Beginner in the Rye

While I've allowed myself to be diverted by cakes and such, my main goal in taking up baking has been bread. I want to make my daily bread, and I also want to make special breads. I want to make basic breads, and I want to make breads with grains many people have never heard of.

I'm pretty comfortable, also, with the notion that learning to bake bread is going to have stumbles. There are a lot of variables, a lot of judgment that has to be developed, and a lot of things that can go wrong.

Still, it was with optimism in my heart that I proceeded with the "Deli Rye Bread" from "America's Test Kitchen Baking Book". This was the first bread I've made that called for a "sponge", AKA "starter", that needs to be made 8-24 hours in advance. The sponge is sort of the recipe in miniature, and the purpose is to allow the yeast to develop flavor.

The trouble appears to have started with the first rise. The recipe called for the dough to rise until doubled in volume, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I usually let dough rise in my oven, where just the gas pilot light creates a temperature that yeast and yogurt both seem to really like. But when I checked it after an hour, the dough had tripled, maybe even quadrupled. Perhaps there was some residual heat from baking my cake, perhaps something else was happening. Though I knew I was probably in trouble, I formed the loaf and put it back in for the second rise.

The result was a bread that smells good, tastes goo, and has a crust that would make a turtle proud. When I first cut it last night, the crust was hard but edible. Tonight, I could barely saw through it.

The little bit of investigating I've done suggests that the over-rising is likely to blame for the over-crustiness. (No comments about the baker being overly crusty, please.)  The suggestion I read was to knead it some more and let it rest for a while.  Mostly, though, I think I need to be more vigilant and not take naps during rising times.

It's a good thing I have a rye sense of humor!