Pierre Nury's Rustic Light Rye: My first attempt.
Nury's Light Rye Bougnat
Nury's Light Rye Bougnat Crumb
I was inspired by zolablue's photos of her baking of this bread and the enthusiastic comments of all the others who made it. So, this was my first attempt. I say "first attempt" because, while this bread is absolutely delicious, it did not have the gorgeous big holes that zola's did and that this bread should have.
I used whole rye flour and Guisto's Baker's Choice. I developed the gluten well, I think. Either the whole rye required more water be added or the Guisto's flour wasn't quite strong enough, or both. Maybe I "patted" the dough a little too firmly and busted too many of the big bubbles.
Any other thoughts or suggestions for improving my next attempt will be appreciated.
And, by the way, I wouldn't want to encounter these slugs crawling out of my garden, either. They are kinda cute, though, in a way.
David
Comments
David - How did you like the flavor? I have to say I baked a batch and a half last Friday and used whole rye so I could compare the flavor to the medium rye which this recipe calls for. I noticed that the dough was not at all as wet but for some reason I did not add more water. I guess it didn't make an impression that the whole rye would make that much difference. I then gave away all three loaves so I didn't get to taste it or see the crumb. My mother described the crumb to me though and it didn't sound as though it was as open as the first time I made this either.
I have a batch that will be ready to bake later today and again I used whole rye but I did end up adding more water. I didn't measure the extra water but I assume it was somewhere around 50 - 60 grams - heck, I'm just not sure. I'll let you know how it compares.
As for using the lower protein flour I'm just not sure how that impacts it but I would think it does make a big difference. Maybe someone else would know that.
Hi, Zolablue.
Thanks for your comments and for turning me on to this bread!
The taste was wonderful. It was quite sour for a French levain but not too sour to mask the other tastes. I like sour, anyway. I ate it just cooled, for bedtime snack with almond butter last night and this morning for breakfast. The crumb was a bit wet but not unpleasantly so. I think I may have under-baked it by 5-10 minutes.
And thanks for sharing your experience using whole rye flour. I look forward to hearing about your results with whole rye plus more water.
David
Hi David - Well, I don't like it as well made with the whole rye. It definately is not even close to the very open crumb structure and I'm sure that is due to the water content. Even with the extra water I added it clearly wasn't enough. My crumb was semi-open but not even close to the result I got the first time using the medium rye flour.
Also, I don't really think it has the same flavor. I'm not sure why such a small amount of flour would make a big difference in just the switch from whole to medium rye but for me it really changed it. Still great bread - don't get me wrong. But I really prefer it made as the recipe states and that's how I'll make it in the future.
Oddly, since I just made two batches using the whole rye I could see the dough behaves quite differently than on my first time. Then it took forever for my dough to rise but both times using the whole rye the dough rose very quickly and continued to rise in the refrigerator so that it was easily quadrupled or more by the time it was removed to bake.
It is so interesting how seemingly subtle differences completely change the flavor and structure of a loaf.
Hi, Zolablue.
Thanks for letting me know how the light rye with whole rye turned out.
I'll try this bread next time with light rye, as the recipe specifies.
I can't help but feel that, if I really knew enough, I could competently compensate for the little changes that seem to make a big difference. Having the benefit of your experience with breads I'm making sure accelerates my learning, though.
David