Browse Tag

sourdough rye

Wholegrain Franconia Rye/Vollkorn Frankenlaib

Frankenlaib for lunch

Rye %: 80%
Stages: 3-Stage sponge, Final dough
Leaven: Rye sour culture
Start to Finish: 20-22 hours
Hands-on Time: 40-50 minutes
Yield: Two 1½ lb./650 g loaves

Frankenlaib sliced

Not too long ago I acquired a trove of freshly milled rye and heirloom/heritage wheat flours from Grist & Toll, a groundbreaking urban mill in Pasadena, just north of Los Angeles. After experimenting with the wheat flours, I started casting about for a rye bread that would let me showcase the subtle complexities of the G&T flours. After going through my recipe database, I settled on Franconia Rye/Frankenlaib, a subtle and complex Bavarian bread.

Keep Reading

Latvian Coarse Rye/Rudzu Rupjā Maize

Latvian Coarse Rye and Liverwurst

Rye %: 100%
Stages: Sponge, Final dough
Leaven: Sour culture
Start to Finish: 24-30 hours
Hands-on Time: 30 minutes
Yield: One 4 lb./1.80 kg loaf

Over the months and years I’ve spent baking rye breads, I’ve developed a special fondness for Baltic ryes and for coarse-textured rustic breads. This Coarse Rye from Latvia fills the bill on both, making it one of my favorites. Interestingly, it combines bulk ferment, soaking and proofing into a single 12 to 16-hour stretch, after which the dough gets benched and baked in quick succession. Keep Reading

Crusty Country Rye/Bauernkrustenbrot (Austria)

Crusty Country Rye_slice

Rye %: 66%
Stages: Sponge, Soaker, Final dough
Leaven: Rye sour culture, Yeast
Start to Finish: 15-17 hours
Hands-on Time: 25-30 minutes
Yield: Two 1½ lb./675 g loaves

Austrian rye breads are less well-known than their German cousins, which is a shame because they’re incredibly flavorful. I found the recipe for this well-balanced nutty-sweet-sour country loaf in probably the best of the Austrian bread books, Der Duft von frischem Brot (The Aroma of Fresh-Baked Bread) by Barbara van Melle. The recipe itself comes from Vienna baker Horst Felzl, who, had he been 2 cm taller, as the book states, and qualified for the police academy, would never have become one of Austria’s best bakers. Keep Reading

Finnish Rye/Ruislimppu

Ruis_slice

Rye %: 100%
Stages: Sponge, Final dough
Leaven: Rye sour culture, Yeast
Start to Finish: 12-14 hours
Hands-on Time: 25-30 minutes
Yield: Two 2¼ lb./1.0 kg loaves

Ruislimppu, which translates to “rye loaf,” is the traditional bread of eastern Finland, with a nutty-sour flavor profile that reflects the strong Russian influence on the region’s food culture. Unlike the sour ring ryes (hapanleipäa) of western Finland, which were baked only once or twice a year and stored over the winter on poles hung from the ceiling, the eastern Finns baked their rye bread regularly throughout the year. Keep Reading

Lublin Rye/Chleb Lubelski (Poland)

Lub_slice

Rye %: 100%
Stages: 3-stage sponge, Final dough
Leaven: Rye sour culture
Start to Finish: 24-28 hours
Hands-on Time: 35-40 minutes
Yield: One 2¼ lb/1.0 kg loaf

Lublin Rye, which I found in the Polish bread blog Adam Piekarz (“Adam’s Bakes”) appeals to me on many levels. Firstly, its history: according to Adam, “back in the 1960s, when the content of rye bread was regulated by the [Communist] state, Lubelski was considered a great luxury because it used 100% white rye flour, which was available only at certain times of the year.” Second, it’s the most basic of rye breads, containing only rye flour, water, salt and sour culture. If nothing else, I was expecting a bread that showcased the subtlety of white rye and the balance of a three-stage sponge. Keep Reading

Black Rye Bread/Juoda Ruginė Duona (Lithuania)

Juoda_slice

Rye %: 90%
Stages: Scald, Sponge, Opara, Final dough
Leaven: Rye sour culture
Start to Finish: 24-28 hours
Hands-on Time: 30-40 minutes
Yield: One 2 lb. (900 g.) loaf

I love Russian and Baltic rye breads for their intensity. So when, a few months back, I found some imported Latvian breads at my local international grocery store, my heart skipped a beat.  Although I’d baked several different Baltic ryes while researching recipes for The Rye Baker, I’d never had the opportunity to taste the real thing, and so I immediately snapped up a loaf of the “Classic Rye Bread.”

Before I even sliced the loaf, I was struck by its density and the intoxicating sweet-sour perfume that enveloped me as soon as I unwrapped it – an aroma that I hadn’t experienced in any of the Russian or Baltic ryes I’d baked until then. Keep Reading

Weinheim Heath Rye/Weinheimer Heidebrot (Germany)

Heid_slice

Rye %: 80%
Stages: Sponge, Soaker, Final dough
Leaven: Rye sour culture, instant yeast
Start to Finish: 22-23 hours
Hands-on Time: 30-40 minutes
Yield: Two 15-oz./425 g loaves

I found this bread on Lutz Geißler‘s blog (Ploetzblog.de), who in turn got it from the German Baking Academy (Akademie Deutsches Bäckerhandwerk) in Weinheim, in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemburg. I was intrigued because this loaf, at 80% rye, comes in at a higher percentage than most rye breads from southern Germany. It also uses an old-bread soaker, which moistens and tenderizes the crumb. Keep Reading

Why Rye Bread?

 

Jewish-Rye

I grew up eating rye bread — or at least what I thought of as rye bread — as the grandchild of eastern European Jewish immigrants. However, I didn’t start baking with rye until I began exploring my culinary roots, an exploration that ultimately came to fruition in Inside the Jewish Bakery.

During my research, I encountered the dense, dark rye breads that my grandparents’ generation subsisted on, but which had already disappeared from the Jewish bakeries of my childhood. I was hooked: My quest led me to the rye breads of northern, central and eastern Europe — largely unknown in the U.S. — where I found flavors, textures and baking challenges I never imagined existed. Keep Reading