deli-style sourdough rye
makes 4 1 lb loaves. you’ll think you’ve died and gone to a jewish deli in nyc.
1 cup rye starter, fresh.
.5 cup white (or mostly white, that’s what I had around) sourdough starter, fresh.
1.5 cups lukewarm water
1.5 Tbsp salt
1.5 Tbsp caraway seeds, plus more for sprinkling
.75 cup rye flour
4.25 cups all purpose flour
cornmeal for sprinkling
cornstarch for cornstarch wash
Note on the starters: the rye starter is a lot thicker than the white starter, just by the nature of the rye flour. I made it the night before using some of my usual strain of starter, which was about half rye and half white flour, about .25cup, to which I added .75 cup water and .75 cup rye. I made it in a bowl rather than a tall plastic container. Because the rye starter rises so tall and so many times, if you make it in a tall container the sides will get more or less caked.
1. The caraway seeds and salt go into the warm water to soak. Measure out the starters into a large glass measuring pitcher. Mix the flours together, in a large bowl, then add the wet ingredients. I mixed them with my hands, for the most part. Don’t knead it, really, just form it into a ball. Cover the bowl and allow to rest at room temperature. Though you’re supposed to let it collapse, mine didn’t seem willing to, so I punched it down after a a while. I cut off one loaf and then refrigerated the rest.
2. Dust the ball (about the size of a grapefruit) with flour and shape it into an oval loaf. Let it rest and rise for 40 minutes or more on a cornmeal covered baking sheet.
3. Preheat the oven to 450 F. Heat the baking stone up with the oven if you are using one. I did.
4. I made the cornstarch coating with a half teaspoon of cornstarch and probably about a half cup of warm water. I didn’t bother measuring. I brushed it on then sprinkled the top with caraway seeds, enough to look good. I didn’t really measure. Cut into the tops of the dough just before putting it in the oven.
5. Slide the loaf onto the baking stone carefully. Bake for 30 minutes or so. Pour hot water into a pan below the baking stone for a better crust. Let it cool before you eat it, of course. That will make it last just a little longer, but don’t expect it to last a long time either way.
The base for this recipe came from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day, but I more or less gutted it for this. Everyone who tried it loved it, including some people who had tried to bake rye loaves before and not been able to perfect one and some people who just love rye bread. All in all, it was a success. Which is good, because I still have quite a bit of rye flour to use up.
1pm
deli-style rye bread
makes 4 1 lb loaves. you’ll think you’ve died and gone to a jewish deli in nyc. from
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp caraway seeds, plus more for sprinkling
1 cup rye flour
5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
cornmeal for sprinkling
cornstarch for cornstarch wash
1. mix the yeast, salt and carawy seeds with the water in a large bowl. mix in the remaning dry ingredients without kneading. cover with a towel and allow to rest at room temperature for about 2 hours. at this point, you can prepare the dough for baking or store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
2. dust the surface of the dough with flour and cut off 1/4 of the dough. dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball. elongate the ball into an oval-shaped loaf. allow it to rest and rise on a cornmeal covered surface (pizza peel if you’re going to transfer to a baking stone or a baking sheet if you’re baking right on the baking sheet) for 40 minutes.
3. preheat the oven to 450 F with an empty broiler tray on the shelf underneath the one you plan to bake on. heat the baking stone up with the oven if you are using one.
4. make the cornstarch wash by combining 1/2 tsp cornstartch with a small amount of water to form a paste. add 1/2 cup water, whisk and microwave for about 60 seconds. paint the top of the loaf with the cornstarch wash and then sprinkle on caraway seeds. slash with a deep parallel cuts across the loaf using a serrated bread knife.
5. bake the loaf on a baking sheet or slide it onto the hot baking stone. bake for 30 minutes. as you put the bread in the oven to bake, pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door. allow to cool before slicing or eating.
— from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, copied and pasted from Pete Bakes!
Note — I didn’t make this recipe. I made the one I’m about to post.
12pm
The dough all done. I would’ve taken pictures but I mixed it all with my hands and getting bread dough into my camera is probably not the best idea.
12pm
Caraway seeds soaking in warm water.
12pm
A cup of rye starter and half cup of mostly white starter waiting to be used.
12pm
We’ve all been too busy eating the chocolate-walnut batch to photograph them, so here’s a picture of the nutella filled cupcakes instead.
7pm
As for filling cupcakes, here’s how you do it:
Spoon in a bottom layer of dough, about a half inch or so in the cups. Use the bottom of a relatively spherical ladle with some flour on it to press down the dough. The first one will come out after you. Dip the ladle back in the flour and press it back down. Repeat, reflouring the ladle as needed. Once you’ve done that, you need to make a little well in the dough. I used the handle of a knife, because our silverware set has nice round edges, but you could even use your finger. I usually put about a rounded teaspoon of filling in, the better shaped the better. It often helps to chill the filling or the teaspoon. You then spoon in some more dough around and over the filling — gently, though, because you don’t want want to squish it. Round out the dough with a floured spoon.
I usually do about twelve cups and then the rest in batches of two or three, so I don’t end up leaving anything without a top.
As for fillings, you can use more or less anything. Nutella is a favorite, as is the chocolate-walnut.
7pm
Chocolate walnut turnovers. I used a leftover batch of croissant dough (a few pages back) instead of frozen puff pastry, and it worked wonderfully. Next time I’d line the sheet with parchment paper and bake each batch separately, though, because the two racks of my oven are drastically different and I can never quite get the timing to switch them right.
4pm
Chocolate-walnut ricotta filling.
1 eggs
.5 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2/3 cups chopped walnuts
Mix ricotta, 1/3 cup of sugar, vanilla, and remaining egg. Stir in cocoa powder and flour, then chocolate and walnuts. As it contains egg, it should be baked before it gets eaten. This recipe makes a lot. I did twelve turnovers (rounded tablespoon each) and about twenty cupcakes (rounded teaspoon each) and I still have some left.
(From a recipe for chocolate-walnut turnovers from a recent Family Circle.)
4pm
