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This is going to be a bread based on the formula from "Local Breads". The description of the bread sounds wonderful but the formula is off. The hydration of the bread in the book is at 53% and the dough he describes is a very wet dough. I like a challenge so I thought I would give this bread a try. Right from the start I figured I would make this bread in my Dutch Oven so I increased the dough amount to 2200 grams. The starter is made by adding rye flour to my wheat starter. The starter looked like this after the second build.
Here is what I did to make the first and second builds.
| First Build | Grams | Percent |
| Starter | 11.53 | 50% |
| Flour | 23.07 | 100% |
| Water | 23.07 | 100% |
| Total | 57.67 | 250% |
The flour in the first build is 50% wheat and 50% rye.
| Second Build | Grams | Percent |
| First Build | 57.67 | 85.71% |
| Rye Flour | 67.28 | 100% |
| Water | 67.28 | 100% |
| Total | 192.23 | 285.71% |
The rye flour used in the preferment is fresh ground whole rye.
This is the part of the formula I had to take a guess to get the bread to have the hydration that would fit the description of the book. I decided to use a hydration of 85% in my dough formula. The dough formula ended up looking like this.
| Dough Formula | Grams | Percent |
| Flour* | 1067.96 | 100.00 |
| Water | 907.77 | 85% |
| Salt | 32.04 | 3% |
| Preferment | 192.23 | 18% |
| Total | 2200 | 206.00 |
| *Flours | Grams | Percent |
| Bread Flour | 309.71 | 29% |
| Rye Flour | 758.25 | 71% |
| Total | 1067.96 | 100% |
The first step is a new one for me and what I think makes this a unique formula. You take all the water and heat it to 115°F and pour it over the preferment. Mix the preferment together breaking the lumps up. Then add all the rye flour in and mix it up. I got a dough that looks like the picture below. Let this sit for an hour or an hour and a quarter covered.
Now after the waiting period mix in the bread flour. Keep mixing until the gluten in the dough is developed. This made a very sticky mess that stuck to the sides and bottom of the bowl. Here is a picture of what that looked like.
I scraped this out into a covered oiled bowl and let it ferment for an hour to an hour and a quarter. Then I turned out the dough onto a floured work area. The dough had completely changed, it was no longer a sticky mess. I rolled it around in the flour so that it was all covered and then shaped it into a round. This was placed into the Dutch Oven and then evened out and this is where I stopped following the directions of the book.
I let the dough rise in the Dutch Oven with the lid on for two hours when I saw the cracks developing and I could see that it had risen up quite a bit I figured it was time to bake it.
The Dutch Oven was placed in the oven and the oven was turned on to 460°F. The oven took 6 minutes to come up to temperature then I set the timer for one hour. The first twenty minutes were done with the lid on and the last 40 minutes with the lid off.
The bread came out looking great. This is the best looking rye bread that I have ever baked. I have seen pictures of bread with the dark crust, cracks, and the white flour but this was a first for me. I happened to read that a rye bread should wait for 24 hours before cutting it so I waited the extra time before the loaf was cut.
I guess the crumb picture should speak for itself. The crumb was very soft and tender. The crust wasn't thick but substantial and chewy. I had a little bit harder time in getting the knife to cut through the crust. This is I think the best rye bread I have ever made. I have had a little bit of rye during my life but this tastes nothing like the rye breads I'm familiar with. The people at work really liked it too. They just about ate the whole thing before I went home. Next time I bake it I will cut back on the salt, to me it was noticeable but others said it was fine. There really isn't anything else that would have to be changed to make it better.
Comments
That's one impressive loaf! What size Dutch Oven did you use? Your 2200 g dough was obviously well matched to the DO's volume.
I think you made a great choice aiming for an 85% hydration and not attempting to match Mr. Leader's "batter" description. When I tried to match the described texture, the loaf was ridiculously over-hydrated. The slices from the outer perimeter of the loaf weren't at all gummy, but about 1/3 of the way in the bread got progressively gummier, even several days after baking. The crumb structure was there and set; the moisture level was simply too high. I need to go back and post a follow-up to my TFL blog.
While I don't think it's an exact match to what Leader was aiming for, it looks like an absolutely wonderful bread. I'm guessing that baking it in the DO kept the crust from getting as hard as a hearth-baked version of the same bread. It also apparently provided some support at the sides which improved the loaf's height. Good work!
The hydration of my regular bread is 85% so I figured it was a good place to start. When I read how much water you used I couldn't see doing that much but then again this really was a very different bread for me.
I think the dough is at least a good starting point for what Leader was aiming for but will we ever know. I pretty much knew when I started I was going to cook it in a Dutch Oven but after handling the dough I know I could of baked it on a stone. It is just so much easier to cook in a Dutch Oven. I find that the Dutch Oven make a very nice crisp and thin crust on most breads. Letting the bread sit for a day and a half before cutting it I think let the crust get a little bit chewy. When I pulled the loaf after cooking the crust on top was still moist and soft for a few hours.
Thanks for the comments.
fantastic bread! but your percentages don't convince me: at the beginning of the post you wrote that you used a hydratation of 53%, while according to your ingredients the hydratation is ~92%. Yesterday I made it, but it came out so liquid that I had to add a lot of flour to give it some consistence (and it was still very sticky and fluid). Please, can you tell me which hydratation is the right one?
Thanks,
Nico
You need to read what I wrote again. The book the formula comes from has the hydration at 53% and this is a mistake because the dough he describes is a very wet dough. The dough I made is a high hydration dough. What I have above is how I did it.
BTW, this bread rose very very high! I'm letting it rest for a couple of days before testing it. Thanks for this post, it's extremely interesting