This is without a doubt the best loaf of bread I have baked in many a year!! Not only is it delicious-it is beautiful-moist and with a perfect crumb and texture. I cooked it in the Romertopf --when I rolled it in from my makeshift proofing basket it sort of crumpled and I was expecting a disaster but it redeemed itself.
THANK YOU
This is a wonderful bread. Iām wondering if anyone has made a marble or swirled rye using this recipe with both a light and darker colored dough? I have made that before with yeast but Iād like to try it with sourdough and Iām wondering if anyone has any special tips or found it problematic. Thanks.
Eric, thank you for such a great recipe and website. Iām learning so much. About the Rye recipe, I, like others, had issue with hydration. I reduced the water to 340g and increased the flours to 255g each, and the result was nirvana. It should be named, āOMG Rye.ā I wonder, with your recipe, maybe a longer wait, say 24 hours, before slicing would solve the gummy center issue?
Also, may I have your permission to post your recipe, with a link to your site, on my blog? (www.prettygoodbread.com)
Could try that. I suppose youāre checking the internal temp before taking out of the oven?
By all means, post and link away :-).
Thanks, Eric. On my first try, I uncovered at 30 minutes and inserted a temp probe. After only 5 minutes the temp was 205. After 20 minutes more, the temp had reached 210 and the probe was still coming out gummy.
The probe will come out gummy at any temperature while itās baking. Maybe the longer cooling time with help.
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Methinks I should slow down and let the bread work. This wonderful rye bread is 50% rye, but I think the following may answer my, and othersā issue of gummy center after cooking. I read this in another website: āBreads with over 50% rye flour are another story. All the special considerations due to the chemical differences in rye become more important as the proportion of rye increases. Typically, these breads have a short bulk rise and, once baked, should be allowed to rest for several hours before slicing, so the crumb can set up properly. In the case of breads with 70% rye or more, a rest of 24 hours, even up to a couple of days, may be required.ā (from thefreshloaf dot com)
Eric told me to let it sit longer, but I didnāt listen.
So I made a mistake and added the salt to the water instead of the flours I also weighed out the flour but the weight table showed a different weight for the volume of rye than white I think that was a mistake. I also used coffee opposed to plain water. The bread is delicious and anise and caraway really come through, But I think it should have been taller and the dough less wet at the end of fermentation.
Love the rye bread recipe. I am new at bread baking, bought your starter and recommended tools. Enjoy your videos, thank you!
Eric
Congratulations on your topics and videos.
To give you a bit of background, I grew up on a subsistence farm and we always used sourdough for most baking. Our starter was 100+ year old and I am not unfamiliar with the technique.
I live in South America (Columbia) at 2,600 meters and temperature typically varies from 44Ā°F to 66Ā°F and is rarely below 37Ā°F or above 70Ā°F. Access to special flours is limited. I have built a box to keep starters and mixes warm when required and my starters are more than 3 months old. I have a rye starter and and wheat-bread flour starter. I recently tried your āArtisan Sourdough Rye Breadā recipe and the end result was successful but the miix after sitting overnight was VERY wet and folding was impossible. Before rising the mix looked exactly like yours. After sitting overnight (around 12 hours) the mix had more than doubled (closer to tripled) and was very airy but much more wet than ĀØSpongyā. Although adding more and more flour is generally a bad idea, there was no choice so I dusted with AP and folded until the mix was foldable and baked. The end result using a cast-iron Dutch Oven was very good but due to adding more flour and working the dough not to mention possible wetness on the inside, it was obviously less airy.
I have always noticed that my rye starter is extremely active - any thoughts on why this excessive wetness happened? Iām considering adding more rye the next time hoping the water absorption will be greater and the result will be dryer.
Thanks in advance
JG
Eric is absolutely correct. As a kid, we had no temp probe but now I always check and it is alway gummy. Gummy does not mean not ready but longer sets do allow it to come together. Everything adjusts to your particular environment.
Eric / Jay
I use cast iron and it works perfectly. Yes the crust is firm but not super firm and never burnt. Cookie sheet is a good idea and I need to try.
JG
Everything was going well until after the proofing stage. I emptied the proofing basket on the baking stone and it completely slumped. This didnāt change in the oven; the bread is about 1.5 cm high, and has the shape of a pancake. Any idea what could have gone wrong? Thank you!
[Edit] I forgot to mention, I was baking this on a baking/pizza stone in the oven.
There are many variables and you donāt mention oven temp, how the crumb and crust turned out, however ā¦ baking on a stone vs an enclosed vessel (clay baker, dutch oven) does not give the dough any support and on a stone, it will flatten.
I make this recipe often, bake in a Dutch oven (cast iron). I typically get a nice oven spring and bit of an ear.
Still many variables and the vessel is just one part.
Hi! Thanks - temperature was 220-225C (the hottest my oven goes), for 40 minutes, the crust was perfect, crumb was pretty sticky (too sticky).
I wonder also whether I wasnāt careful enough transferring it from the proofing vessel to the baking stoneā¦ the bread had more shape when I put it in the proofing bowl!
Maybe Iāll try a Dutch oven nextā¦ I assume that once it rises properly it will also become less sticky.
I donāt bake anything on a stone except ciabatta, baguette and pizza. A high moisture bread dough, which this is, needs the support of a vessel to help it rise up and the lid on allows for a crisp, but not burned crust. The bread had more shape in the proofing bowl because it was supported by the bowl.
The recipe doesnāt specify a vessel but if you watch the video, Eric uses a clay baker and I believe speaks to that.
Also, the recipe calls for 475F which is 246C per my converter. AND bake to internal temp of 200F/93C. AND, let it cool completely. Iāve read for rye to let it sit for 12-24 hours even, but I typically bake afternoon/evening and donāt cut it until the morning. Underbake and/or cutting too soon can contribute to a gooey/sticky/too moist crumb.
From what youāve written, re your oven temp, if it were me, I would bake in a dutch oven, lid on for 30-35 minutes and then lid off for another 10-15 making sure you get the internal temp of 93C. You will need to experiment. All ovens are different. I get best results for my liking with a long lid on and then off for final crust crisping. You can also then turn the oven off, open the door and leave the bread in a cooling oven for 5 min. This is not something I do in the heat of summer, though :).
Could I use 100% rye starter for this recipe - would I get the same result?
Hi All. I wonder if you can help me - I tried this for the first time and my dough was incredibly wet and sticky after the 12 hour prove (more like cake mix) so I had to do a lot of stretching and folding with a heavily floured board to get it into anything like a boule shape and then it rose again quite a lot in the shaping basket so was a very soft shape going into the oven and, unsurprisingly, therefore came out very flat after cooking, Can anyone suggest why that might be? I followed the ingredients to the letter, the only thing I wonder is where it says ā70g starterā, does it mean ā70g leavenā (ie ~10g starter with ~30g flour and ~30g water mixed in and left overnight)? Any and all advice welcome 
@ruth3009, good morning. I can only tell you about my experience baking the rye bread. The ā70g leavenā that I used was strictly 70g of my sourdough starter. Yes, this is a wetter, stickier dough. After the initial proofing, I put my dough in a basket that is lined with a cotton liner heavily rubbed in with rice flour for the second rise. I do NOT bake the bread on a stone. For me, the key to having this softer wet dough actually turn into a loaf is to bake it in a preheated covered clay baker in a hot oven. The clay baker, cloche or Dutch oven, all sufficiently preheated before baking, is needed to shore up the sides of the bread and help it shape into a loaf. To be honest, itās the only way I have been baking my breads. Yes, the rye bread has a definite personality of its own but itās definitely worth a bit of trial and error to make it āyours.ā Iāve actually modified the recipe a bit for our taste. I do not put in the molasses or the orange rind. I also replace the mixture of seeds with just caraway, about 1-1/2 tablespoons, more or less to taste. By doing that I find the finished rye bread is more similar to a NY rye versus a pumpernickel.
Keep baking!
Leah