Rye Bread

It's been a busy week.

I have a rather daunting exam coming up in family law- and I had two weddings this week (ironic, eh? but both totally beautiful. Congratulations!) Unfortunately, instead of spending most of my waking moments baking, blogging, and thinking about what to bake and blog next, I've been thinking about marriage, divorce, civil unions and alimony- blech. Altogether much less pleasant.

Man cannot survive on studying alone, and all the depressing divorce cases were getting me down. I needed to bake something- not too time consuming, and satistfying enough to lift me out of this studying rut. I decided to try out this rye bread.

Boy did it turn out! I made sure not to let it over-rise as I've done a few times in the past, so it didn't pancake in the oven. Flavour was delish, and it took less around twenty minutes of hands on time. I'm looking forward to adding this recipe to my repetoire!

I started the process by taking my sourdough starter out of the fridge where its been in storage. I split the starter into two and fed one with all purpose flour, and the second with rye flour. I fed it twice a day for about three days, and then used it in the following recipe, called Eric's Fave Rye courtesy of a thread from The Fresh Loaf (note- pics are my own- the pics on the thread are gorgeous- maybe one day I'll make rye like that :) NOTE: I couldn't find any first clear flour here in Israel, so I bought some dark wheat flour- called "Village Flour" here- or Kemach Kafri. For more information about first clear flour, check out this link.

Also, I'm submitting this to this week's yeastspotting!

Now, for the recipe!

"Sponge:

• 100g Active Rye starter
• 275g Rye (Whole or White Rye)
• 275g water

Mix and set at room temp overnight. (If this stage will be longer than 8 hours I suggest refrigerating after 3 hours and warming to room temp before proceeding)

Final Dough:

• All the sponge
• 484g water
• 788g First Clear flour
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 22g Sea Salt
• 20g Caraway seeds

Mix, rest for 20-30 minutes, knead by machine or by hand for 8-10 minutes or stretch and fold several times. It is important to have well developed gluten. Do enough stretches to feel the gluten chains forming. Otherwise you may have trouble getting a good rise. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and ferment till double, about 1 hour or so at warm (80 F) temp. Be sure you get double.

Divide and shape into 2-2lb loaves, final proof for 45 minutes.

Bake @370 for 30-40 Minutes. (I steam for the first 10 minutes)I’m looking for 190+ F internal temperature. When the bread comes out of the oven I brush with a glaze made from whisking 1T cornstarch into 1 Cup of boiling water and sprinkle with kosher salt lightly."