Rye Bread revisited

It was snowing like crazy yesterday -- perfect day to bake!

My sourdough Rye Bread is getting better and better, and I'm continuing to tweak the recipe. This picture shows a hearty loaf that I think even my German relatives in the "Old Country" would approve.

I've tried it both with retarding the dough overnight in the frig, and without. Both produce good results, with retarding bringing out more of the sourdough flavor.
I also made these as dinner rolls recently to serve with Bouillabaise -- very tasty, and easy to freeze the left-over rolls for another snowy winter-soup day...

Gudrun's Rye Bread
1 T active yeast, dissolved in 1 c warm water
2T molasses (approx. 40 g)
1 c rye starter (150g) --mine is fairly liquid
optional: altus (old rye bread, soaked & drained through a sieve)
1 c dark rye flour
3 c+ white flour (350 g) -I used Montana White Whole Wheat, which has 15% gluten content
optional: 1-T additional gluten
1 t salt
Optional flavors: caraway seed, fennel seeds (crushed or ground), minced onion, flax seeds (soaked overnight), sunflower seeds, raisins; and if desired to achieve darker color, instant coffee or cocoa.

Total weight of ingredients:
First 3 items "mostly liquids" were 400 g before adding flour to make sponge
Final loaf weighed 800 g


9am: Started w/ sponge (after having given the starter a fresh feeding).
9:30am: added althus, all the flour, ground fennel seed and salt, and started kneading.
9:45am: Let rise in warm oven (woodstove is cold because a certain teenager got behind on her firewood duties -ahem!)

11am: Punched down, kneaded (actually stretch and fold), and let rise again.
noon-ish: Punched down, kneaded and formed loaves. Let rise again.
Preheated the oven to 375 w/ pizzastone -- it needs to be thoroghly heated for good crust.

1:20pm Boiled water and placed in pan at bottom of oven.
1:25pm Transferred bread onto pizzastone.
1:35pm Removed pan of water. Reduced temp to 350 F.
2pm Bread is done.

I'm afraid that my rye sourdough today may not have been aged very much -- I had accidentally used up all of Gudrun last time I baked, so a couple of days ago (2?), I took some Pedro sourdough starter (who only eats white flour), and started daily feedings w/ rye and water, and in my oh-so-casual way, I didn't measure anything! The fact that my recipe contains yeast as well was probably its saving grace!

But seriously, although my casual approach to sourdough feeding seems to work fine, below is a more serious approach by HarryGermany from www.thefreshloaf.com discussion board (link here), where he makes a large quantity of a much thicker ("porridge-consistency") sourdough initially.

Feed your starter with 100 g rye flour and 100 g warm water (approx. 1/2 c each). Stir and keep in a warm place for 24 hours, covered. Repeat for 3 more days, so on the 4th you have about 800g. Save 100 g in frig (feeding weekly w/ 1 T rye flour and water). About 3 days before baking next loaf, take starter out of the frig and feed & build as above.

Harry says: "Rye flour needs acid to be ready for baking. The sourdough has the acid. For a bread with rye flour turn 30-50% of the rye flour sour in a sourdough. A wheat-rye bread 30%, a pure rye bread 50%." (Translation: if you're making pure rye bread, then 50% of the rye should be soured in the sourdough process, whereas for a wheat-rye bread (such as my Gudrun), only 30% needs souring.

Harry's rye-wheat bread 2 loaves of ca 850 g each; hydration 73%
============

Ingredients:
700 g rye-sourdough (made from wholemeal)
400 g rye flour
400 g all-purpose wheat flour
450 g water
25 g salt
1 pouch (7 g) dry yeast or 21 g fresh yeast
(The recipe also works without any added yeast, but the yeast makes it success proof and quickens the prove.)
---------------------

* Mix all ingredients (rye-sourdough, rye flour, all-purpose wheat flour, water with solved yeast, salt) and knead well (by mixer ca 7 minutes, by hand longer).

* Let the dough rest 20 minutes. (cover and keep warm)

* Knead short by hand. Let the dough rest 5 minutes.

* Shape two loaves, give them surface tension and place them in floured dough rising baskets. Cover with a cloth.
Let the loaves rise in a warm place until volume has doubled. This might require 60-90 minutes (with yeast) or up to 5 hours (no yeast).

* Very carefully place the loaves on a baking sheet with baking paper.

* Start baking with 480°F for 15 minutes. Steam once within the first 3 minutes.
(To steam, use a fresh flower spray, spray hot water against the hot inner walls of the oven. Don't hit the electric lamp!)

* Turn down the heat to 400°F and finish baking in another 50 minutes.

Bread w/ sprouted grain: Round 2

I broke down and bought a kitchen scale!
Can you believe it?
It's a cheap scale (not electronic) and I doubt that I will start weighing everything -- but for baking, at least, I want to get a better handle on the ingredients, so I'm turning into more of a German/scientist (your pick!) and am starting to actually weigh my ingredients...

SO, let's start with the sprouting: I used hard (winter) red wheat berries.
1 c berries (before sprouting) = 250 g
yield after 4-5 days was 3 c sprouted wheat (white tails, roughly the length of berries) = 400 g


I did not dry these, but that's what's needed in order to grind them if using a grain mill.
Instead, I took the sprouts and used my food processor, combining with 1 c sourdough.


I dissolved 1 t active yeast in 1 c water and 1 T sugar/honey, then added 1 c flour (King Arthur whole wheat, 150g) to form a sponge, waiting for 15-30 min for it to get nice and "bubbly". Then I added the food-processed sprout-sourdough mash (the 400g sprouts plus 1 c sourdough).

Now it's time for the rest of the flour (don't forget the 1 t salt -- best to add at the very end).
It took another 2.5 c of flour until I had a kneaded dough, still slightly sticky, but workable. And since I have a handy scale now, I can tell you that the final weight of my dough was 1340 g.

Rise until doubled, twice, then bake at 350 for about 45 min. May need longer -- internal temperature of loaf should read 200F.

Makes a nice moist bread, not too heavy. I'm guessing this to be around 1/3 sprouted, but to calculate that accurately, the sprouted grain should have been dried first. Stay tuned for another post on the subject.

Bread Pudding

Experimenting with baking lots of different bread recipes means:
(a) got lots of bread around,
(b) there are some experiments that end up with "less than perfect" results (over-risen, under-done, etc).

Bread pudding to the rescue!
Our family's favorite is from The Silver Palate by Julee Russo and Sheila Lukins, and it's shining glory is the rich Butter-Whiskey Sauce drizzled over it!

Bread Pudding
1 loaf bread (calls for French, but use any that's compatible), cut into pieces
1 qt milk
3 eggs
1.5 c granulated sugar (I use alot less, maybe 1/2!) -- there's plenty of sugar in the sauce!
2 t vanilla extract
1 c raisins

Soak the bread in milk for 1 hr. Mix eggs and sugar, add to bread mixture w/ remaining ingredients, and pour into pan (use spray or butter). Bake at 350 F for 1hr until browned and set. Serve with:
Butter-Whiskey Sauce
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1 c confectioner's sugar
optional: 1 egg
4 T Whiskey (to taste)

Melt butter and sugar in top of double boiler, stirring until hot and well mixed. If desired, whisk in beaten egg. Let cool slightly, then stir in the whiskey.

From Mark Bittman's Food Matters, here is another (tamer) recipe:
Breakfast Bread Pudding
2 eggs
1 c milk
1/4 c honey
1 t cinnamon
pinch salt
4 apples, (peeling optional), cut into chunks or slices
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c chopped walnuts
8 slices of multi-grain bread, cubed (approx 3 cups)

Mix it all up, and let sit at least 15 min to let liquids soak into bread. (OK to make ahead: cover and store in frig overnight). Bake 45 min at 350F until golden.

Savory Bread Pudding
2 eggs
1 c milk
8 slices of multi-grain bread, cubed (approx 3 cups)
4-5 c lightly cooked vegetables (asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, etc)
Optional: herbs & grated hard cheese, such as Parmesan or Pecorino Romano
salt & pepper to taste

Bake 30-40 min.
Menu choice: Comfort food for a winter meal: goes well with a soup, salad & maybe a baked squash or other roasted root veggies.

Help for the Cabbage-inundated

HELP!!! There are 2 heads of cabbage in my frig, and a third one will invariably arrive in our CSA box this Wednesday. When my daughter, Eldest, signed up for the CSA she confessed to me "Mom, I'm scared of all the cabbage -- what am I going to do with it?!"
Take heart, my child.
This is a clearly a case of "Too much cabbage and not enough inspiration".

As far as vegetables go, cabbage is actually fairly bland, so it takes well to different flavors and cuisines. Before I start with the more unusual stuff, here are a few standards:

Coleslaw -doesn't have to be boring! try some unusual ingredients; for example, blue cheese and cranberries can transform a boring coleslaw to something interesting!
Bubble & Squeak - one of my family's favorites: mix leftover mashed potatoes with cabbage and fry them up like pancakes.
Stir-fry -I like to use ginger and orange in the sauce.
stuffed cabbage rolls -with mixture of rice and ground beef
Cabbage Soup - esp. the traditional Russian "Schi"

We've invented a new dinner entree at our house, and in our eccentric family-manner, we've given it a catchy name! Why? No particular reason, other than that it rhymes, and perhaps the fact that son is currently studying WWII in History!
Inspiration for this invention goes to Glacier Grist #52. Pasta with cabbage and toasted walnuts, was my starting point: This recipe can truly be touted as "healthy, healthy, healthy" because it has loads more vegetables than pasta.

Mussolini Linguini
small amount of pasta (maybe half of what you'd normally serve your family) -- I use about 1/2 pound of whole wheat spaghetti, linguini or fettucini
1 small head of cabbage (or 1/2 large head), shredded
optional: carrots, julienned
olive oil
onion, sliced
garlic, minced
Salt, pepper, optional: herbs such as basil, oregano
freshly grated parmesan and/or Pecorino Romano
optional for meat-lovers: ham or fried sausage
vegetarians may want to add freshly roasted pine nuts, for added protein.

Boil the pasta. Meanwhile, saute the onion in olive oil. Add garlic & cook briefly (we do like it garlicky!). Add cabbage and cook until starting to get translucent (add water if you need to, but only in small amounts). Mix pasta into the cabbage, add flavors, cheese, and optional nuts or meat (In which case our family calls this dish "Benito Mussolini"...)
I served this with a medley of roasted root vegetables: beets, celery roots, carrots.
I must say, it was surprisingly good, and even the teens ate it!

Here's an intreaguing recipe from Kuchenlatein, a German site I recently discovered:
Cabbage with Orange and Whiskey sauce.
Ulrike sautees the cabbage with butter, maple syrup, whiskey and grated orange peel. For quantities, go to the above blogpost (in German), which is easy to figure out if you know that Essl means tablespoon, and Teel means teaspoon (figuring that my only curious reader is a certain daughter afraid of cabbage, who does know more German than she thinks!).
here it is in english:
Brussels sprouts or cabbage, thinly sliced, braised in
1 T butter
1 T maple syrup
1 T whiskey
1 t grated orange
salt & pepper to taste

Next, a french recipe for
Gratin au Chou, or Cabbage Gratin w/ Bechamel Sauce
go here for recipe
This is baked like a casserole, and again, meat-lovers may add a wee bit of ham or sausage.

As you can tell from the frequent mention of meat, my "boys" do better with their cabbage if I disguise it with a little meat...

Sausage, Beer and cabbage
I've prepared this recipe often using sauerkraut (and then I cook it with apples!), but it can also be made with fresh cabbage.

2 T butter
1+ large onion, sliced into long section
1 T brown sugar
1 head cabbage, shredded, or cut into thick wedges
1 bottle beer
1 lb smoked kielbasa, cut into pieces
small red red potatoes, quartered
salt & pepper to taste
optional: caraway seed

Sautee onions in butter, add sugar and cabbage wedges to brown. Add sausage, potatoes and beer. Cover and simmer until potatoes are done. If too much liquid remains, drain or reduce by turning up heat (remove veggies first if fully cooked). Serve w/ mustard and hearty bread.

This recipe lends itself well to crockpot cooking, as long as it's not a super long day....

Introducting Gudrun: a Sourdough Rye Bread

I'm in search of a rye bread recipe that uses sourdough, and is somewhat "Foolproof" for somebody like me who does not weigh ingredients -- in fact, I don't own a scale at all. I'm rather the "pinch of this and that" cook, but realize that in baking, the chemistry of the ingredients matters, which is why professional bakers use percentages in their recipes -duh!

Further, I am torn between wanting to bake bread in the German style (which tend to be rather solid), and bread that appeals to my American family -- i.e. "fluffier", or at least not so dense!

Here are some rye breads I found on blogs:
Caraway-Molasses Rye by Ananda on The Fresh Loaf.
Here is a Jewish Pumpernickel from dmsnyder on the Fresh Loaf, adapted from Secrets of a Jewish Baker, by George Greenstein, which is described as " moist and chewy. It is not the dry, dense German-style pumpernickel. "

Gudrun's Bread
1 T active yeast, dissolved in 1 c warm water
1 T molasses
1 c rye starter
optional: altus (old rye bread, soaked and "wrung out")
1 c dark rye flour
3 c+ white flour -I used King Arthur all-purpose, which has good gluten content
optional: 1-T additional gluten
1 t salt
Optional flavors: caraway seed, minced onion, flax seeds (soaked overnight), sunflower seeds, raisins; and if desired to achieve darker color, instant coffee or cocoa.

To get a rye stater, I took my white flour sourdough starter (Pedro), and fed it twice with rye instead of white flour. I named my new starter Gudrun. Why Gudrun? Here's a brief summary of Norse mythology from Wikipedia:

Gudrun fell in love with Sigurd, who did not care for her, because he was in love with the valkyrie Brynhild (Brünnhilde), to whom he gave the ring Andravinaut. Gudrun's brother Gunnar, however, wished to marry Brynhild, but this was impossible because Brynhild, knowing that only Sigurd could do so, had sworn to marry only the man who could defeat her in a fair fight...

Gudrun's mother Grimhild, who is called Ute in the Nibelungenlied, gave her a potion to make Sigurd forget his love for Brynhild. Gunnar allowed Sigurd to marry Gudrun under the condition, that Sigurd would win Brynhild for him. Sigurd succeeded in doing so; taking the shape of Gunnar, he took the ring Andravinaut from Brynhild and gave it to Gudrun as his morning gift. Both queens, Gudrun and Brynhild, were married on the same day.

Photo credit: http://www.neuschwanstein.de

Now on to the baking of the bread, which is nearly as exciting as a battle in the Nibelungen saga -- will Gudrun succeed?

I did make a sponge first, let it sit about 1/2 hr, then added rest of ingredients. When dough started getting hard to stir, I turned it onto a floured surface and finish kneading (dough is definitely "stiffer" than my other breads). NOTE: this stiffer rye dough is supposedly a good candidate for mixing by machine.
Then I let it rise, kneaded, and retarded by setting dough in frig overnight.
Next day, I kneaded and let it rise again, using a springform pan for a "backform" or baking form (Alternatively, divide dough and use 2 loafpans). Took it out at 6am, baked at noon.

Right before I'm ready to bake this bread on my pizzastone (oven preheated, 375 or 400F) with steam pan ready, I poked several deep holes into the dough with a skewer, to allow air to escape (this is traditional for rye breads). Bake 30-45 min, until bottom tapped sounds hollow.

Bread was a bit on the dense side! Next time, I plan to try this without the retarding step -- I think it did slow the process down too much, and probably should have allowed more than the 6 hrs for the rising of the cold dough.

I'll post pictures soon...

Gardening on my mind

The raised garden beds are under 16" of snow. But gardening is on my mind as the days get longer. It won't be long now... until I start itching to start vegetables indoors, from seed -- and invariably many of them fail!
I don't have the best success starting plants indoors (no grow lights or heating mats), but I try a few every year, nonetheless. Sometime between Mother's Day and Memorial Day, I end up at the big commercial Greenhouse down the road and buy bedding plants, by then having realized that the sad little plants on my window sill will not amount to much in our short growing season...
Another thing I need to remember is not to start planting outdoors too early: many plants should not go out until June, which seems sooooo late. Instead, REMINDER: check the soil temperature!!! I'll probably be experimenting this coming spring with covering my raised beds w/ plastic overnight to help prevent the soil from radiatively cooling overnight.
Last year I planted my red potatoes somewhere around May 20th, and they just sat there doing absolutely nothing. I replanted in early June with fingerling seed potatoes, and then sometime later in June they both started putting down roots and leafing out. By then, the weeds were established very nicely, thank you!

Before snowfall, many moons ago, I found myself debating covering the beds up with plastic to keep them somewhat more weed-free (ha!), and decided on a couple of different treatments: I covered the potato bed with plastic, and tried another with newspapers weighed down by rocks, while the remainder was left uncovered --those will melt out first and I want to try making them into coldframes by covering them with clear plastic in the spring. It sure would be nice to have a greenhouse someday!

Been doing a bit of reading about what to seed directly into the garden. Here in Alaska, the traditional ones include kale, carrots, lettuces, peas, snap peas, beets, spinach, beans and potatoes.

Last summer I successfully grew leeks from starter plants I found at P&M greenhouse -- I do want to grow leeks again (as I've admitted on this blog before: I adore leeks!), perhaps even from seed? Here's a article by Jeff Lowenfels for how to start leeks. He writes that some of his readers

"are complaining that I encouraged them to plant leeks early and now the plants are not only spindly and flopping over but the tips are browning. If you grow leeks from seed, both of these are common occurrences. The solution to correct both symptoms, as well as preventing both, is to cut off an inch or two of the tips with sharp scissors. This will not affect the bulb part of the plant nor the bottom stem of the leek, and these are what you eat when you harvest leeks. "

Too bad that the gardening column is no longer found in our ever-shrinking daily newspaper -- instead we have to go to the web for that local knowledge -- see the sidebar on my blog for Gardening in Alaska (TALK DIRT TO ME), which is on the Anchorage Daily News website.

Menu for mid-Feb

CSA boxes are full of good winter crops.
Last Wed: Alaskan onions, potatoes, carrots. From Outside: certified organic Fancy Fuji apples | certified organic large navel oranges | certified organic kumquats | certified organic romaine lettuce | certified organic Rainbow chard | certified organic sunchokes | certified organic broccoli, butternut squash.
This Wed: Alaskan beets, red or yellow onions , celery root, cabbage. From Outside: certified organic Asian pears | certified organic pummelo | certified organic Murcott mandarins | certified organic butter lettuce | certified organic green kale | certified organic living pea shoots | certified organic garlic.

When the boxes first arrive, we use the greens first -- so last week that meant a stir-fry and cajun greens (I actually bought extra greens at the grocery store)! And the fruit gets attacked as part of snacks and lunches, esp. by my youngest, the fruit-bat.

Sat: Cajun Flanks and Greens
Sun: Gumbo w/ jumbo prawns, roasted potatoes & Brussels sprouts, green salad
Mon: Grilled fish, roasted sunchokes and yams, rice, salad
Tues: squash soup, Bubble and Squeak, salad
Wed: Thai Soup w/ salmon, Thai noodles w/ pea shoots, carrots, etc
Thurs: Musselini Linguine (*), Roasted medley of root veggies: celery root, beets, carrots
Fri: eat out: pizza?

I also had to look up pummelo: it's a large citrus, ancestor of the grapefruit, and also called a pamplemousse, pomelo, Bali lemon, Limau besar, and shaddock. My little fruitbat should be happy!