Lucy’s Take on Adri’s Westphalian Rye

When ever Lucy sees a great bake by another Fresh Lofian that has some rye in it, she immediately thinks about now she would DaPumperize it.   This is no pumpernickel but she still put her tiny thinking cap on and tried to think of ways to improve the sour, up the whole grain rye and get the crust and crumb a little darker than adri's version

The little bit dark was the theme of Adri’s post here 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/37193/bread-darker-ingredients-would-let-you-assume

What really struck a cord was the unusual scald the original recipe master used here

http://brotdoc.com/2013/12/23/westfalen-kruste-westphalia-crust/

It wasn’t a Tang Zong or the normal Borodinski scald.  This one used whole rye flour, twice the flour weight in water and diastaic malt that was held right below 150 F (65C) for two hours.  Over that time a low temperature Maillard effect takes place to turn the mix a dark brown while not killing of the enzymes that crack starches into reducing sugars .

Lucy, being her normal self, saw opportunity and a way to get more bang for the low temperature scald buck.  She took the altus and water for another part of the recipe and tossed it into the scald too. then added red malt to the white malt ala Boadinski, then chucked in some VWG to up the protein to interact with amino acids, and now more abundant reducing sugars, to create a stronger Maillard effect and a darker color - hopefully.  That was her plan at any rate.  Then she chucked in 10 g of dried onions too! 

We too the scald and put it in the mini oven for 3 hours at 175 F with a temperature probe that showed it took 45 minutes to get to 142 F.  It stayed between there and 146 F no worries.  The original recipe called for taking the temperature up higher at the end to kill off the enzymes but we didn’t do that and wanted them hanging around to break down the starches in the dough too.

Some bakers feel leaving them alive might interfere with the rest of the fermentation and proof but we haven't ever had any problem with these low amounts of diastaic malt in the past and didn’t have any problem with them this time either.

Changes we made to the rest of the dough included upping the whole grain amount from 35% to 63% all of it rye, eliminating the white rye, using AP in place of the original wheat flour, adding in some VWG and white malt to the dough flour and dumping the commercial yeast completely.  We’ve never had a reason to use commercial; yeast in SD breads and when it shows up in a recipe all we usually do is extend the ferment and proof times in this case by 1/2 hour and 2 hours each.

This huge pile of dough, more like paste, was mixed in the KA for 4 minutes at speed 2 and 8 minutes at speed 3.  It was all the mixer could handle adn I was worries it would start smoking and making horrible noises worse than usual.  I can't remember the last bread we used it on preferring slap and folds  but this dough would have been everywhere including the ceiling after a couple of slaps.

 This bread is proofed folded or seam side down in the basket so it bakes seam side up and is supposed to crack at the seams which is just what this one did.  This bread sprang OK and cracked well.  It smelled terrific as it baked – even without any aromatic seeds.  It baked up crusty, dark and beautimous on the outside.

We baked it 2 minutes at 500 F and then turned the oven down to 475 F with steam and continued baking for 10 more minutes before removing the steam and turning the oven down to 410 F, convection this time. 40 minutes later it was done and 205 F on the inside.  We will have to wait to see the inside in about 24 hours as high percent rye breads need time to redistribute the moisture inside before cutting.

The crumb came out fairly open for a bread of this type without any YW or commercial yeast to boost the lift.  The color was a beautiful medium brown, soft moist and very tasty.  The best part is the flavor this bread developed with the odd low temperature scald - just delicious.  The crust did get much softer as it aged and 20 hours probably should have been 32 hours before cutting into it.  Still,  the crust was thick and chewy but when you cut cut a 1/4" slice one after the other the crust chew was easily mitigated  and no longer noticeable.  The best part is the wonder flavor.  I liked the 40% whole Rye Tzitzel hat Lucy worked up for an everyday deli rye but this one is a step up from that fine bread.  More whole grains, healthy, earthy deep flavor like a pumpernickel and sour too, mainly due to our rye sour that had been in the fridge for 4 weeks using time to pump the LAB in the cold.

The things that are hard to decipher is pepper cured Italian salami, hot Portugese Linguica, brie, honey goat cheese,aged white and yellow sharp cheddar with the usual prickles, salad, Manzanilla olives and veggies - a bunch of perfect toppers for this bread ....with a little Dijon mustard.  Just yummy!

An aged sharp cheddar and peppered salami grilled cheese with the usual salad, some carrot, steamed; Mexican grey squash, green been, pea pod, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, with a banana, red pepper and corn tortilla chips with dabrownman's tomatillo, green chili, salsa verde.

Formula

 Note: 10 g of dried minced onion were added to the scald because Lucy can't live without them in rye bread.