Playing With Rye – Giocando Con La Segale Chiara
In the last few weeks I have been experimenting a lot with rye flour. It is exciting as rye is not very common in Italy, so both the making of the bread and the taste of the finished product are kind of new to me.
My interest in rye bread started just a few months ago, after eating some Polish sourdough rye during a short work trip. It was love at first… bite. The crumb was light and open, even if more dense than a typical French white levain. It was much alike good Italian sourdough bread (which is almost always wheat-based). Only, it was made with rye.
Back home in Sweden, I experimented a little and recently I managed to obtain pretty good results by playing around my usual loaf and including in it quite a lot of rye (30%). The result is a mildly tangy light rye sourdough bread which I am totally fond of (scroll down for the complete method).
SÖDER LIGHT RYE – PANE CHIARO DI SEGALE CON LIEVITO NATURALE
You need: 604 g active liquid white rye leaven* (see recipe below), 670 g water, 570 g bread flour, 405 g Swedish white rye flour** (substitute it with: 162 g white rye flour and 243 g all-purpose wheat flour), 180 g whole rye flour, 5 tea-spoon marine salt (I used himalayan salt).
*active liquid white rye leaven: the night before mixing the final dough (see above) take 51 g of active sourdough starter and combine it with 306 g water and 247 g Swedish white rye** (substitute it with: 100 g white rye flour and 146 g all-purpose wheat flour). It can be used 12 to 16 hours afterwards.
**Swedish white rye flour: it is a mix of finely ground rye flour (40%) and all-purpose wheat flour (60%).
Note: all the flour I used is organic and stone-ground.
How to: Dissolve the rye leaven into the water and add the flours, already combined. Mix for 3 minutes at low speed (or knead for 6 minutes by hand). Let rest covered for 20 minutes (autolysis). Add the salt and knead for further 3-4 minutes at slightly higher speed (or for 6 minutes by hand). Transfer in a large plastic bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Make folds every 1/2 hour for the first 1 and 1/2 hours. After this interval with folds, let rest for 1 hour without folds and then shape. The dough makes 3-4 loaves (or 3 loaves and 1 focaccia, see my previous post apple and raisins sourdough focaccia with rye, where I used this dough to make a sweet focaccia).
Proofing: Let the shaped loaves rest in proofing baskets lined with semolina floured kitchen towels for a minimum of 2 hours to a maximum of 4 hours (if 4 hours, half of the time must be spent in the refrigerator).
Baking: Preheat the oven to 250 degrees (Celsius, 482 Fahrenheit). Lower the temperature immediately to 230 degrees (Celsius, 446 Farhenheit) and bake for 30 minutes with initial steam (I poured a little water in the lower try when putting each loaf in – I baked one loaf at a time). After 30 minutes, further lower the temperature to 200 degrees (Celsius, 392 Farhenheit) and bake until the crust looks golden-brown on all sides and the loaf feels lighter when lifted.
Ti servono: 604 g lievito naturale liquido a base di segale* (vedi ricetta sottostante), 670 g acqua, 570 g farina di forza, 405 g farina di segale bianca (non integrale), 180 g farina di segale integrale, 5 cucchiaini di sale marino (io ho usato il sale Himalayano).
*lievito naturale liquido a base di segale: la notte prima di fare l’impasto finale (vedi sopra) prendi 51 g di lievito madre attivo e combinalo con 306 g d’acqua e 247 g segale bianca. Puo’ essere usato dalle 12 alle 14 ore successive.
Come fare: Dissolvi il lievito liquido nell’acqua e aggiungi le farine, gia’ mischiate. Impasta a macchina per 3 minuti a velocita’ minima (o per 6 minuti a mano). Fai riposare, coperto, per 20 minuti (autolisi). Aggiungi il sale ed impasta per 3-4 minuti a velocita’ lievemente piu’ elevata (o per 6 minuti a mano). Trasferisci l’impasto in una ciotola di plastica (o di coccio) molto capiente e copri. Fai le pieghe ogni 1/2 ora per la prima ora e 1/2. Fai riposare per 1 altra ora e poi forma i pani. Questo impasto da’ 3-4 pani (oppure 3 pani e 1 focaccia, vedi il mio post apple and raisins sourdough focaccia with rye, dove ho usato questo impasto per fare una focaccia dolce).
Fermentazione finale: Fai riposare i pani in dei cestini di vimini foderati con panno da cucina e cosparsi con abbondante farina di grano duro, per un minimo di 2 ore fino a un massimo di 4 ore (se 4 ore, la meta’ di questo tempo deve essere passata in frigorifero).
Cottura: Riscalda il forno a 250 gradi. Inforna con vapore (io ho versato un mezzo bicchierino d’acqua nella teglia sottostante) e riduci subito la temperatura a 230 gradi. Dopo 30 minuti abbassa ulteriormente la temperatura a 200 gradi e cuoci finche’ i pani (io ne ho infornato uno alla volta) sono coloriti da tutti i lati e sono leggeri se sollevati (attenti alle bruciature!).
CONSIDERATIONS: As I said, I am quite satisfied with this formula even if I know I am going to refine it further (and I will let you know about it). This dough is extremely versatile and I already used it for a focaccia and for a berry loaf, together with the loaves showed in this post. By the way, I have just got a scoring blade and here you can also see my very first attempt of using it. Italian bread is often “unscored”, so I did not really miss not having a proper tool before. With this loaves I also learned how to use baker’s percentages. It was very handy when deciding “what to put” in the dough. Before I was just proceeding by trial and error. Which is actually a pretty darn good method too, isn’t it?
CONSIDERAZIONI: Sono piuttosto soddisfatta di questo metodo che ho messo a punto. Anche se so che lo perfezionero’ ulteriormente (e ve lo faro’ sapere). Questo impasto e’ molto versatile e l’ho gia’ usato per una focaccia e un pane con frutti di bosco freschi, oltre, ovviamente per queste pagnotte che vi ho appena mostrato. Ho appena comprato un rasoio per incidere il pane e in questo post potete anche vedere il mio primo tentativo di usarlo. Nella tradizione Italiana il pane spesso non e’ inciso, quindi ho potuto farne a meno anch’io per un po’ (ma mi piace provare nuove tecniche). Con questo impasto ho anche imparato ad usare le percentuali della panificazione (baker’s percentages, ne scrivero’ presto per chi non le conosce). Sono estremamente utili e aiutano a decidere “cosa mettere” nell’impasto. Prima procedevo per prove ed errori. Che non e’ poi cosi’ malaccio, vero?
This bread will participate to the weekly bread collection yeastspotting. Thank you Susan!
Barbara Elisi
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