Jewish Sour Rye: an update

Ten years ago, in October, 2008, I first converted George Greenstein's recipe for Jewish Sour Rye from volumetric to weighed ingredients. I posted my formula here, and I make this bread with some frequency. I recently noted that I apparently never did document the baker's math for this formula, which makes it more challenging to scale up or down. So, after making a 3 pound loaf of this wonderful bread today, I worked out the baker's math, and I will share it, along with a more heavily annotated set of procedures.

Jewish Sour Rye Bread

David Snyder

* Traditionally, the wheat flour used in Jewish Sour Rye is First Clear Flour. Bread flour (13-14% protein) can be substituted. The flavor will be slightly different. If higher protein flour is used, some increase in hydration would be needed to achieve the proper dough consistency. All Purpose flour (10-11.5% protein) can also be used, but hydration may need to be decreased. See below for more details.

# See Ingredient Notes

Procedures

1. Two days before you are planning to bake the rye breads, active your rye sour and build it to sufficient weight, as described below.

2. One day before you are planning to bake the rye breads, soak your altus, if using. The cornstarch glaze can be made a day or two ahead or at the last minute, while the loaves are proofing (Step 10., below).

3. In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, dissolve the yeast in the water, then add the rye sour and altus, if using it, and mix thoroughly with your hands, a spoon or, if using a mixer, with the paddle.

4. Stir the salt into the flour and add this to the bowl and mix well.

5. Dump the dough onto the lightly floured board and knead until smooth. If using a mixer, switch to the dough hook and knead at Speed 2 until the dough begins to clear the sides of the bowl (8-12 minutes). Add the Caraway Seeds about 1 minute before finished kneading. Even if using a mixer, I transfer the dough to the board and continue kneading for a couple minutes. The dough should be smooth but a bit sticky.

6. Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.

7. Transfer the dough back to the board and divide it into two equal pieces for 1.5 lb loaves. (Can be baked as one 3 lb loaf, with adjustments described below in Step 13.)

8. Form each piece into a pan loaf, free-standing long loaf or boule.

9. Dust a piece of parchment paper or a baking pan liberally with cornmeal, and transfer the loaves to the parchment, smooth side up, keeping them at least 3 inches apart so they do not join when risen. Alternately, transfer the formed loaves to floured bannetons/brotformen. If using a basket for proofing, place the loaves smooth side down.

10. Cover the loaves and let them rise until double in size. (About 60-75 minutes.)

11. Pre-heat the oven to 500ºF with a baking stone in place. Prepare your oven steaming method of choice.

12. When the loaves are fully proofed, uncover them. Brush them with the cornstarch glaze. Score them. (3 cuts across the long axis of the loaves would be typical.) Turn down the oven to 460ºF. Transfer the loaves to the oven, and steam the oven.

13. After 15 minutes, remove any container with water from the oven, turn down the oven to 440ºF and continue baking for 20-25 minutes more. (If baking one 3 lb loaf, turn the oven down to 425ºF rather than 440ºF and bake for another 35 minutes rather than 20-25 minutes.)

14. The loaves are done when the crust is very firm, the internal temperature is at least 205ºF and the loaves give a “hollow” sound when thumped on the bottom.

15. Transfer the loaves to a cooling rack. Brush again with the cornstarch solution.

16. Cool completely before slicing.

This is a 3 pound loaf, twice the size of the Jewish Sour Rye I most often make. It was made for a "deli night" at my synagogue. It should keep a good-size portion of corn beef well-contained. This bread was made with Central Milling'a Organic Medium Rye and Breadtopia's Organic High-gluten Bread Flour.

For your interest, the slices are approximately 5 inches across and 4 inches high.

Notes on Ingredients

Flours: Jewish Sour Rye Bread, often called “Deli Rye” or “New York Rye Bread,” is traditionally made with white rye flour and First Clear Flour.

White rye flour is rye flour from which the bran and the germ have been removed during milling. It is comparable to all purpose (wheat) flour. It is pretty bland in flavor, which is fine, if you don't like the flavor of rye. However, I do like rye, and I prefer to make this bread with either “Medium Rye Flour” or stone ground whole rye flour.

First Clear Flour is a wheat flour made from what's left after the central part of the endosperm has been removed. The latter is used in so-called “Patent Flour,” which is the whitest (and blandest) of wheat flours, short of the bleached varieties. First Clear was regarded as somewhat inferior to patent flour in the past and was presumably relatively inexpensive. I would guess this is why it was used by the New York Jewish Bakeries for their rye breads. First Clear Flour is more flavorful than all purpose and has more color. Its flavor is distinctive. Chemically, it is relatively high in minerals, which is a good thing for both the organisms in the rye sour and for the human consumer. It is also high in protein, although the gluten is said to be of relatively poor quality. Today, First Clear is hard to find and is costly. I find that it does contribute to the authentic Jewish Sour Rye flavor, but the difference in flavor when a white high-gluten flour is substituted is pretty small.

Altus: “Altus” comes from the German/Yiddish word for “old.” In the baking context, it refers to bread – generally rye bread – from a previous bake that is soaked in water. The absorbed water is squeezed out and the altus is incorporated into a new batch of dough.

Altus was originally a way for a baker to re-cycle bread that had not sold the day before. Bakeries had a slim profit margin, and they could not make a living if anything was wasted. However, the practice of using altus became so prevalent that the German government eventually set a limit on how much altus a loaf of bread could contain. In truth, rather than detracting from the quality of rye bread, the use of altus – at least in small proportions – actually enhances the flavor and texture of the fresh-baked loaf.

If I have part of a rye loaf that is not going to get eaten before it gets stale, I wrap it in plastic wrap, put it in a food safe plastic bag and freeze it. Then, the night before I am going to be making rye bread, I take it out of the freezer to thaw overnight. The next morning, I cut the crust off of thick slices and cut the bread into 1” cubes. I place these in a bowl and cover it with boiling water. After an hour or so, I remove the bread in handfuls, squeeze out the water and set the altus aside to incorporate into the rye bread dough I will be mixing.

Cornstarch glaze: Jewish Sour Rye Bread is customarily brushed with something before and/or after baking to make the crust shiny. It could be brushed with egg white, water or cornstarch. I think cornstarch is most common, and that is what I use.

To prepare the cornstarch glaze, whisk 1-1/2 to 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch in ¼ cup of water. Pour this slowly into a sauce pan containing 1 cup of gently boiling water, whisking constantly. Continue cooking and stirring until slightly thickened (a few seconds, only!) and remove the pan from heat. Set it aside.

Care and Feeding of a Rye Sour:

“Rye Sour” is the term used for a sourdough starter fed with rye flour. Whether you have a healthy rye sour already or are going to be making yours by converting a wheat-based sourdough stater to rye, I recommend building the sour up to sufficient quantity over three “builds.” This involves starting with a small amount of rye or wheat sourdough starter, feeding it water and fresh rye flour, letting that mix ferment, feeding it again and repeating this process a total of three times to end up with sufficient rye sour for making your rye bread dough. The rule of thumb is that, each time you feed a rye sour, you should be at least doubling its total weight. So, for example, to make the rye sour for the formula given above, I would proceed as follows:

First feeding (makes about 80g)

1. Place 20g of rye sour (or wheat-based sourdough starter) in a small bowl.

2. Add 30g of warm water and mix to dissolve the sour in the water.

3. Add 30g of rye flour and mix thoroughly. This will make a fairly thick paste.

4. Smooth the past out and cover it completely with additional rye flour sprinkled over the surface in a thin layer.

5. Cover the bowl and let it ferment until it is ripe. The sour is “ripe” when it has increased in volume to form a shallow “dome” which pushes the dry flour on the surface apart to form widely spaced “islands.” (Depending on how active your seed sour is, this may take anywhere between 6 and 16 hours. I usually starter with a sour that hasn't been feed very recently, so it needs to be “activated” by this first feeding. I generally do this before bedtime and let it ferment overnight.)

Second feeding (makes about 280g)

1. Transfer the rye sour into a clean, medium bowl.

2. Add 100g of warm water and mix to dissolve the sour in the water.

3. Add 100g of rye flour and mix thoroughly. This will make a fairly thick paste.

4. Smooth the past out and cover it completely with additional rye flour sprinkled over the surface in a thin layer.

5. Cover the bowl and let it ferment until it is ripe. (Since the sour is now more active, this “build” usually ripens in 6-8 hours. So, I might do this feeding in the morning and expect to do the third feeding mid-afternoon of the same day.)

Third Feeding (makes about 800g)

1. Transfer the rye sour into a clean, large bowl.

2. Add 260g of warm water and mix to dissolve the sour in the water.

3. Add 260g of rye flour and mix thoroughly. This will make a fairly thick paste.

4. Smooth the past out and cover it completely with additional rye flour sprinkled over the surface in a thin layer.

5. Cover the bowl and let it ferment until it is ripe. (Since the sour is generally very active by now, I expect it to be ripe in 4-7 hours. If I have fed it in the mid-afternoon, it will be ripe between my dinner time and bed time. At this point, I usually refrigerate the rye sour overnight, tightly covered. This overnight “retardation” will result in more acid building up in the sour and a more sour flavor in the bread. I happen to enjoy that. If you don't like your rye bread as sour, you need to work out your feedings so the third feeding is ripe at a convenient time for you to proceed. This could include a shorter period of cold retardation, if that is more convenient for you.)

6. You can save the leftover rye sour for the next time you bake, if you want. If so, put it in a clean small bowl with a tight-fitting cover, and keep it refrigerated. This will stay healthy for a couple weeks at least. If you want to keep it longer without using it to make bread, just do a First feeding, as described above, and refrigerate that without letting it ferment at room temperature.

Ripe Rye Sour, illustrating the dry rye flour divided into "islands" by expansion of the ripening sour.

Happy baking!

David