Saturday, October 11, 2014

Whole Grain Weekend

It's Saturday, and we're giving a couple of formulas a try. Nothing too radical, but definitely treading in potential brick territory.

40% Whole Grain Rye Bread
40% Whole Rye
I really, really like the "Jewish Deli Rye" that we've made a few times, and I don't want to mess with success, but there's only about 15% rye flour in that loaf. Enough for a bit of flavor, but not enough to really impact the texture and character of the loaf; most of the flour is wheat flour, so the bread's structure is predictably light. As you increase the percentage of rye flour in the loaf, you get less and less gluten to support the structure of the dough, and the loaf gets gradually less airy and light until you get to 100% rye, which produces those square, dense blocks of pumpernickel. I supposed I could make those, but it's not what I'm shooting for.

Instead, we basically tripled the amount of freshly-milled whole organic rye flour, since 40% is a respectable amount of rye flour, but there's still enough wheat flour in there to keep things lively. The loaves came out okay.

Compare the crumb of this loaf with the deli rye we made a couple of weeks ago. No contest.

40% Whole Rye crumb

Tomorrow will  be a 100% Whole Wheat, made entirely with hard red winter wheat that we milled this morning in the Nutrimill.  It promises to be a real brick. I'll have a full report tomorrow, probably with pictures of a loaf that could anchor a large container ship. That's what weekends are for!

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