Kevin: Sandwich Rye Bread Recipe

A few years ago I made a sourdough rye bread using wild yeast that I captured and cultured. I made a decent bread from it, albeit rather tough and coarse, but I already had a sourdough culture I was caring for and decided I didn't need twins in my life. Nevertheless, I do love a good sour rye bread for sandwiches and so I eventually got around to coming up with a good sandwich rye.

The trick with rye bread is that rye is low in glutenin. Gluten is a combination of two primary protein molecules, glutenin and gliadin. Glutenin provides stretchability and gliadin provides plasticity. In the presence of water, glutenin in particular can bind to other glutenin molecules at each end (forming even longer chains) and to other molecules in the center. By kneading dough you encourage the glutenin molecules to make these links and thus you get bread dough's ability to rise. Gliadin molecules, in turn, enable the glutenin to maintain it's shape. This combination of glutenin and gliadin is what we usually mean by the single word "gluten."

A couple of other key factors affect the way bread rises. Acid weakens the gluten bonds, which is why sourdoughs are often denser breads than yeast breads. On the other hand, salt strengthens the bonds.

Because rye flour is low in glutenin it doesn't stretch well and so pure rye bread tends to be dense and heavy — and sourdough rye particularly so. This means that to make a good sandwich-type bread with an open, generous crumb using rye the rye needs to be an ingredient rather than the primary flour.

I did some research and found a bread machine recipe that I decided to adapt. Based on what I knew and what I desired I came up with the following recipe.

This is the least pure recipe I've made, by which I mean that I include a couple of additives in the bread: sour salt and wheat gluten. Both of these are natural products — or at least occur naturally.

Sour salt is actually citric acid, which is the acid found in lemons, limes, and other citrus fruits. I like a slightly acid flavor in rye because it complements both the rye flavor and the caraway seeds that, to me, are essential in a good sandwich rye. You could simply add lemon or lime juice but I didn't want the flavors associated with the juice, instead I wanted the pure taste of acid on the tongue. Wheat gluten is what it says, gluten extracted from wheat (ideally without any melamine, so stay away from Chinese wheat gluten). The wheat gluten would enable me to bump the proportion of rye flour and still get a good sandwich loaf.

Sandwich Rye
Makes 1 loaf.

Ingredient US volume Metric Volume US weight Metric weight
rye flour 1 c 235 ml 5 1/8 oz 146 g
bread flour 2 1/4 c 530 ml 11 1/2 oz 330
instant yeast 1 tsp 5 ml -- --
wheat gluten 1 1/2 tbsp 22 ml -- --
citric acid (sour salt) 1/4 tsp 1 ml -- --
caraway seeds 2 tbsp 30 ml -- --
molasses 1 1/2 tbsp 22 ml -- --
butter melted 1 tbsp 15 ml -- --
table salt 3/4 tsp 4 ml -- --
water 1 c + 2 tbsp 2.6 dl 9 oz 256 g
Egg Wash:
egg 1 -- -- --
water 1 tbsp 15 ml -- --

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix together the yeast, gluten, citric acid, caraway seeds, rye flour, and 2 cups (530 ml) of bread flour. Add salt and mix in. (Note, the salt is added after mixing the original ingredients to minimize it's direct contact with the yeast, which it can kill).

In a measuring cup, mix together water, molasses, and butter using a small whisk. With the motor running at low speed, pour liquid into dry ingredients. Once moistened, switch to the dough hook and finish blending. The dough should be moist and sticky, add just enough additional flour, a tablespoon at a time, to have dough clear the sides of the bowl. Increase speed to medium and knead for eight minutes. (Note, dough will clear sides but stick to bottom, scrape it up with a rubber spatula every couple of minutes.)

Scoop dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly a few times then form into a ball. Place the dough in a bowl sprayed with cooking oil, spritz top with oil, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk — about 1 1/2 hours.

Gently deflate dough, scoop onto a lightly floured surface, fold a few times, and allow to relax for about five minutes. Shape dough into a loaf and place on a piece of parchment on your peel or on a baking sheet. Lightly spritz tops with oil and cover with plastic. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. In the meantime, heat oven to 400F (200C) and place rack in center position. (Note: it's important to give the oven a long preheat before baking, particularly if you're using a baking stone.)

Whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon of water in a small bowl. Brush loaf with egg wash and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate rack front to back and continue baking 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. The interior should read 190F on an instant read thermometer.

The bread makes a great ham sandwich. And I've made buns for bratwursts using it — a perfect flavor match for the brats with a dollop of mustard and some onions and peppers.

Technorati: Food recipe bread rye bread sandwich sandwich rye

Continue...

Susan: How To Shape Dough Into Sandwich Loaves

Note: This is a continuation of my article on making basic white bread, which you can read here.

There are many ways to shape a lump of dough into a standard sandwich loaf. The easiest way is to simply pat the dough into the shape of the pan and plunk it in.
Whichever way you choose to shape your loaves, the most important thing to remember is that the finished dough should contact the short ends of the pan so they can help support the dough as it rises.

One popular technique is "jelly-roll" style: Press the dough into a rectangle that is as long as the loaf pan and slightly less than twice as wide as it is long. At the narrow end, roll the dough tightly, jelly-roll style. Pinch the ends and seam to seal, turning the ends under if necessary. I've also seen a similar version where the dough is rolled out to 1/4-inch thick with a rolling pin. That is way too much work for me, but it would be interesting to see the resulting loaf.

I use the "log" method, and it comes straight from the pages of the absolutely wonderful book, Amy's Bread. Here it is, word for word, because if you're like me and have trouble thinking three-dimensionally, this isn't the kind of thing you want to try paraphrasing. (Amy, please don't sue me.) It does take a little practice.

"When shaping your loaves, the most important thing to remember is to be gentle with the dough. Your goal is to form an even loaf with a taut skin, while leaving some larger air holes inside.

Very lightly flour the work surface. Start by forming an envelope: Place the dough on the table. Press and flatten it gently with your fingertips to form a rectangle with a short side facing you, leaving a lot of air bubbles in the dough. [Susan's note: I press out any large air bubbles.] Fold the top edge down over the middle of the rectangle, then fold the bottom edge up. Give the dough a quarter turn and repeat the process, folding the top edge down and the bottom edge up again and overlapping the edges slightly in the middle so the dough looks like an envelope. Pat the seam to seal it. Now you have a smaller, tighter rectangle.

Form a cylinder: Starting from the top edge of the rectangle, fold the top third of the dough over itself with one hand. With the heel of your other hand, gently press the seam to seal it.

Fold the dough one third of the way down again and work from one end to the other to seal the seam. Try to keep the skin of the dough smooth and tight but not so tight that the skin tears.

Repeat this process one or two more times, until the loaf is a nice round log. Seal the final seam completely with the heel of your hand. Ideally your seam should be straight and tight with no openings or flaps of dough hanging out; with patience, this will become natural.

If any dough is protruding from the ends of the log, poke it back in with your finger. [Susan's note: I tuck the ends into the log and then pinch them closed; I find this makes a neater looking loaf.]

The plain log shape can be placed in a loaf pan or left on a cloth for a free-form second rise. From the log shape, you can make other cylindrical shapes."

If you're making three loaves of bread at a time, the best thing to do is shape each one using a different technique and see how they compare. I found that shaping mine into logs resulted in the best looking breads, and I've been shaping them this way for years. But I may find myself switching to a quicker method once our little wholesale bread bakery is up and running and I'm making dozens of loaves of bread at a time. It's probably time for me to do another round of experimenting.

Technorati: Food | recipe | baking | bread | artisanal | artisan | bread baking | white bread | sandwich bread | loaf

Continue...

Reuben Braid

There's a current Blog event named "Waiter, there's something in my..." where the host specifies a dish to find something in. This month it's bread — how could I resist? I found a fun recipe that consisted of a reuben with the bread baked around it. Tremendous fun and you can find my entry in the event at Seriously Good.

Technorati: Food | recipe | baking | bread | artisanal | artisan | bread baking | reuben | sandwich

Continue...