing! 

I think it would be easier to pick up the pieces separately instead of one long coil.  I would start rolling one shorter log into a coil, then add the next one where I left off.  Got to be careful with stretching as it exposes the sticky dough which tears easily.  Rather fragile stuff!  I've caught myself holding my breath as I work with it.  

The seed coated blobs was the easiest to do so far.  There are buns sold here called "baker's blossom" where each wheat bun is dipped with a different seed topping.  A ring of 6,7 or 8 with one in the middle.  Sometimes they can get quite large. 

It's easier than it looks!    

"And we had fun, fun, fun, 'til her daddy took her rye fl'r away-a-ay!" 

Welcome back!    

A total waste!  As a trophy?

Food should be eaten, the ultimate complement.  

We not only eat with our noses and taste buds, but first with our eyes and second with our fingers.  How often we take up a piece of bread to press it between our fingers.  We do it so naturally we forget how unusual it is.  We're testing it, like an appetizer and hold then hold it to our nose and smell it and the whole time looking at it or feeling the softness, firmness, crust and crumb texture.  Oh how we long for smell-o-vision or to reach through our screens to touch the bread from each other!  

Inedible bread?  

Ok, I accept a museum display showing how bread is made (although plastic might hold out better) but you won't find me nibbling on bread slippers or a pretzel car. Overworked bread can also look unappetizing and using bread in some art forms might turn me off grains forever!  Some exhibits would be better displayed using clay or plastic to make a statement.  There are limits to what is acceptable.  I know, some artists want to be known for crossing such lines.  I'm not one of those.  At least I don't want to be known for making bread not worth eating.  I don't want my food perverted.  Why take food and make it not worth eating?  

Simple is the most presentable.  A daily bread that doesn't change can give a beautiful stability, a feeling of security and peace.  I just try to look for a few alternatives.  It doesn't hurt to incorporate a few structural ideas from other places.  

I remember an experiment not related to bread: from a large piece of paper, build a platform that can hold your weight 6 inches off the floor.  Folding the paper would elevate a person but only an inch.  Crunching up the paper would raise for only a short while but eventually compacted and was rather unstable for weight distribution.  Finally one comes around to making rolls resembling toilet paper tubes all standing on end and bound together.    

Now let us start over.  Flour is your paper.  Make a loaf that will stand 6" tall.

Mixing the flour with water to form a stiff dough would make an object that sits 6" but what do we have?  I tell you this is edible.  Take barley flour and roast it and use hot water or tea.  Sound familiar?  But stand on it!  Senseless idea!  After all we are planning on eating it and not using it for architecture.  

The moment I mention flour, most of us will eventually see bread.  Naturally!  This is a bread site.  Ok, lets take a good look at our bread.   If we ferment some and then get yeasts to help us make a dough with inside bubble structure,  we get some extra height just from gas chambers inside the dough.  If we look at soap bubbles, it is a similar concept except... well, it's soap.  Take a hand full of lather off the top of the dishwater and see how it can hold itself up in your hand.  Is this structure the only one we can use?    

We learn that folding the dough adds structure, that bubbles surrounded by a tighter outer skin also adds stability.  A tight skin on the outside of the loaf helps hold its shape.  We've seen pull apart bread, an interesting stacking of dough pieces each with their own skin placed in some kind of order to make a loaf.  It's a structural idea.  Twisted Braids of dough run along the same structural lines, adding height and appeal to the finished loaf.  

 But then...  comes 80 - 100% rye.  Yep, well, what do we do with it?  How can we give it a "skin" so it can hold itself up?   That's what I'm thinking about, this my direction with the high ryes and they better darn taste good too!

One way is to put the dough into a pan.  Another way is to dry out the outside skin as in banneton  or roll it into moisture absorbing seeds or flour.  Stuff that tastes good and could work as a decoration.  The idea of rolling paper tubes or dough tubes is one I want to investigate further.  Wrapping the rye dough with another dough as a skin is also somewhere down the experimental road for me.  It has been used and talked about before but I haven't tried it yet.  I would like to see if I can do my version.  

I recently saw a loaf I had forgotten about in the archives...  a scored loaf wrapped with a long twisted rope of dough criss-crossing the loaf like a birthday present!  Neat!  Simple and effective in decoration and adding structure.  A hot cross loaf look.  

I often have to remind myself that most people look at a loaf and want to see "just bread" and wouldn't know where to start discussing the topic of bread and how it should look.  I can talk about it here easy enough. 

I used to give my extra food away before I saved left-overs that would spoil.  Letting food spoil or rendering it inedible is hard for me to grasp so I try my hardest not to.

over backwards easily.  I think the large seeds give a crazy kind of support for upward expansion   The dough between the seeds was as wet as ever (maybe more so) and when reshaping the loaf at about 3 hours, there was almost no degassing as I rolled the dough into the seeds.  It maintained its bloated amoeba self.  The top of loaf was a bit wavy with wrinkles of seeds although I tried to tighten the surface before seeding.  In other words, I stuffed it into the pot and had a few sticky fingers.  

The rise progressed nicely and I didn't have the sticking to the top pot as with the last loaf during the final proof phase.  I also preheated the oven this time. It was 250° when the loaf went in, 10 minutes later, it was 220° and dropped to 200°C after 25 minutes into the bake when  I removed the top.  Could have left it on longer to protect the seeds.

To do it again, and it will happen, I would presoak the outside seeds overnight letting the surfaces dry before coating the loaf with them.  I did have to pick off a few very roasted seeds.  I thought I might have to pick off more seeds but after standing bagged overnight, and daylight, they do not appear as dark as I had feared.  

but you are right in that more contrast would improve the looks of the crumb.  It really bothered me that once I stood that twisted dough on end, the "twist" was lost.  That doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it or playing now with your idea.  I started a brain storming page with contrast crumb ideas.  My preferences are for rye bread. I would like to find some chestnut flour and I will keep a look out for white rye.  I could have split up the last loaf but my son moved into the kitchen to cook and bake and suddenly my great open spaces disappeared.