Saturday, July 5, 2008

Breadchick's Dark Onion Rye

This was supposed to be Dark Onion Rye, courtesy of Breadchick from The Sour Dough - this month's Bread Baking Babes host, however, dark rye flour wasn’t available here, so I had to go with what they had which was just “rye flour.”


The idea of trying this rye bread (along with being bestowed the title of 'Bread Baking Buddy'!) excited me. I’ve been on the sourdough bandwagon for some time now. When I moved here, I retired my 11 year old starter that I had made during my first year of graduate school back in 1996 because I couldn't take it through security with me. Can you imagine trying to explain it to TSA? When I first moved to Akron that year, I had very little money for entertainment, so I bought myself “Bread Alone” by David Leader. The bread gods must have been smiling down at me, because the creation of my first rye starter was a complete success. I baked a loaf or two every week, freezing the starter when I’d be away for long periods like visiting family or doing field research.


It was sad to see such a great starter go into the annals of my baking history, but I told myself that this would give me the opportunity to try different starters. When I came to Alaska, I purchased Peter Reinhart’s “Crust and Crumb” after totally LOVING his “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.” I started with his wheat flour barm and never made it to the rye starters. His barm was consistent, lively, and had great flavor. I’ve been using it for nearly a year now for breads, bagels, and pancakes. It wasn’t until I saw what the Bread Baking Babes were doing this month that I decided to venture down the rye starter path once more.


I mixed up Breadchick’s sourdough starter, and diligently coddled to life this past week. There was a fine wine like aroma that was less acidic and more 'rich' than my wheat barm starter.



Yesterday morning I made the sponge and let it sit out for just over 10 hours. Last night I pulled together the dough. I did make one other substitution, I used malt barley syrup instead of molasses. The overall dough looked lighter than what Breadchick had pictured, but that could be the difference in the flours.



I let it proof until doubled which was less time than indicated, so I decided to throw it into a well-floured towel lined bowl and let it retard in the refrigerator overnight for the final proof. Not only would this let me have just-baked bread for lunch today, but the time in the refrigerator would probably let the flavor develop even more.



This morning I pulled out the boule, turned it out onto a parchment lined pan, slashed it and allowed it to come to room temperature (about 1.5 hours) while the oven was heating.



I sprayed it with water and put it into the 400º oven and followed Breadchick’s instruction of baking 20 minutes followed by 25 minutes at 375º. I rotated the pan a few times to make sure the baking was even. I left this to cool before going to work:



When I came back for lunch it was gone. All of it… Apparently the dog decided it was time to practice his ninja skills. I can assure you that he’s usually a well-behaved freak of nature, as well behaved as those can be anyways, but sometimes my creations excite him to the point where he forgoes all knowledge of politeness and obedience and decides stealing something tasty is worth dealing with my anger. Evolution is a funny thing, however, because it granted him the ultimate trump card – uber super cuteness (how can I be mad at that?):



Looks quite please with himself, doesn't he? Luckily he has the iron constitution, if you get my drift, and the onions in the loaf will only torment us with a bad case of gas instead of a vet visit. I have to take Kramer’s word for how good it was, there was nary a crumb left. So maybe next week we’ll try this again and actually get to sample how it tasted. Thanks for the recipe, it smelled fantastic throughout all stages, I’m sure it will taste just as fantastic when we finally get to try it!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amelia-That is just too funny. You're right, he is adorable. I'm not so sure that I would have such a good humor about it, after raising that starter all week.

Amelia said...

Thank cindy! I knew something was up when I walked in the door and he stood at the end of the hallway instead of greeting me immediately LOL.

Luckily you reserve half the starter as "mother starter", so I should be able to get another chance at it ;D

Anonymous said...

Amelia,

What a fantastic looking loaf of bread! I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to have a slice for lunch but I'll take it as a compliment that your dog enjoyed the bread enough to eat the whole loaf!

Hopefully you'll get a piece of the next one.

Thanks for baking with the Bread Baking Babes this month!

Cheers.

Rambler said...

That does look yummy!!! Thanks for the meme - I finally posted today!

Anonymous said...

You are right - uber cuteness. Your rye boule looks amazing, and I love your dog!

Anonymous said...

The oven spring is really impressive. I really like how it bloomed out.

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

That Rye Boule looks great! Your dog is a real sweetie pie!

Cheers,

Rosa

Meandering Eats said...

Oh, he is too cute! Bear steals bread whenever he can, too. We know that he knows it's wrong because he has this guilty little slinky walk that he does. Head down, eyes averted, and darting right past us as we get back from work. Then, we see the remnants of whatever loaf was sitting on the counter. Then, he runs back in and snuggles cutely.

It's insanely hard to even get mad at him.

Amelia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amelia said...

Thanks for all the great comments! I plan on making round two this weekend if I can get the time :).

Moowiesgrd - Kramer has the same exact reaction when he's done something bad... but he's such a cutie that its hard to be mad at him! He's my second Aussie (like you I was step mom to my first) and I love his craziness to death. Plus the wiggle butt effect has a way of diffusing any bad situation!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

I am so sorry I didn't see this at the time.
I'd have been hard pressed to be upset with such a sweetie as that. Did you get to make it again. Your loaf looks fabulous!