With thanks to Reinhardt Küsters for the following interesting contribution. For those of you interested in baking a traditional sour dough bread the way it is suppose to be done! ;) Ladies & Gentlemen, The availability of Rye bread flour anywhere in Southern Africa off the shelf in supermarkets was virtually impossible (except for the odd health shop that stock smaller quantities). Rye bread as such is only available in your normal run of the mill bakery and too often it is baked with the wrong ingredients which makes for a bad tasting and bad quality bread (I am sorry but South African bakers not counting the exceptional few, are not good in their trade when it comes to baking a good bread). I am excited by the fact that you have now brought Rye bread flour onto the shelves for everybody to buy (including the other flour types) and added to that from Bio farming and stone milled – what more can one ask for? I do however believe in order for your consumers to get the full benefit for baking bread with Rye flour, I would like to share a fundamental of Rye bread baking – after all it is us Germans that invented Rye Bread. You are correct in stating that Rye flour has a very low gluten content but if the short cut method of overcoming this, is indeed to mix white bread wheat flour and yeast to the mixture, it still does not make for a good dark Rye bread with a hard crunchy crust and exceptional flavor. Rye bread flour contains micro enzymes which makes a perfect sour dough. A good fermented sour dough is the ground basis for an exceptional Rye bread and is very easy to make and added to this the sour dough content gives the bread a much longer shelf life than any other bread but the initial fermentation process does take three days – after that if you continue feeding the dough with additional rye flour and warm water, you can bake the next day. This is how it goes : First Day : Mix 100 grams Rye Flour with 100 grams of luke warm water in a bowl. Make sure that water does not exceed 42 degrees Celsius as the Micro Enzymes die off at a temperature of over 42 degrees. Use a fork to combine the flour and water, cover and leave to rest in a warm place for 24 hours. In order to facilitate good fermentation, stir the mixture after 12 hours. Second day : Mix 100 grams of Rye Flour and 100 grams of luke warm water to the existing dough and stir well with a fork and leave to rest for another 24 hours ensuring that your water temperature does not exceed 42 degrees. Third Day : Mix 200 grams of Rye flour and 200 grams of luke warm water to the existing dough mixture and stir well with a spoon and leave to rest for another 24 hours in a warm place. Fourth Day – Baking day : By now the dough should have made bubbles at the top and be of the thick consistency same as waffle dough. Your Sour Dough now consists of 400 grams Rye Flour and 400 grams of Water – this must always be taken into consideration when adding dry flour and water to the bread dough noting that the sour dough only has two purposes a) helping the bread to rise (as a replacement or assistant to yeast) and b) lend the bread the correct flavor. You should hold over at least 100 grams of the sour dough to start a new batch of sour dough (which can then be used after 24 hours of fermentation). The dough should smell fermented – if it smells foul, it means that the water was too warm and the micro organisms have died and the sour dough culture has collapsed and gone rotten – repeat the process if this has happened. Young sour dough can be kept in the fridge for a short period of time, older sour dough cultures that have gone through the above process a number of times can be kept in the fridge for longer. When baking Rye bread use 50% Sour Dough and 50% Rye flour – if you intend to substitute the Rye Flour with Wheat flour make sure that your sour dough : flour ratio is always 1:1 noting that the sour dough already contains water and that additional water to be added should ensure a soft pliable dough – if it’s too dry, your bread will not have enough moisture and will not last as long. The bread needs to be left to proof twice until it has doubled in volume – if the sour dough culture and the flour ratio is correct this should not be a problem – if you decrease the sour dough ratio you may need to consider adding yeast but that is not the idea of this exercise. In order to ensure a good crust pre-heat oven WITH the baking tray inside the oven to 250 degrees Celsius – after the bread has proofed, slide it onto the baking tray inside the oven and spray a thin layer of water with a normal spray bottle onto the bread – this will ensure that a good crust develops. After 10 minutes step down to 220 degrees, after another 10 minutes step down to 200 degrees and after another 10 minutes step down to 180 degrees and complete baking after 10 minutes (total of 40 to 50 minutes depending on loaf size). I have not work with your Rye Flour yet and have started with the sour culture using your dough yesterday and it looks promising – I will send you photos of the completed product but if the quality of your product is what you make it out to be and you indeed go to the lengths of Bio culture and stone milling then the ingredient deserves respect and should also be used responsibly to create a magnificent product – I will keep you updated. brgds Reinhardt Küsters
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 08:18:58 +0000
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