Today's bake: Slow-Baked Finnish Rye Jalkuunileipa (Finland)
Source: The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg
Notes: I scaled Stanley's recipe to make 2 small loaves instead of single larger one.
From - 1 @ TDW: 1.383kg Pan Size: 9x4x4 In / 22.86x10.16x10.16 CM
To - 2 @ TDW: 1.210kg Pan Size: 7.88x4x4 In / 20x10.16x10.16 CM
Substitutions: None
Discussion: This was an interesting bread to bake. The bake time is 6 hours. The flavors are deep, rich, and malty with a chewy crust and a tender crumb. I paired it with a Swiss cheese but it is also excellent by itself as a snack.
Make again? - Yes, definitely.
Changes/Recommendations: None
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Looks like you nailed this one.
I don’t think this was one of the test bakes I did for the book. I may have to try this one soon.
Best regards,
Ian
Thanks Ian, it is a bold rye bread for those who appreciate the 'the unruly weed'.
Tony
Those are a couple of beautiful loaves.
This recipe has been on my radar for a while. I have been trying to determine whether traditionally the original Finnish recipe would use fermented rye malt (solod) or a toasted rye malt (crystal rye brewing malt). I'm leaning toward the solod, but its flavor is pretty intense, so I'm not sure how that would taste at 18% usage. What type of rye malt did you use? Thanks!
You should use solod, because that's what Ginsberg calls for. It's his concoction, there's nothing traditional about the recipe. Sweetening rye bread is culturally alien (though probably not unheard of on the west coast), using honey is doubly so. Buckwheat in rye (or pretty much anything else) is supremely weird too. They used to make flatbreads out of buckwheat in the southeast where the majority of it was grown and crepes in the capital.
Ginsberg's "red rye malt" is actually not solod. The solod I have is very different than the Fawcett's Crystal Rye malt that I purchased from Ginsberg's NYBakers. It's also different from the process he describes in his book where he toasts/roasts pale rye malt. Ginsberg's red rye malt has not been fermented like solod. The aroma, flavor, and color are all very different. That's what led to my confusion.
Are you saying that Finnish rye bread would never use rye malt?
They used to pay taxes in malt. There's still an idiom around that means "expensive as malt'. You wouldn't use expensive ingredients in everyday bread. Nowadays malt in rye is fairly common, but most people would associate Jälkiuunileipä with a particular and very ubiquitous product, which is very plain: whole rye flour, water, salt, yeast. It uses sourdough, but it's not as sour as most other products and not very crusty. Ginsberg's recipe backstory seems to be a hodgepodge of things he's heard during a short tourist trip.
I sprout and then malt my own rye berries. I then roast them to the color required in the recipe I'm using.
Tony
What a beautiful bread. Love the dark color of your loaves.
Thanks for the complement Martadella.
Tony
Tony that looks like a delicious chocolate loaf, but I see no chocolate in it, instead it is yet another awesome rye bake of yours.
Happy Holidays.
Benny
Nope, no chocolate, just a very bold rye.
Happy holidays to you too!
Tony