Light rye bread (J. Hamelman)

Category: Sourdough bread

Ingredients
Rye sourdough
peeled rye flour *	150 g
water	120 g
mother leaven	8 g
Dough
premium wheat flour (high in gluten) **	850 g
water	540 g
caraway	18 g
salt	20 g
fresh pressed / instant dry yeast	15 g / 5 g
rye sourdough (total amount minus 1/2 tbsp. l.)	270 g

Cooking method

Preparation of the starter culture. Stir the mature mother starter in the water, add the flour and stir the mixture until smooth. The consistency should be fairly strong and at the same time free enough for the leaven to "breathe". Sprinkle a thin layer of rye flour over the surface of the mixture. Cover the container with a cloth or plastic wrap and leave to mature for 14-16 hours at 21 C.

Adjust the ripening time of the starter in accordance with the temperature and humidity of the environment. Ripe leaven should have a raised surface and a pleasant sour aroma.

If the leaven has fallen off, it means that it fermented for too long or in too warm a room. If the signs of ripening do not appear during the time allotted for fermentation, then either increase the temperature in the room or increase the fermentation time.

For kneading dough the author recommends placing all the ingredients at once in the mixer bowl. Focusing on the peculiarities of my technique, it is more convenient for me to first add the prepared starter culture and water to the bowl, stir until smooth, and only then add the rest of the ingredients. Knead the dough in a mixer at the first speed - 3 minutes, and then another 3-4 minutes at the second speed. The gluten in the dough should be well developed and the desired dough temperature is 25-27 C.

Sprinkle the dough with flour, round and place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a napkin. Fermentation - 1 hour. The weight of the finished dough is 1713 g. I cooked half of the weight of the ingredients indicated in the recipe, the weight of the finished dough is 860 g.

Sprinkle flour on your work surface. Divide the dough into two pieces, round and leave for 5-10 minutes, covered with foil to prevent crusting on the surface.

After preliminary rounding, give the blanks a final round or oval shape.

I needed bread with a small porosity of the crumb and I formed the blanks like a mini batard. Turn the dough piece over, seam up, and flatten it slightly, creating a flat disc. Next, wrap the upper sides to the center, bring your palms to the center by folding them with a boat, lightly seal the seam with your fingertips, that is, act approximately the same way as you would seal an echpochmak or fatayer. Next, wrap the top of the resulting blank and seal the dough slightly above its center. Fold the top and sides of the dough piece back towards the center.

And again seal the top of the dough piece again. Turn the top of the dough piece and seal the seam with the edge of your hand. Pay attention to the tension of the dough and, if necessary, reduce the number of turns of the dough, so as not to get an overly tight dough piece. Roll the workpiece along the working surface, smoothing the seam and leveling its shape. Next, place the dough piece in a proofing basket, seam up or seam down, on a baking cloth. Cover the dough pieces with plastic foil again to prevent winding of the surface.

Finishing with caraway seeds, after forming a dough piece, apply its top to a damp cloth, and then to a sheet sprinkled with a layer of caraway seeds - a quick method, but too many seeds are obtained on the surface.The second option allows you to dose the amount of cumin - place the top of the dough piece on a damp cloth (or use a spray bottle to wet the surface) and then sprinkle the caraway seeds on the damp surface.

I have not used cumin in my bread.

Final proofing for 50-60 minutes at 25-27 C. In general, the bread should be loaded into the oven when its rise is 85 to 90% of the maximum possible volume. Bread that has been fully proofed is prone to settling in the oven.

Before loading into the oven, make three to four cuts perpendicular to the length of the dough piece.

Bake the bread at 235 C and medium steam for 15 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 225 C and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, until fully cooked, adjusting the time, if necessary, depending on the characteristics of your oven.

Light bread, table bread, with low acidity.* Peeled rye flour can be substituted for whole grain rye flour. In this option, a little more water will need to be added when preparing the starter culture. The bread will have a slightly more pronounced taste. Replacing peeled rye flour with seeded rye flour greatly impoverishes the taste and aroma of the finished bread, the best result is the use of peeled or whole-grain rye flour.
** If necessary, wheat flour with a high gluten content can be replaced with wheat bakery flour, to which about 1-3% of dry gluten is added.
(I used regular premium wheat flour, adding about 1/2 teaspoon (no top) rye unfermented malt)