Russian Borodinski Bread - Event Date: 07 September 2011 - 08 September 2011

 

 

It was time to turn it into the sponge. Mrs Rivet has had a sourdough starter going on uninterrupted for over 3 years now, keeping it fed and lively. I dipped from this. If you don't have a starter going on, you need to make one probably a good 3 to 5 days before trying to make Borodinski bread.

 

She fed it yesterday and it was looking strong and smelling lusciously sour!

 

 

That's the key to Russian ryes and Borodinski bread especially; the interplay and balance between pungent sourdough and the sweetness of the malted syrup. I'm thinking the corainder seeds and the little bit of dust is going to go very well in the whole scheme of things.

 

I put in several ladelfuls, about 2 cups total. A bit more than I should have, but I can make up for the extra moisture tomorrow when the dough is made.

 

 

After about 2 or 3 hours, the sponge is rolling along real nice and lively! Smells rich and good and at this point, promises good bread tomorrow.

 

 

Dense heavy loaves of rich and dark rye bread are what we are looking for and should have no problem getting. They take long slow fermentation- though they won't rise a lot due to the 80-85% rye flour.  The slow baking at around 325 to 350 F for authentic development into bread guarantees a dense loaf. Tommorrow we shall see where we end up. 

 

 

Thanks Andy, and once you smell the mash and sponge....you are going to be hooked.

 

The next day, after letting the sponge do it's thing for 18-24 hours, I smelled it and was speechless with a yearning for bread. The smell was indescribably good; one has to smell it to understand, and I now understand the Russian recipes I've read over where they say to call the whole family in just to smell the sponge before it becomes the dough... yes, it is that good. It is also quite active and ready to go-

 

 

Since I had overdone the amount of starter (liquid) I wasn't sure how much flours to add, but I did understand what the final dough should look like, feel like, so I just added the proper ratios of rye flour to unbleached bread flour (80 to 85 % to 20 to 15%) until it got to that consistency. This helped overall, since I do not have a mixer and have to do this by hand. (Have a lot of experience with this muscle-mixing-bread-thing from my Pannes Coccodrillos!) In a mixer, the rye dough will just form into a ball and wad itself around and around, so doing it by hand was probably better, I could scrape the sides of the bowl, and take a rest now and then. I mixed for about 20 minutes total, slowly adding the flours until it was ready. I also added 2 heaping tablespoons of coriander powder and a heaping teaspoon of salt.

 

 

Since rye flour does not have the gluten that wheat flour does, there is no initial rise, or fermentation stage for the dough. It goes straight into the loaf pans.

 

These were generously shot with cooking spray, though one can use oil or butter, and then sprinkled on the bottom with coriander seeds-

 

 

Now the dough is a sticky mess. Keep a bowl of cold water handy (hot water will "set" the rye dough like cement) to keep your hands wet, and put gobs of the dough into the loaf pans then mash and smooth it down like adobe.

 

 

Cleaning hint: immediately put all utensils and bowl into sink full of cold water to soak. After a while you can rub the rye dough off. Otherwise if it dries or warm water is used....forget it.

 

I ground up 3 or 4 tablespoons of coriander seeds in a mortar, and sprinkled them over the loaves like this. They loaves went into a cold oven with the light on to rise.

 

 

The loaves will not rise a whole lot. Just let them rise until they reach the top part of the pan, that's about as good as they may get, perhaps a bit more. It is only the wheat flour with gluten in it that is going to provide the springiness in the loaves to allow them to stretch and rise. This may take anywhere from 1 to 4 hours, depending.

 

 

thanks for posting it!

 

The loaves were heavy, real nice. Our kitchen scale is in storage, but I estimated that each loaf easily weighed 2 pounds apiece. The pans I used to bake them in measure 7.5 x 3.5 x 2.5 inches, so you can imagine how dense these small loaves really are.

 

 

Slicing one open the rich smell of rye and toasted coriander came up from the crumb....a very nice and thick scent. Very fresh, too, just like the bread.

 

 

The crumb is tight and dense just like it is supposed to be. The crust absorbed some of the moisture overnight, so it is chewy and only slightly drier than the insides of the loaf. Much different from the oven-fresh loaves whose crust is crackley. Waiting a full day sure seems to be good advice. Though tight, the crumb is also nicely moist, very fresh-tasting and immediately obvious that this is nourishing bread.

 

This is the type of rye bread that for centuries has provided the peasants with 60 to 70% of their daily caloric intake. I can understand that now; once tasted it is clear that this is more than bread, it is food, in every sense of the word and delicious too.

 

I see now what was meant by this being a "noble bread".

 

 

The interplay between the sour mash and the hint of sweet from the barley malt was exactly what was promised and what I was looking for in a truly "authentic" old-world loaf. Chewing this bread not only filled my mouth with flavor, but those flavors also rose, filling my head with taste and the dance of the sour and sweet and the interlace of the toasted coriander mixed with the powder inside the dough itself. This is heavenly bread, and one that nourishes not only the body, but also the soul.

 

This is rye bread that begs for strong flavors to match it~ raw onion, hearty mustards, rich sausages and stews, salted fish...I imagine tinned fish like sardines or sprats will be a match made in heaven, if not the plains of Mother Russia.

 

The underside of the loaves grabbed hold of the coriander seeds and make them a nice and slightly crunchy addition to the bottom crust. Very nice and very tasty.

 

 

This is the first time I've tried rye bread with coriander in it and know it will be a staple bread at the hacienda. It keeps very well, (frozen too) and I'm sure makes fantastic toast. I've got some Borshcht leftover in the freezer and this seems like the perfect time to pair the two.

 

 

 

Dave, I chceked your settings for the auto-login, and they are correct. If you have re-set your internet history, the deletion of the cookies may have caused this. Once the cookie is re-set you should be okay.

 

Be aware that this happened to me about a month ago, with no history celaning nor re-set, and then cleared up on its own a couple weeks ago. It is strange, I'll look into this.

 

In the meantime, I'm glad you liked the bread and the post. If you feel like you have some time on your hands for bread and like dark breads, give it a whirl. It is better than good.

 

Found a beer brewers supply store in a town about 30 miles away where I can find malted rye (among other great beer, wine and cheese making supplies) and will make my next batch from a "real" mash starter. In speaking with the pro's that use malted rye, this will add a huge depth and breadth of flavour and richness. I'm looking forward to this, since I cannot imagine that- at all- after tasting today's bread. This bread was so good, and Mrs Rivet liked it so much, that we'll keep some around either fresh or in the freezer regularly.

 

 

question about the barley malt and malted rye. naturally where i am from this is going to be tough to find and even tougher to jsutify for purchase - i am wondering if your reasearch turned up anything about how common those ingredients are over in eastern europe etc.? molasses being mentioned as an acceptable substitute, i would GUESS that it is more common there, but i could be wrong.....

 

in any case, this is definitely something i want to persue, especially from an historic perspective. i'd like to come as close as possible to what those peasant wives and mothers were making ~

 

Okay!

I’m not going through this again, so I am providing bullet comments for all the salient bits on information you need. Please do not be offended.

1.       Wheat is a “finicky” plant needing warm climate, good soil, adequate and interspersed rainfall to flourish. This was where we think it got its paleontological start with all that- in Central Turkey, where the weather is perfect.

2.       Rye flour, its cousin, doesn’t need that. It flourishes in cold climates, damp, poor soil (including sandy soil), sporadic and heavy rainfall and needs less sun. It too got its paleontological start in Turkey.

3.       Archeological evidence from the Roman Period shows that rye was grown for food in the Rhine and Danube regions of Germany as well as in Britain.

4.       Rye has been earnestly grown as a food crop on a large scale (relatively uninterrupted) in Central Europe, North-Central Asia and Eastern Europe to include Russia since the middle ages.

5.       Rye has a high nutritive value, including B-vitamins.

6.       Rye has been a staple cereal grain in the northern climes of Europe since the middle ages. Wheat was too expensive, too rare and transport costs prohibitive.

7.       Molasses has been cheap and plentiful in Europe since the mid-to-late 1500’s. Caribbean sugar sources quickly discovered that rum and molasses were exponentially cheaper ways to transport sugar than sugar itself. Molasses has been a European (and American) staple since then, as it is cheap, supplies unlimited, spoilage not an issue, and uses many.

So, from a historical perspective this is a definitive food; bread. It is “ur”. Give it a try, you’ll be impressed.

Of course, the Borodinski bread with the coriander is a later version, it is still based on the standard Russian ageless rye loaf.

You should be able to find rye flour at your grocery store. The 5 LB sack in my pics costs $5.39, but it's a "fancy" brand that's all we get here. Up where you are, you should be able to get it cheaper. The malted rye syrup was $6.85, kinda steep, but a whole heck of a lot of sweetener! That'll last for near a year! The malted rye cost $1.80 for the pound, and that's enough to make 2 batches easy of the Borodinski bread.

 

I'll keep up the post and let you know if the mash was worth the effort or not. 

 

The concept behind a mash is to get the sugars from a grain in order to feed the yeasts to make either an alcohol or a bread.

 

In your case , you may just want to look at rye flours, preferably at over 60% rye (100% ideally so you can add 20 % regular white flour).

 

That's  all you need plus molasses and coriander to make this bread.

 

Talk about the next level, I think we're getting there this morning! The mash smelled sweet, but more importantly surprisingly sour. I didn't expect it to turn so quickly, but it did. Mrs Rivet and I were discussing this mash yesterday and she mentioned that this is exactly how sour-mash rye whiskey starts out...and now I see that!

 

I tasted the mash....very sweet, and the sweetness was just like the malted rye syrup- same flavor, but the sourness of the mash added a whole new layer of flavor to the spoonful I chewed and ate. Nicely pungent and sure to combine beautifully with the "different" sourness of the starter.

 

A week ago, I put together a starter with just rye flour, water, yeast and malted rye syrup. Overnight it soured and was very active, and over the course of the week has turned out really nicely. This morning there were very tiny, almost imperceptible bubbles, but it was still active. Since today was mixing stage, I didn't want to feed it to jump start it, it will get that with the mash, so I added 1 teaspoon yeast to the mash first. Recommendations in many places said to do this since (if the starter is not very active) all-rye starters tend to peter out much faster than wheat flour or potato starters. Again, it is that subtle rye difference that makes things interesting. It will work as is, but at a much reduced activity and taking up much longer time frame to get things where we want them.

 

 

Then added about two, maybe three cups of starter, enough to bring the total volume in the container to 6 cups. (The mash swelled a lot overnight). You can see how making a sourdough starter with rye makes it a golden, yellow color as opposed to white when using wheat flour or potatoe flakes.

 

 

Within minutes, the mixture began to bubble actively~ These yeasties love that mash! This was taken within less than 5 minutes of mixing the two together, and the "lumpy looking" things are not lumps, but giant super-bubbles of gas coming up. This stuff is alive and wanting to become good bread!

 

 

I'll let the mash and starter alone for about 4 hours or so to really get to know eachother and start rocking. Once everything is rolling along, we'll turn that into dough and do some baking later this afternoon. I forgot to add the ground coriander, so I'll do it now; I'll ad 2 tablespoons finely ground coriander to the mix.