Bread Recipe

The new bread recipe I am trying turned out quite nicely, so I thought I would share a couple of pictures and the recipe.  I am just starting to mess around with barley flour and I really like using this mixture of rye, barley, and unbleached flour.    Just a word of warning though, rye flour by itself doesn't really make the bread you buy in the store.  The distinctive flavor people associate with rye bread comes from the addition of careway and the slightly sour flavor that comes from being a sourdough. The rye adds a nutty almost bitter flavor. 

Basically what I am doing is modifying  one of  my mundane bread recipes to be something more period by using my sour leaven starter, using some rye and barley flour, and baking it with my peel and stone.  Eventually I will try a recipe using only rye and barley flour.

3 cups starter at room temperature
1 1/2 cup warm water
1 cup rye flour
1 cup barley flour
3 cups unbleached bread flour
2 tsp salt
Cormeal for the peel

I instruct my servant Kitch'n of Aide to mix these ingredients with a dough hook and then put the dough in a crock with a lid that I have and put it in the fridge for at least 24 hours.

When I want to use it I dust my peel with corn meal and then shape a couple of loaves of bread.

Its like making a roll, don't work the dough too much just tuck the top surface of the dough into the bottom and then place it on the peel. Let it rise for 40 minutes

20 minutes before I want to bake my bread I put my baking stone in the oven on one shelf and my broiler pan on the shelf underneath it and preheat it to 450 degrees.

Dust the loaf with flour and decorate it with some sort of slashes., then slide the loaves of bread onto the baking stone in the oven and pour a couple of cups of hot water in the broiler pan.y

Shut the oven quickly and bake the loaves for 25-35 minutes depending on how big they are.  When they are done the crust should be quite brown and chewy and you will be able to pick them up and thump them and they will sound hollow.





You can see in this picture it has a really moist chewy texture, which is my favorite. 


Comments