As I said, it was time for rye. And my confidence was bolstered by recent successes. But the wisdom of my "work up to the pumpernickel" philosophy was brought home to me with my attempt at onion rye.
I got the recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. I was drawn in by the description of it as an easy rye bread recipe. It did not turn out as I hoped. The flavor was a nice oniony taste. But it had an incredibly tough crust and it didn't produce a good rise. The slash marks I put on before putting it into the oven didn't budge at all and looked exactly the same when the loaf came out.
As to what went wrong...so many options, so little time. Might have kneaded too long or too little in the food processor. This recipe was written only for the food processor so I didn't think I'd run into that type of problem. Might not have let the dough rise long enough?
I don't think I'll try this one again right now. Chalk it up as a learning experience and move on. I'm pretty sure that it will be a learning experience once I have a more successful rye experience to compare it to. What does a good rye dough feel like?
"What does a good rye dough feel like? "
ReplyDeletea little wet for the rise. can be a bit drier for the proof. let processor knead a seemingly wet dough for 5 min. then by hand alone, form into a ball, into rise container. after double, peel out, drop onto floured board, more flour on top, knead for 5 min. let proof. bake. i like making rye and pumpernickel in a loaf pan - too wet and will go flat on a board. i use half b.flour and half p.flour. good sh&t.