Happy New Year everyone. I'm back in Switzerland after holidays and baked my first bread with the local Ruchmehl flour - a Swiss version of high extraction flour. I followed a very simple recipe from https://www.homebaking.at/ruchbrot/
It includes a white flour levain build over a few hours and then exclusively Ruchmehl in the main dough, with high hydration (80%). The main flour is autolysed for 3 hours before mixing in the salt and levain as well. After just a little hand kneading using just firm folding and Rubaud-style the dough was well developed, and a couple more stretch and folds later made a strong, although stretchy dough. After bulk the dough was preshaped and then final shaped. I proofed in a floured towel in a tray placed on the balcony overnight, with night temperature going down to 4°C - just like in the fridge.
Baked with steam on a tray at 230°C. I discovered the oven here has a special mode for "humid baking" - it doesn't let out steam this way (audibly noticeable that the fan doesn't come on, unlike the regular baking mode even without convection), and it's the recommended setting for baking bread. So I used that, and seemed to work. While the shaping wasn't very tight and in proofing the bread spread out quite a bit lengthwise, oven spring was really good, however the slash didn't open very nicely. Maybe I didn't have to score it at all? Interesting.
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The crumb is amazingly open, custardy, soft and a little moist - just like in the pictures on the recipe page! It's very tasty, without very strong wheaty/grassy notes like in whole grain bread, but very flavourful.
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Overall, very happy with this bake, and pleasantly surprised with the flour!
And just now after baking noticed that there is an English version of the recipe available, and I didn't have to resort to Google translate :)
- Ilya Flyamer's Blog
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Congratulations on a very successful first bake with the Ruchmehl Flour Ilya. Amazing open crumb you achieved, you just be pleased with this bake.
Benny
Thank you Benny! I don't generally aim for such open crumb, but can't say I don't like the look of it when I get it :)
Nice looking bread Ilya! I'm glad the recipe worked for you.
I'm never sure if the open crumb comes from the ruchmehl or the recipe procedures - or both.
Lance
Thank you Lance, indeed I'm very happy with this bake.
Semi intuitively I "blame" the rather long autolyse for the open crumb. I think it made the dough stronger but extensible. And I think the flour is quite strong, and absorbs water well after a while, so the dough was nice to work with. However just to mention here, going a few slices deeper the crumb is not as open as in the picture above close to the end of the loaf. But still melted butter on a toasted slice drips through easily, so quite open anyway!
Yes, I often get this effect, where the crumb is more open at the ends of the loaf. I've never seen a good explanation of it.
Are you tempted by Le Pain Authentique? I must say, I've never had a good result with such a long autolyse.....
Lance
I also often observe this... Perhaps outside areas somehow expand more than inside? I don't know.
I might try it! I've never tried such long autolyse, curious how it affects the result. At least it's with salt. The pictures show a very nice looking bread, I'm sure it'll be very flavourful with some whole grain rye. Doubt I'll make such a huge bread though, he suggests >2 kg dough for one loaf!
Amazing crumb. I need to stop being so cheap and buy some decent flour. Gorgeous results there. And sounds like a good oven, too.