Rye is alone. Rye is used to the cold steppes of northeastern Europe. It can be abused. The tiny kernel germinates, and in doing so, knows it will have a difficult life. Four root branches reach out for water; wheat (Triticum aestivum), the summer grain, has three. Dry, it survives. Cold, it survives. Rye sown on cold, over-cultivated soil can be 'eternal', giving a crop every year.
Rye is old, untouched. It is a diploid (2n) grain. Weeds are diploids. Weeds that crossed with emmer made wheat. Rye can remake itself with only 14 chromosomes. Wheat takes 42. Left alone, it returns to being weedy and invasive.
Rye does not waste. Its seed makes starch, and starch only for the next generation. There is no gluten and few other proteins that wait for milling and mixing to be turned into bread. Pliny the Elder, raised on the baking art of Roman Spain, scorned it, called it a poor food, "serving only to avert starvation."
Rye is Shiva. Its destruction is its creation. Within it, rye alpha-amylase is heat resistant, a strange thing for a plant used to cold winters. Left wet, rye begins to decompose its starches into sugars. With yeast, these form alcohol, and gave northern man beer, and when northern man met Arab science (al kohl), rye whiskey. With no yeast, the sugars met lactobacilli, which soured the rye, and conveniently, stopped the action of the amylase. No amylase, and the starches remained intact. Intact starches meant a loaf could be formed and baked. Northern man put down his beer and considered the problem...
Base recipe and approach
Rye amylases are more temperature stable and act upon the rye flour's starch structure, limiting dough strength. Amylase activity is inhibited at low pH, requiring the use of citric acid in the dough or by souring the dough in an anaerobic environment. (see p. 24 of Handbook of Dough Fermentation, CRC press/Google Books). The amylase activity and starch content of rye flour recommend a two step process:
- Add water and large quantities of yeast and let the 'porridge' mixture ferment between 20-30C for 24 hours. Lactic acid decomposition will make the mixture acid. Baker's yeast will keep activity in a lower pH medium. The intent is to have an acid yeast mixture for mixing into step 2. The classic term for this is the poolish.
- Mix the poolish into the remaining flour, adding some bread flour in this case for structure.
| Ingredient | Poolish | Mixing | Total | As % of total flour |
| Rye Flour | 55 | 45 | 100 | 100 |
| Bread Flour | 0 | 43 | 43 | |
| Water | 53 | 33 | 86 | 60 |
| Dry Yeast | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| Salt | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
Pre Treatment
The first water, yeast, and rye flour poolish was mixed at noon before the baking day. Some minor changes to the poolish were:
- Adding a bit of regular bread flour (30gm) to take advantage of the barley malt. [This was due to a misunderstanding of rye flour chemistry. If anything, rye flour needs an amylase inhibitor rather than additional amylase.]
- The yeast was proofed in 40C water with 10 gm of melao.
First mixing of poolish
| Ingredient | Poolish | Mixing | Total |
| Rye Flour | 480 gm | 395 gm | 875 gm |
| Bread Flour | 0 gm | 375 gm | 375 gm |
| Water | 465 gm | 285 gm | 750 gm |
| Dry Yeast | 24 gm | 12 gm | 36 gm |
| Salt | 25 gm | 25 gm |
After 2o hours at 27-30C, a foamy mass with a tart, pungent smell
Mixing
185 grams of a total 285 gm of water was heated to 40C, mixed with 10 gm of melao and yeast, then left 10 minutes to proof. After showing good activity, the liquid was added to the poolish with an additional 100 gm of pickle sour (a culture of 3% NaCl w/v with lactobacilli cultures taken from pickling vats). The intent of the sour was to add flavor. Unknowingly, the additional acid helped maintain the rye starch structure by inhibiting alpha-amylase activity.
Lactobcillus culture in salt from pickle vats
Mixing with a dough hook proved interesting as there are no gliadins or 'sticky' proteins to make the planetary dough hook on a Hobart K5SS 5-quart mixer 'grab' the dough. After five minutes of futile slapping of the dough hook, the dough was kneaded by hand for six minutes. Without glutens, the kneading made a homogeneous dough, but a dough without much strength.
Rising
With nearly 3% yeast the dough rises immediately. The dough more than doubled in volume in a sealed mixing bowl when proofed at 40C. The lack of gluten is obvious by the cracking of the dough ball:
There is no knockdown. Knockdown is useful in wheat doughs to 'stretch' the glutens and create further strength.
Forming and second rising
Dough was divided into 100gm boules and formed into balls. The balls were placed on oiled sheet pans and allowed to rise approximately one hour. As shown in the pictures below the boules expand nicely with a second rising of one hour at 27C.
Baking
The risen boules were delicate. You had to handle these carefully to avoid creating finger marks on the dough (that would not have been pushed out by baking). The rolls were placed lightly onto a peel dusted with rye flour and slid onto the baking hearth.
Rye breads are baked at a lower temperature and for longer periods than wheat doughs. The rolls were divided into four groups to test docking and steam injection. All bread was baked at 200C convection, with baking stones soaked for at least one hour at temperature. Baking time was 16 minutes.
Steam groups
There was little 'push'. The rolls elevated slightly from the baking stone or weakly broke open at the slash. The steam baked rolls had a darker crust, as expected, with a slightly more caramel aroma after baking. Weight loss in baking was about 5-7% for the steam injected baking and 10% for the dry baked rolls. The crumb was small and tight.
Forming and second rising
Dough was divided into 100gm boules and formed into balls. The balls were placed on oiled sheet pans and allowed to rise approximately one hour. As shown in the pictures below the boules expand nicely with a second rising of one hour at 27C.
Baking
The risen boules were delicate. You had to handle these carefully to avoid creating finger marks on the dough (that would not have been pushed out by baking). The rolls were placed lightly onto a peel dusted with rye flour and slid onto the baking hearth.
Rye breads are baked at a lower temperature and for longer periods than wheat doughs. The rolls were divided into four groups to test docking and steam injection. All bread was baked at 200C convection, with baking stones soaked for at least one hour at temperature. Baking time was 16 minutes.
Steam groups
- Group 1 -- Baked on stone in boules
- Group 2 -- Baked on stone with one slash (to test 'push')
- Group 3 -- Baked on stone in boules
- Group 4 -- Baked on stone with one slash
There was little 'push'. The rolls elevated slightly from the baking stone or weakly broke open at the slash. The steam baked rolls had a darker crust, as expected, with a slightly more caramel aroma after baking. Weight loss in baking was about 5-7% for the steam injected baking and 10% for the dry baked rolls. The crumb was small and tight.
Steam injected (l) and dry baked (r)
Click on the picture for a close up
Next steps
- Do not use bread flour in the poolish. This adds unneeded amylase. The rye flour has more than sufficient sugars to attract lactobacilli.
- Think of adding the lactobacilli earlier in the poolish stage to start an culture to co-exist with the yeast.
- Do not stress mixing. This bread has weak glutens. Stress keeping the starch structure intact and handling the dough delicately.
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