squattercity's blog

No anise, no pernod, no problem. Here's a vitebsk rye in which I used absinthe as the flavoring. 

I awoke from uneasy dreams this morning at six to mess up another rye.

Past midnight last night, tired but too spaced to sleep, I mixed a preferment -- 11g of rye sourdough to 300g of whole rye flour (an inoculation rate of 3.6%) and 240g of water. I also stirred up a malt scald -- 10g of rye malt to 50g of hot water.

Over the past year, I've made lots of versions of Ilya's easy deli rye. This weekend, with only whole rye flour and bread flour on hand, I made a 45% rye version. It turned out lofty with a thin crispy crust and soft, lightly tangy interior and I wanted to share it and pay homage to a great, flexible formula.

Rob

As I had rye malt on hand and half a bag of light rye, I decided to try my hand at this Lithuanian palanga rye, an interesting recipe that calls for a sourdough levain, a flour and malt scald, and a yeast levain. I made it with 1/3 light rye and 2/3 whole rye.

I've been eyeing this one for some time -- http://theryebaker.com/vitebsk-rye/. My partner doesn't like the heaviness of whole grain ryes, so I figured a 100% light rye might intrigue her. Also, in a different thread, where I foolishly argued that I could see no reason to use light or medium rye when you could use whole grain, Ilya recommended that I try a light rye to see how it showcases flavors like fennel and anise.

so I've baked this Chocolate Rye from Lutz Geißler's ploetzblog -- https://www-ploetzblog-de.translate.goog/2015/09/05/im-schoko-rausch-schokoladenbrot-sechzig-prozent-roggenbrot/?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_… -- twice now. It's got extraordinary flavor and, though I got two completely different looking results, I wanted to share it here.

As a New Yorker, I tend to give the side-eye to distant takes on my heritage -- but I have to say this is better than the original. Nice but not overpowering sour flavor. Just enough caraway seeds (sorry, Benny, this is a Big Apple bread -- but you're free to make a Toronto version with different seeds.) Great aroma. Fantastic texture. Crumb that won't drip mustard. Crunchy but not rock hard crust.