So, as some right here might bear in mind, I’ve had quite a lot of inconsistencies with my rye starter and my rye breads over the previous yr or so … and, among the many ideas that the sort individuals on this website prompt was that I alter up my routine and check out some completely different rye flours. Although I am not typically good at taking recommendation, I made a decision to have some enjoyable with this. So I lined up 3 ryes:
- Janie’s Mill darkish rye flour, aka natural complete grain rye (thx, alcophile, for the heads up about their sale)
- Młynomag Maka Razowa żytnia T-2000 — from Poland
- Farmer Floor Flour‘s natural complete grain rye (my outdated standby)
Over the previous 3 days, I used every to bake a deli rye: 45% rye (all prefermented)/55% King Arthur Natural bread flour, 1% caraway, 1% salt. Listed here are the outcomes:
Janie’s:
Młynomag Maka Razowa żytnia:
Farmer Floor Flour:
Particulars:
Janie’s is extra finely floor than the others and proved to be a really thirsty flour. For making the preferment, I needed to increase the hydration to 86% to get all of the flour absolutely moistened.
To my eye, the Młynomag Maka Razowa żytnia and the Farmer Floor Flour had been fairly comparable grinds. Each comprise plenty of giant tan particles and each flours bought absolutely moistened at someplace round 75% hydration.
As a result of scheduling quirks, I let the Janie’s levain ferment for 8 hours. Each the Polish and the Farmer Floor levains fermented for about 6 hours. All three of them had been inoculated at about 10%.
I baked the Janie’s bread full-sized — about 900 g — by itself in a big dutch oven.
With the Polish and Farmer Floor flours, I baked 2 mini-batards of maybe 600 g every, which I baked side-by-side in the identical giant dutch oven.
Look:
Janie’s produced a beautiful-looking bread, with nice oven spring, a brown and toasty crust, and a properly open crumb for a deli rye.
For some cause (possibly as a result of I did not ferment the levain as lengthy), the crusts did not absolutely caramelize on the Polish and Farmer Floor loaves. The breads additionally did not rise as a lot within the oven (maybe as a result of that they had much less water within the combine) and the crumb in each loaves was uneven — huge holes subsequent to little holes.
Style:
The Janie’s bread seems improbable however, oddly, is form of boring to eat.
Each the Młynomag model and the Farmer Floor supply extra assertive sweetness from the crust (farmer floor even smells candy once you first add water earlier than fermenting it.) They produced very comparable breads, however — to me — the Farmer Floor Flour mini batard edged the prize because it extra absolutely showcased the interesting combo of crispy, toasty, barely candy crust with a lightweight and flippantly bitter crumb.
Sadly, my “impartial rye tasters™” aren’t out there this week. So, for now, you may simply must take my phrase for it.
Rob
