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Jeffrey Hamelman's Black Bread |
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Posted: 01 January 2011 at 13:36 |
TasunkaWitko and I have had many good discussions on black breads, dark ryes, and how to make them; techniques and ingredients to use along with baking details since neither one of us has ever made such bread. There's a lot of conflicting and confusing information out there~ what little there is~ on how to make (in the average home) a true, traditional, dense loaf of black bread in the old world style.
Although not an original and true old-world recipe, it will be a good place to start in making a dense rye bread, and give me a familiarity for future experiments in baking this kind.
Started with the sourdough base, which takes rye flour, water and a sourdough starter. Luckily Mrs Rivet had a nice bowl of her sourdough starter going for some months now, so I took a couple ladelfuls of it for the mixture, plus 1 1/2 cups water and 2 1/4 cups rye flour.
Mixed that well for a few minutes. It formed a nice thick doughy paste.
Next, "the slurry". This will give the bread its familiar color, dark with a nice sharp "bite" to it as well as richness in flavor from the leftover bread. The slurry calls for finely ground coffee from about 1/3 cup of beans...okay!
Then, I toasted a leftover sourdough bun Mrs Rivet had made the other day. Trick is to toast it "just this side of carbon". Maybe mine was too light but that's good enough for me. About 40 minutes in a 350 oven.
With a serving fork, I crumbled the bread in a bowl with the coffee dust. The bread was crispy-crunchy and almost fell apart- perfect. Added 1 1/3 cup boiling water and mixed it well into a slurry.
Then, covered tightly and set aside for at least 12 hours. Good deal.....here's the sourdough which must set in a cool area for 16 hours, and the slurry next to it. I'll pick up the rest of the baking process early tomorrow morning and make some black bread!
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Well here we are on day 2. Doesn't look like the bread's gonna turn out black, so I changed the title to dark rye bread which is more like the looks of it so far...
Took a peek at the sourdough. It had risen nicely over night even in the cool kitchen. The kitchen hovers around 55-65 F over-night during the winter.
Mixed the sourdough with the slurry together in a big bowl. I thought of removing the crusty cap off the sourdough, but decided to leave it in since with the moistures it would incorporate well once the mixing started. Sure enough, in no time the spatula got it all smooth, and a nice rich color too-
Then added the rest of the ingredients (1 pkg yeast, 1 1/2 TBSP oil, 2 1/4 TSP salt, 1 1/2 cups rye flour 3 1/4 cups white baking flour) and mixed well. I had a cup of "emergency water" (you can see it on the right) in case the dough turned out too stiff. No worries, never needed it. These ratios are perfect.
Shortly I had to turn it out on the counter since it got stiff really fast. I kneaded it for about 10 minutes until it was all mixed, let it rest for 20 minutes, then began kneading again for the final 8 minutes. Here's where you guys who have the Hobarts and KitchenAids with the dough-hooks have it made! This old-timey kneading such stiff dough was a work out!
For a while there, I thought this dough was going to require the full "Franco-American" Effect in order to get it right, but since I didn't want to remove my shirt just yet, I bulled my way through the kneading and made it work! (For the background story on the "Franco American" effect CLICK HERE and read the post)
Let it rest for another 5 minutes, then put it into a lightly oiled bowl to rise. It will rise for the next hour or so, then get shaped into loaves.
For now it's doing it's thing in the covered bowl, and I'll post more pics and results later in the day once it is done.
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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i like it so far ~ very nice looking and it's sure to be a winner!
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After about 2 1/2 hours, the dough's first rising was done. Looked real nice and had a softish feel to it.
Gently degassed it, then formed it into round loaves. These I set aside covered in a cotton towel for the second rising. After about an hour and a half, I preheated the oven to 450 F with baking stones in it. Once hot, I sprinkled corn meal on the stones, placed the loaves on it and let them bake for 30 minutes. After that time was up, I dropped the heat down to 400 where they baked for an additional 30 minutes. Then out to cool-
Once cooled I sliced one open. Very nice crumb, but with a fluffiness that came from the addition of white flour, not as hard and dense as a purely rye flour loaf would make. The loaves also had a nice crusty outside crust. This was fine as it made it a very nice kind of bread to serve with a meal such as a stew or soup....something with liquid to sop up-
The flavor was rich and dark, no coffee flavor at all, just hearty rye richness. I couldn't detect any sourdough flavor either. I spread some butter on a slice and it was delicious. The butter sure brought out the flavor of this bread, hinting that any toppings such as sardines, mustards, cheeses would enhance the bread and in turn be enhanced by it.
In all we were very pleased with our first dark rye bread. Gained some baking knowledge out of this and look forward to tackling some true black bread soon.
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Allrighty! Time to enjoy this dark rye bread in the old-world style~ took the other loaf and sliced that baby up neatly...
Old-world to me means Mama Vicky's recipe's, ingredients, tastes and toppings. What better than a typical Polish evening meal of dark bread, mustards, head cheese and such for a wonderful plate? Many times she'd bring out a plate of this goodness as we watched late night TV and, there you go....a perfect snack too!
Two days later and the bread is as good as the day it was baked. It has the density and the flavour expected in a dark rye, and I will add that even though it's interior softness is gone, it has not gone stale but rather been replaced with that smooth density we expect out of a dark rye. A very nice and welcomed surprise. This bread may be more traditional than I thought possible.
From the twelve o'clock position, moving clockwise.... butter, French whole grain mustard, two pieces of Head Cheese (click here for the recipe and story.) Hot habanero mustard, Polish "chrzanowa" mustard, and sharp cheddar cheese.
What a delightful way to enjoy this bread, and a perfect accompaniment to a glass of beer as well! (I'll skip the ice-cold "wodka").
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Hoser
Admin Group Joined: 06 February 2010 Location: Cumberland, RI Status: Offline Points: 3454 |
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God how I envy your baking skills! Wonderful looking bread John
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Go ahead...play with your food!
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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it looks perfect to me - and worth a try!
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Hoser
Admin Group Joined: 06 February 2010 Location: Cumberland, RI Status: Offline Points: 3454 |
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I hope Kiwi sees this...he was looking for a recipe for a nice, dense loaf of bread a while back...this looks like just the ticket.
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Go ahead...play with your food!
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