February 8, 2015 - 4:07am
I made a brick!
This is supposed to be vollkornbrot and yes, i'm supposed to wait at least 24 hours before i can eat it. But really it looks inedible...literally, heavy as a brick.
the recipe called for only 6g of SD in the perferment which is only to sit for 1.5 hours. After that all igredients are mixed, patted into a loaf pan and proofed for 2 hours. I followed the recipe. But it lookes as though it's gone haywire?
total rye flour was 560g with 480g water. Any idea what went wrong?
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Was that Josey Baker's recipe? I noticed it had an extraordinarily low amount of SD preferment for Vollkorn-style bread. Most similar recipes range from 50%-200%. When I tried his recipe, I ended up doubling the preferment, and ended with something that was not bad. Its possible that the recipe as stated just doesn't have enough leavening power, unless maybe you keep it really warm throughout the bulk and the proof.
Did u also preferment for the stipulated amount of time apart from doubling the starter?
I think I prefermented for about 18 hours, if I remember correctly.
6g of sourdough, a tiny amount, to 560g flour and only left for a couple of hours!? I'm not surprised it didn't rise. That 'recipe' needs a rethink. Might be a printing mistake.
My copy says to rest the preferment for 12 hours... Once the dough is mixed, the bulk ferment is 1 1/2 hours. Perhaps a newer printing?
Now we're talking pre ferments not just 6g of starter in a recipe. How much pre ferment are we talking about?
Well, to 6 g SD starter (approx. 100% hydration), add 70 g rye flour and 60 g water.
Rye flour for the dough is 490 g., so preferment is about 24%, by my math.
Ok firstly I misunderstood the original post. Pre ferment was mentioned but only to mature for 1.5 hours which is definitely incorrect.
But a preferment of 6g starter + 70g rye flour + 60g water allowed to mature for 12 hours makes a lot more sense.
You either had a corrected version of the book or original poster made a mistake.
I read and read and read the recipe and it did say use 6g of starter to make the preferment (they must have corrected the error in later publications). Knew that was a but fishy. It tasted good alright, just that I need a chainsaw to slice the brick!
What is far more of a puzzlement was leaving the pre-ferment to mature for just 1.5 hours. If you had left it for 12 hours like nmygarden says then it might've worked just fine. It has had more time to bubble up and become active. So the whole pre-ferment becomes the levain. Because you only left it for 1.5 hours it didn't have anytime to inoculate the flour and then you used it in the main dough and only bulk fermented for a short amount of time. Basically it's unrisen.
irony was the recipe STRESSED on the short preferment time by stating that because it is rye...it only needed 1.5 to 2 hours
I would steam or soak or both to soften and break it apart. Then mix up a thinner dough, and incorporate the crumbled mixture. Let it ferment and bake. Might get 2 loaves out of it.
Maybe bake it some more, get a sledgehammer to make some breadcrumbs for schnitzel? Cant bear to buy a chainsaw! lol.
...bread pudding was made for.
As I understand it, the recipe says to use 6g of rye starter to seed the pre-ferment, ripen that for 12 hours, then use the entirety of the pre-ferment in the final dough. This sets it on a schedule much more like a regular sourdough starter - adding 6 g of starter to 70g of rye flour and 60g of water brings you to a pre-ferment of ~140g, rather than just 6g of starter for the entire recipe.
I was attracted to the photo used in the book, but I know the guy also used a much more narrow loaf pan as well to make it appear like it has risen like a normal bread, because most pure rye breads share a similar form to yours, a.k.a "the brick".
Ask indicated by nmygarden, i must have gotten an older print and they have subsequently corrected the error to let the preferment sit for 12 hours instead of 1.5 to 2 hours in the copy that i have.
Good luck and will be interesting to see how yours turn out